Celebrities have taken to social media, television shows, and concert performances to praise the life of musician Prince.
Despite speculations that the musician’s alleged addiction to painkillers is the reason behind his untimely death, most celebrities have remained mum on those allegations—except KISS frontman, Gene Simmons.
“His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?” said Simmons in an interview with Newsweek when asked about the death of music elite. “I think Prince was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them. I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that. But how pathetic that he killed himself. Don’t kid yourself, that’s what he did. Slowly, I'll grant you... but that’s what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death.”
Simmons doesn’t see the point in alcohol and drug use and has never been under the influence in his life. Hence, why the 66-year-old cannot fathom how such an immense talent can throw it all away with drugs—a question he has for all musicians in the industry.
“When we all start out and we have these big dreams and you finally get your wish—you have more money than God and fame—what is that insane gene in us, well, a lot of us, that makes us want to succumb to the cliché of clichés: drugs and alcohol?”
The rock legend does believe the “When Doves Cry” singer’s talent supersedes the damning reports surrounding his death.
“Your legacy becomes even bigger, you become more iconic, if you die before your time—Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and all that. They capture the youth,” he said. “If you die before your time it adds to your iconic nature. But I’m not willing to do that—sorry. I really enjoy getting up every day. If it means at the end I become a pathetic version of what I am, so be it. My gravestone will not say: ‘I wish I woulda, shoulda, coulda.’”
Simmons has a polar opposite outlook on David Bowie’s death, who secretly battled cancer and died earlier this year.
“Bowie was the most tragic of all because it was real sickness,” he said. “All the other ones were a choice.”
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