KISS member Gene Simmons may have millions of fans who adore his music, but in a new interview with Goldmine, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer admits that, besides one exception, he has no friends.
“Even today as I sit here, other than Paul [Stanley], and we only get together when we do stuff for the band … How do I say this without sounding inhuman? I don’t have friends,” Simmons tells the magazine.
He adds, “Yeah, if friends means, ‘Gee, I don’t know what I’m going to do this afternoon. Hey, you want to come over and hang out?’ I’m more interested in what I want to do, and I don’t want to pretend that I’m interested in what you want to do because I am not.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the 73-year-old rocker muses on what he might experience after he dies.
“I’m OK if there’s a heaven and a God. I’m OK with it. I’m also OK if there’s nothing,” Simmons maintains. “I lean towards nothing. My question is, if we get an afterlife, do mosquitoes? Maybe my mother’s sort of wise statement about every day above ground is a good day, and that’s it.”
In addition, Simmons reflects on something he wished he knew when he was younger that would have made his life easier.
“That it didn’t matter what I thought I knew, and it didn’t matter what I knew,” he notes. “You still have to wade through the jungle by yourself. All the knowledge in the world, or no knowledge at all, doesn’t prepare you for life because there’s no one journey, there’s no one road.”
The full interview is available in the latest issue of Goldmine.
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