“They wouldn’t have a clue.” Kiss bassist Gene Simmons believes that no-one aged 20 or younger can name a single song by Nirvana or Pearl Jam

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons believes that no-one aged 20 or younger could name a single song by alt. rock superstars Nirvana or Pearl Jam.

Simmons made this curious comment in a recent podcast interview, in connection to his long-standing argument that rock is dead.

In conversation on The Zak Kuhn Show, Simmons pointed out that in the 30 years between 1958 and 1988, the world saw the appearance of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Prince and many more global superstars.

“And from 1988 until today, it’s something like almost 40 years, certainly 35 years, who are the new Beatles?” he asked.

When the host mentioned Nirvana, Simmons said, “Stop. We are blinded. I’m a major fan. If you walked down the street and asked a 20-year-old, ‘Who’s the bass player in Nirvana?’, they wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. Or, ‘Can you sing a Nirvana song?’ No, no. The Beatles and, to slightly lesser extent, The Stones and Elvis… everybody knew The Beatles. If you hated rock music, you knew about them.”

When Kuhn mentioned Pearl Jam as another significant modern rock band, Simmons praised the Seattle quintet, but added, “My point is if you randomly walk down the street and you ask the first young person you meet, a 20-year-old, and you say, ‘Name me anybody in Pearl Jam,’ good luck with that. ‘Name me or tell me a song. Hum a song.’ They [can’t].”

“The masses have no idea who’s in Phish one of my favourite bands, or Pearl Jam. They wouldn’t have a clue, unless you’re a fan.”

Simmons’ ‘evidence’ for these arguments is apparently largely based on his son Nick once asking a young woman wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt if she liked the band, and the young woman in question replying to say that she’d never heard of the band, but just liked the design. Simmons Junior also told his father that when he mentioned Mick Jagger to the young lady, she replied, “Oh, yeah, the serial killer.”

So, er, yeah, that sounds like a real conversation that genuinely happened between two living, breathing human beings at some point in recent history, and is therefore incontrovertible proof of… stuff.

Unless, let’s say for the sake of argument, this young woman was actually simply hoping to cut short a boring conversation started by a young man who was trying to impress her, simply because she had much better things to do with her time that day.

Who’s to say?

Listen to the interview below for more Gene Simmons insights into music and the modern world.