Gene Simmons: If You're Depressed, 'Then Kill Yourself'

In the wake of Robin Williams' suicide, a controversial exchange with Gene Simmons in an interview last month is getting a bit of attention. Asked whether he gets along with the original members of KISS, Simmons told SongFacts.com:

• "I don't get along with anybody who's a drug addict and has a dark cloud over their head and sees themselves as a victim. Drug addicts and alcoholics are always: 'The world is a harsh place.' My mother was in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. I don't want to hear ... all about 'the world as a harsh place.' She gets up every day, smells the roses and loves life. And for a putz, 20-year-old kid to say, 'I'm depressed, I live in Seattle.' ... Then kill yourself."
• "I never understand, because I always call them on their bluff. I'm the guy who says 'Jump!' when there's a guy on top of a building who says, 'That's it, I can't take it anymore, I'm going to jump.'"

Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx addressed Simmons' comments on his radio show as well as on Twitter this week. "We’ve just lost Robin Williams. He dealt with drug addiction and mainly depression," he said, according to Billboard. "There’s almost 15 million American that are depressed. Gene Simmons says I should have just killed myself …15 million people should just kill themselves?" Interestingly, news.com.au notes, Simmons himself tweeted the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline after Williams' death, as well as the message, "R.I.P. Robin Williams. A kind and generous man." (More Gene Simmons stories.)