Gene Simmons apologizes for Prince comments
Outspoken Kiss band member has apologized for his comments about music legend Prince.
Simmons spoke with Newsweek about the singer's April 21 death and assumed about the circumstances of his death, calling it "pathetic."
That soundbite comes from an interview Simmons did with Newsweek.
"I think Prince was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them. I thought he left (Michael) Jackson in the dust," Simmons said in the Newsweek interview. "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."
Billboard reported that Simmons is changing his tune, while criticizing the media for "quote-mining things" he said in the past.
The apology, which was posted to Twitter, is in quoted in part below:
I just got such (expletive) from my family for my big mouth again. I apologize. I have a long history of getting very angry at what drugs do to the families/friends of the addicts. I get angry at drug users because of my experience being around them coming up in the rock scene. In my experience they've made my life, and the lives of their loved ones, difficult. I was raised in a culture (and) crowd where drug addicts were written off as losers, and since that's the narrative I grew up with, it's been hard to change with the times. Needless to say, I didn't express myself properly here - I don't shy away from controversy, and angry critics really don't bother me at all. If I think I'm right, I'll throw up a finger and dig my heels in and laugh. But this time, I was not. So, my apologies.
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