GENE SIMMONS Once Again Defends His 'Dancing With The Stars' Comments: 'The Alternative Is We Ignore All Women, Never Compliment You'
January 15, 2025KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has once again proclaimed that he stands by "every word" he said when he served as a guest judge, alongside Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough, for last October's "Hair Metal Night" episode of "Dancing With The Stars". The episode saw 11 pairs return to the dance floor with routines to iconic rock and roll anthems.
Instead of simply offering a critique of everyone's dance routines, Gene spent much of his time commenting on the contestants' physical appearances. At one point he said: "This is a brand-new experience for me and it's difficult to look at you and to figure out which one is more hot, hot, hot."
Gene then declared that pro dancer Witney Carson is "one of the more beautiful women on the planet" and said of actor/singer Chandler Kinney, "You've fogged up my glasses. I don't know what to tell you. You move me, not just with your gyrations and so on, but your beautiful face and how you were into the emotion of it."
The KISS legend addressed the criticism he received for his comments on "Dancing With The Stars" during an appearance on the latest episode of "Howie Mandel Does Stuff", the podcast co-hosted by the comedian and his daughter Jackelyn Shultz. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The alternative is we ignore all women, never compliment you. I didn't use poopy words. I said, 'You're beautiful.' Is that a bad thing?"
When Shultz noted that part of the criticism leveled at Simmons was that the contestants were supposed to be judged on their talent and their dancing skills, Gene shot back: "No, that's not how life is. Then why are you wearing makeup and high heels to lift and separate? One second you're making an assessment of the entire thing and then you make it personal. We're talking generally, what's the problem.
"Welcome to planet Earth — you will be judged by what you look like," Gene explained. "I didn't make the rules; I'm just aware of them, which is why women wear makeup and high heels and all that. And because it's that.
"The sad truth — for those that don't like the truth — and the wonderful truth is the more beautiful you are, the more in shape, and all that stuff, the better the response is going to be, whether it's a ballerina…"
Simmons went on to discuss what he perceives as unreasonable demands for political correctness in men's interactions with women.
"It really has come to the point, and that's why politics are mirroring the idea of, we, the people, are really sick and tired of this," Gene said. "It's time to just get over yourself. Words — either we're allowed to compliment you or not. You don't want us to say, ignore the fact that you're wearing lipstick, eyelashes, lifted and separated in our general direction, high heels and all that stuff, all to get attention, poof up the hair and do all that stuff… And we love it. We worship the ground you walk on. If you have a problem with that, it's easy to stop. It's less work for us. You don't wanna be complimented respectfully? We'll stop. Not a problem."
Simmons added that he stands by "every word" he said on "Dancing With The Stars" but that he wasn't surprised to see his comments blown up by the news media.
"I understand the nature of shows and media and stuff is to get people interested, and if it's pablum, nobody cares," he said.
The October 8, 2024 episode of "Dancing With The Stars" began with the opening dance to KISS's "Rock And Roll All Nite", which was choreographed by Pasha Pashkov and featured WHITESNAKE and TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA guitarist Joel Hoekstra.
The dancers competed to classic hair metal songs from the 1980s, including BON JOVI's "Livin' On A Prayer" and "You Give Love A Bad Name", AEROSMITH's "Walk This Way", WARRANT's "Cherry Pie", EUROPE's "The Final Countdown", TWISTED SISTER's "We're Not Gonna Take It", QUIET RIOT's "Cum On Feel The Noize", POISON's "Nothin' But A Good Time", WHITESNAKE's "Here I Go Again" and SCORPIONS' "Rock You Like A Hurricane".
According to Forbes, Simmons later received criticism for his comments throughout the night, with some viewers labeling him "creepy" because of his at-sometimes superficial feedback that focused largely on looks and appearances. The musician gave Phaedra Parks a five while the other judges all gave her sevens, causing the crowd to boo as Parks and her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, made incredulous faces. Simmons's score was all the more confusing given the fact that he didn't give Parks any negative feedback. He told Parks and Chmerkovskiy that he was "a big fan of the bad-boy-and-the-bad girl" dynamic of their routine. Simmons also received a chorus of boos after revealing his score for Reginald VelJohnson, who danced a cha cha to "I Wanna Rock" by TWISTED SISTER with pro partner Emma Slater.
"Hey Reggie, you've got a beautiful woman right beside you who can twist it and turn it and knows how to move it and all that," Simmons told VelJohnson prior to the tallies being announced. "But I want to tell you, as a guy that's been on the stage for half a century around the world, I'm kind of a big deal, Reggie. It's all in the attitude. And you've got something in that beautiful face. They love you."
On X (formerly Twitter),one user ripped into Simmons, writing: "hey gene! just wanna remind you that this is a dancing show, NOT a beauty contest. respectfully never come back pls and thank you #DWTS". Another user wrote "phaedra getting a 5 but he gave brooks a 10… gene simmons count ur days. weird and gross comments all night #DWTS".
Some blamed "Dancing With The Stars" for inviting Simmons on the show in the first place. "You can really tell that this guest judge is racist and sexist based off the scores that he's giving!" one person wrote. "This is absolutely ridiculous and disgusting shame on you guys for having him as a judge!"
"Dancing With The Stars" airs simultaneously on ABC and Disney+. You can watch episodes on Disney+ the next day.
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