Ace: Send Simmons back to school

Ace Frehley believes Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has "alienated just about everybody on the planet" with his recent comments on depression, addiction and poverty.

And the guitarist has predicted his former colleague could next turn on gay people – all because he doesn’t understand the human condition.

His comments come in the wake of Simmons’ incendiary comments about depression, when he claimed his message to anyone preparing to take their own lives was: “Fuck you, then kill yourself.” He later retracted his words.

Now Frehley tells Artisan News Service: “First he attacks immigrants, then he belittles poor people by saying, ‘Be nice to the rich people because we’re the ones that give you jobs.’ Then he attacks people with depression, alcoholics, drug addicts.

“The only thing left for him to do is to attack the whole gay movement. I’ve heard him do that in private, so that’s probably still yet to come.”

The guitarist argues Simmons isn’t as clever as he likes to think. “I don’t think he makes any sense,” he reflects. “He prides himself on being such an intellectual, he brags about being able to speak seven languages, but when it comes to being knowledgeable about the human condition – depression is a very serious disease.

“I’ve suffered from it, I know my daughter suffers from it. Alcoholism is a disease, so is drug addiction; it’s the disease of addiction. Many people are born that way – and Gene just seems ignorant of that whole fact. I think it’s time for Gene to go back to school and get educated in the health field.”

Simmons recently defended people’s right to say what they want without suffering any consequences – as long as it’s done in private.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.