Last year, Gene Simmons predicted “major changes” ahead of the midterm elections, and was essentially proven right as the Republicans captured the House.
And the American rocker (with a very vocal passion for politics) was back to making predictions last week, telling FOX 411’s Pop Tarts that he is anticipating that there won’t be a prominent power shift in the 2012 presidential election.
“The next president will still be Barack Obama because the Republicans don’t have an alternative, there is not one single personality that has any qualification or is likeable. I wish there were actually, because I like the president’s heart but I don’t think he has the qualification,” Simmons told us at the KISS Live & Global Chat presented by Ortsbo, and powered by ThinkFactory Media, in Beverly Hills.
“I hope that with Hillary Clinton and the right people around him, and the right advisors, that he’ll make a terrific president, but [he’s just] saying ‘I’m the guy that killed Osama Bin Laden’ and all he’s got to do on the pollsters is put out his birth certificate.”
But if Simmons had his way, we’d have a strong business-oriented mind running the country instead.
“Obama’s economic philosophy, in my estimation, has been a disaster. I’m against being told what to do with my insurance policy; I want the government out of my life,” Simmons continued. “I don’t think they have a clue how to run the economy which is why America is now insolvent, we need some business men in power… but Barack is still going to be the next president.”
Speaking of business, Simmons was joined at the Ortsbo event by fellow KISS founder Paul Stanley, where together they interacted with their KISS ARMY in more than 90 different languages, setting a world record for “Most Nationalities in An Online Chat Room.”
“For years the big debate has been about what should be the international language to communicate around the world and link people together, and that was always the question about the future. But now the future has finally come and Ortsbo allows people to communicate in their own language, but instantaneously that message is translated to someone who speaks a different language,” Stanley explained, adding that the instant, real-time translation technology even includes colloquialisms and provides equivalent phrases that can’t directly be translated.
But Ortsbo aside, the KISS boys aren’t just busy working on another album and upcoming tour – they’re also building upon their multi-million dollar merchandising empire.
“We’ve got a KISS mini-golf golf course coming to Las Vegas, we just did a wonderful promotion with BMW for KISS mini coopers and there is going to be charity conduit through UNICEF for our friends in Japan affected by the recent disaster,” Simmons said. “And a new KISS comic book. Most bands would simply give their left nut to be us.”
And even after almost 40 years together, there is no indication that the not-so-modest Simmons, and the perhaps more mellow Stanley, will be parting ways anytime soon.
“On the surface of it, it looks like we agree on everything all the time but that’s not true. But intrinsically we have the same love and admiration for a certain genre. Stuff that’s classic – Beatles, Hendrix, the Stones. None of us really wants to learn how to rap correctly, we don’t want to know how to pronounce ‘wassup’ correctly because that’s not interesting,” Simmons added.
“We are who we are and try to stay honest to that, since we already have this love and agreement for the same thing it’s not that difficult. Plus if you have passion about what at you’re doing that is what people pick up on, and KISS has always been about something timeless, believing in yourself and believing that if you set a realistic goal for yourself the only thing standing between you and success is hard work. We are a product not of luck, but of hard work.”
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