Kiss frontman Gene Simmons ignited a new round of debate this week regarding the Rock &. Roll Hall of Fame’s inclusion of hip-hop artists, reiterating his long-held belief that the genre doesn’t belong within the institution. Simmons made the comments during an appearance on the LegendsNLeaders podcast.
“It’s not my music,” Simmons stated. “I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language. And as I said in print many times, hip-hop does not belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, nor does opera or symphony orchestras.… How come the New York Philharmonic doesn’t secure into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Due to the fact that it’s called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
Simmons recounted a previous discussion with rapper Ice Cube on the subject. “Ice Cube and I had a back and forth,” he said. “He’s a bright guy and I respect what he’s done.…He shot back that it’s the ‘spirit’ of rock and roll.… So Ice Cube and Grandmaster Flash and all these guys are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I just want to recognize when Led Zeppelin’s going to be in the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame?” He further characterized rap and hip-hop as primarily “a spoken-word art,” distinguishing it from the melodic structure he associates with rock music.
This isn’t the first time Simmons has voiced his opposition to hip-hop’s presence in the Hall of Fame. In 2015, following N.W.A’s induction, Ice Cube defended the group’s inclusion to Rolling Stone, arguing that “rap is a piece of rock & roll, but there’s also a piece of soul, a piece of R&B, a piece of blues — all of that music that comes before it.” He added, “I think rap captures the spirit of rock & roll just like rappers and guys who do rock & roll capture the same spirit, but they might go in different directions with it. But it’s the same spirit.”
Simmons’ critique arrives as he also maintains a pessimistic view of the current state of rock music itself. In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he declared, “There will not be another Beatles.” He posited a timeframe of 1958 to 1988 as the golden age of rock, citing artists like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, U2, AC/DC, and Kiss as defining acts. He challenged the emergence of comparable artists in subsequent decades.
When presented with examples of successful post-1988 bands like Pearl Jam and Radiohead, Simmons dismissed their mainstream recognition. “If Thom Yorke walked down the street in Pasadena, what would happen?” he asked, expressing skepticism about their public visibility. He contrasted their perceived anonymity with the instant recognition he believes artists like Prince commanded. “More people would know Mötley Crüe walking down the street than Radiohead,” he asserted.
Kiss concluded a farewell tour in December 2023, though the band has since made limited appearances, including a fan event in November 2025 and a performance at the Kennedy Center Honors the following month. However, Simmons quickly drew controversy after the Kennedy Center event by disputing the authorship of Kiss’s ballad “Beth,” claiming drummer Peter Criss had no role in its creation.
“Peter had nothing to do with that song,” Simmons told YouTube’s Professor of Rock. “He sang it.… The mythology of ‘Beth’ is exactly that: mythology. The real story is Peter was lucky enough to be in the same place at the same time as a guy who wrote a song called ‘Beth.’”
Criss swiftly refuted Simmons’ claim, stating to Billboard, “Gene wouldn’t know how the song was originally written because Gene wasn’t there from the conception of the song in the late ‘60s and he wasn’t there for the completion of the song with Bob Ezrin.” He labeled Simmons’ statements as “ridiculous and very uncalled for,” adding, “he talks about things that he doesn’t know about.”
