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March 15, 2009

Gene Simmons vs Bob Lefsetz: Smackdown... 'Everybody Here Knows More About The Internet Than Gene'...

Lefsetz letter | Read Full Story >

They finally met face to face. Here’s the video:

Closing Arguments

The Entire Debate

Bob’s latest post from the Lefsetz Letter:

At this point, having been exposed to more of Gene’s antics via stories and links from my subscribers, I now know the way Gene behaved was no different than he does in any other public forum.

For further background, please listen to Mr. Simmons’ interview with Terry Gross of NPR, which can be accessed here

Also, if you want a laugh, be sure to check out Lisa Lampanelli’s roasting of Gene

Turns out that Mr. Simmons generates as much animosity as love. You’d think a platinum-selling band would garner more kudos, but the degree of hatred towards KISS is staggering, a great deal of it based on Mr. Simmons’ personality.

But we live in such a vast world that the haters can coexist with the lovers, and never the twain shall meet. In other words, KISS can function privately in its own backwater and the rest of us can ignore the band.

That’s how the music business is today. It’s narrowcasting. The key is to gain someone’s attention and to try to grow from there, fan by fan until you can support yourself playing music and give up your day job. As for broadcasting, spreading the word far and wide? That concept started breaking down with the advent of cable TV and its 500 channels and has now been all but decimated by the Internet. Train-wrecks are ubiquitous, everybody knows about the latest school shooting. But shy of that, everything’s got a limited audience. And train-wrecks have a very short shelf life. In other words Gene, a band you sign could have sex on stage tomorrow and it might be big on the Net for 24 hours, but if anybody even remembered the act’s name a year later, they certainly wouldn’t recall the music.

You can try and generate instant heat and instant sales. There is a business there. But if that paradigm were so damn good, the major labels would be prospering instead of dying. We’re in the era of artist development. You’ve got to develop your craft and your audience. Musicians and fans are bonded, for the long haul. It’s not clear where they’re going, it’s an exciting journey. Pre-fab is becoming marginalized.

So if you tell me you’re going to sign a band, change its name, its players, its hairstyles and its music and then ram the result down the throat of the public, I’m gonna tell you very few people are going to care and that you’d better not invest much money, because limited dollars will come in return, and you’d better get out quick, because the act is going to burn out almost instantly.

Build slowly. From the core out. Breaking a band today is more of a whispering campaign than banging the public over the head with a blunt instrument. You lead with your music. Sure, networking/managerial/Internet tools are important, but it all comes down to the music. You can click online and hear it instantly. Is it any good?

The public decides. Gatekeepers? Physical retail is just about dead and radio has been marginalized. It’s a direct connection between musician and listener. You’d better be good, baby.


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Previous comments include

#1 scott m says:

hilarious!

#2 Jordan Catalano says:

Wow, talk about battle of the asshats!

But Simmons totally pwns Lefestz in the biggest way.

#3 Simmons wins says:

...actually...they BOTH win..cause I wasted 10 minutes reading and laughing. Well...I did laugh. So the entire time was not wasted :-)

#4 KJ says:

Simmonds pawns Bob? Unfortunately for Gene, he's already a pawn. Gene has just proven Bob's point for him - what a tool.

#5 who the hell is boob lefsetz? says:

twat.

#6 Grant Nuttall says:

I don't think Gene could see past his own head to actually read this letter.

“The Beatles gave up their suits, messed with their hair, even gave up playing live and the band got bigger and bigger.”

I LOVE THE ANALOGY. KISS AND THE BEATLES. THANKS.

Except for he was comparing the success of The Beatles and the failure of KISS ... Gene needs to go slap a money bag on his own balls and start selling those, buy that get his dignity free.

#7 You're All Tools says:

.

#8 jeff says:

hey grant nuttall.

i actually think YOU missed the point. just having the beatles and kiss in the same sentence was all gene was looking for. doesn't matter what it meant. when you compare apples to oranges they are both still fruits.

#9 Allen Ginsbird says:

Yes they are both asshats. Yes Gene is embarrassingly full of himself. Gene is also a multimillionaire. He's doing something right, isn't he? To his credit Gene never claimed to be an artist, never claimed some deeper meaning to his work, he's an entertainer, and an old fashioned one at that. Without his marketing drive and willingness to put the Kiss name on anything, and I mean anything, they wouldn't have become the household word and musical/entertainment force they were and still are today. Perhaps his artistry lies in commerce? Paul Stanley may have been more of the musician of the group, but Gene's drive, shameless promotion and hucksterism were the key to Kiss' success like it or not. He's the P.T. Barnum of the modern age.

#10 wheatus says:

I love them both...but Gene owns on this...Bob's always telling artists to get their shit together and now he's mad at Gene for being the master of it?... fail.

bbb
wheatus.com

#11 Whatever says:

Yep. Gene Simmons has been called out to be the asshole he really is and his pathetic attempts at trying to intimate he's smarter than Lefsetz are laughable if they weren't so fucking embarrassing.

Sorry Geno, but if it were just Lefsetz saying these things, you might have an argument, but sadly, EVERYONE in the music industry agree's wholeheartedly that you're a narcisistic moron and an asshole of the highest order.

As to your "reality" television show, what happened there? Oh ya, that's right. When it came to true reality, i.e., your sex tape coming to light, suddenly it's time for a hiatus, eh?

Really Gene?

You would rather us "believe" that all the contrived bullshit you portrayed as "reality" as you were embarrassing your kids to thoughts of suicide (does anyone else think that Nick is really Paul's kid? He's a spitting image of him and when you think about how fucking ugly Geno really is, well, it's no stretch to say that Nick should look like his dad and not Paul) when in fact it wasn't and when there was true reality to be seen, i.e. Shannon and the kids asking the hard questions, such as "why you fucked that hooker and were stupid enough to get caught on tape, you ran and hid like the ugly cockroach you really are. And how you expected ANYONE to believe that it wasn't you when it was that "brillo pad" haircut that gave you away.

And what's all this bullshit about your upcoming "35th Anniversary?" tour? 90,000 people? What happend to the 160,000 you claimed come to see you every year when you hit South America? And, seriously, Geno? How is this possible when I personally went to your FIRST "farewell" tour? In case you don't know, and I can't see that you don't when you're always telling us how fucking smart you are, farewell means GOOD-BYE; as in go the fuck away!!

Go away Geno, and take that sorry excuse for a "singer", your fake ass Ace and Peter and never darken our collective music collections again. You're no longer relevent in ANY musical related subject, other than of course, how you've embarrassed yourself, your band and KISS name with all the overpriced detritus you call merchandise, so again, just go away and leave us in musical peace and stop trying to prove your debut "solo" album 'Asshole' is nothing more than your pathetic life story.

Bottom line is that you give the Jewish Nation a bad fucking name and propagate all the ugly stereo types - especially the one about them all being greedy assholes - that people refuse to let go of, so the next time you wish to wax poetic about "there is no such thing as having too much money", I suggest you think first before running your fucking mouth, you imbecilic fuckwit.

#12 Phil says:

Gene is right, there is nothing wrong being a greedy bastard. If his fans are stupid enough to buy Kiss douche bags, so be it. They're happy and he is happy. We never degrade PT Barnum.

#13 Steve says:

Gene is totally on point.

#14 Vladimir says:

GENE IS PIG.

#15 Steve says:

The Gift that keeps on giving.

#16 King says:

I've never heard of Bob Leftits before this. He seems like a douche. I think Gene got what he wanted out of this (more awareness of his label). Bob had some pretty bullshit criticism and just seemed to want to provoke Gene into losing his temper.


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