KISS Bassist Gene Simmons Had Some Strong Words for Red Hot Chili Peppers Bassist Flea

Gene Simmons isn’t the biggest fan of Flea, apparently.

Gene Simmons was famously the bassist and co-lead singer of rock band KISS for decades. The musician recently opened up about his bass-playing preferences in an interview with Guitar World. In the interview, Simmons said that he doesn’t consider himself a “bass virtuoso”. On the contrary, Simmons isn’t the biggest fan of “show-offs” in music and prefers musical stylings that are memorable over flashy.

“It’s part of the joy of music for me,” said Simmons.

Pretty quickly, Simmons went on to dig into other musicians. He said that most jazz musicians tend to be “respected by musicians, but the rest of the world doesn’t care.” Simmons even went as far as to ask the interviewer to “name a jazz player that means something.” He noted that jazz fusion icon John McLaughlin is an incredible player, but few fans of jazz would be able to hum one of his solo melodies from memory.

Gene Simmons Isn’t the Biggest Fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Bassist, Flea

Unfortunately for one Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Simmons had a few critical words to say about Flea’s bass-playing style.

“There are an awful lot of amazing bass players, like Jaco Pastorius and the jazz guys,” said Simmons. “Or guys like Flea, who is really good on his instrument, but I can’t remember anything he plays… and I also do not like the sound of a bass being slapped.”

Flea quite famously slaps his bass as part of his signature playing style.

In a way, we get where Simmons is coming from, though we also acknowledge that Flea is quite a legendary bassist. Part of KISS’s appeal wasn’t necessarily their skill, but rather their memorable melodies and lyrics in rock music. If “less is more” is Simmons’ mantra, we can certainly get with that.

Simmons’ recent Guitar World interview wasn’t all criticisms, though. He took the time to reflect on something Eric Clapton, another iconic guitarist, once said about his own playing style.

“Clapton, before he went pop, and when he was considered ‘God,’ he was interviewed, and he said something very profound,” Simmons continued. “’The hardest thing to do is to know what notes to put in a solo, and what notes not to put in a solo.’”

We’d have to agree with that.

Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for UNITAS

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