In a new interview with Classic Rock, Gene Simmons said that in the early days, David Lee Roth was unbeatable on stage with Van Halen.
“With Van Halen in the early days, David Lee Roth was God,” the KISS bassist said. “On stage, nobody could touch him. So you couldn’t imagine Van Halen without Roth.”
Simmons added, “But you know what? Life actually happens while you’re busy making plans. And AC/DC, without Bon Scott, became an even bigger band. So rules are pretty much made to be broken. Could AC/DC still be AC/DC with Axl Rose? Sure they could! Because it’s either convincing or it’s not.”
In 2021, Gene offended Roth with his comments and later apologized. Roth had opened for KISS on their farewell tour before it was paused due to the pandemic, but he didn’t return when the tour resumed, and Simmons confirmed Roth was no longer part of it.
“It bears noting that during Dave’s heyday, nobody did what he did,” Simmons stated. “I don’t know what happened to him… something. And you get modern-day Dave.”
The musician continued, “I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, y’know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated, naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.”
Roth responded on Instagram by posting the same black-and-white image of a child flipping the middle finger 18 times, with the caption ‘Roth to Simmons.’
“I don’t mean to hurt people’s feelings, and every once in a while, diarrhoea of the mouth comes out,” Simmons apologized to Roth in a new chat with Us Weekly. “I read that quote, and somehow, the way they put it together, I think I said something like, ‘Nobody touched David in his prime. Not Robert Plant, not [Mick] Jagger. He was the king.’”
Gene also noted, “Then somehow, there was a segue to, ‘Elvis, bloated on the ground, fat and naked,’ and ‘I don’t want to see that.’ I wasn’t talking about David, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is I hurt David’s feelings, and that’s more important than the intent.”
“So, I sincerely apologize for that. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings,” he said. “It reminds me of the guy that gets out of a truck and says, ‘Hey I’m sorry, buddy, I didn’t mean to run you over.’ Well, what the f*ck’s the difference? You’ve been run over.”
Back in the day, Simmons claimed he discovered Van Halen and helped them record a demo in New York. However, his KISS bandmates and manager weren’t interested, so Simmons returned the demo, canceled their contract, and let the band go. Van Halen soon got signed by Warner Bros.