In the interview, conducted by his son Nick, Simmons shares his views on the failing record business and how he would never want to be an up-and-coming musician in this day and age. “The death of rock was not a natural 
death,” Simmons said. “Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed, and now it won’t, because it’s that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it.”
A good piece of advise was also given to young musicians/songwriters, “Don’t quit your day job is a good piece of advice. When I was coming up, it was not an insurmountable mountain. Once you had a record company on your side, they would fund you, and that also meant when you toured they would give you tour support.” He continues, “There are still record companies, and it does apply to pop, rap, and country to an extent. But for performers who are also songwriters — the creators — for rock music, for soul, for the blues — it’s finally dead. Rock is finally dead.”
Simmons says that the opportunities just aren’t the same as they were back in the day and that people are better off now just singing in the shower and auditioning for The X Factor. In a good sense Simmons is right and I think now it’s going to boil down who is innovative. Where that next innovation will come from is yet to be seen. Simmons is right by asking, “But where’s the next Bob Dylan? Where’s the next Beetles? Where are the songwriters? Where are the creators?”
Not wanting to come off as some complaining, reminiscent do nothing, he adds this, “I’m not the guy to be pouting and complaining about stuff. I make a decent living. I’m very, very lucky. But that’s because we started before the chaos, in the days when people had to buy records. If you didn’t like a band, you didn’t buy their albums, and the people decided.” Somehow we have to get that type of power back into the hands of the people who truly love music and the musicians that make it for them.
