Alice Cooper has come forward and dismissed the notion that rock is dead.
He clearly summed up the topic by saying that “rock and roll is where it should be right now.”
Here’s what Alice said about Gene Simmons’ statement:
“Gene Simmons — I would like him to do my taxes, ’cause he’s a businessman, and business-wise, [his claim that rock is dead is] valid. But I guarantee you right now, in London somewhere, in garages, they’re learning AEROSMITH, they’re learning GUNS N’ ROSES — a bunch of 18-year-kids are in there with guitars and drums, and they are learning hard rock. It’s the same with the United States — there’s all these young bands that wanna resurge that whole area of hard rock and outlaws. So, in some ways, rock and roll is where it should be right now.
He continued:
“We’re not in the Grammys; we’re not in the mainstream. Rock and roll is outside looking in now, and I think that gives us that outlaw attitude. And I think that’s very good for rock and roll, ’cause that’s how rock and roll started; we were all outlaws at the time, and then we became mainstream. But now, hey, FOO FIGHTERS, GREEN DAY — a lot of great hard rock bands out there.”
He continued:
“The one [kind of] music, if you think of it, that started and never ended was hard rock. Because it went to punk, it went to disco, it went to hip-hop, it went to grunge — it did all these things — but the one thing that went right to the middle of it was hard rock. THE ROLLING STONES were still THE ROLLING STONES; AEROSMITH was still AEROSMITH; Alice Cooper was still Alice Cooper. We survived those things because guitar-driven hard rock is the only thing that will still be going 30 years from now, 40 years from now. And I think music will go all over the place, but you’re gonna find those hard rock bands still there.”