Race Matters: KISS Singer Gene Simmons Says Black Artists Like Run DMC Shouldn’t Be In Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

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KISS Singer Says Black Artists Can’t Be In Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

Gene Simmons claims he doesn’t have issue with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but in an interview with Radio.com, he sure seems like it.

Via Rumor Fix reports:

” I have no beef with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You go on with your bad self and get more disco artists. Get the Boston Pops Orchestra to be inducted!” he says.

“A long time ago it was diluted. It’s really back room politics, like Boss Tweed. A few people decide what’s in and what’s not. And the masses just scratch their heads. You’ve got Grandmaster Flash in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Run-D.M.C. in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You’re killing me! That doesn’t mean those aren’t good artists. But they don’t play guitar. They sample and they talk.”

And it’s not just rappers Gene is targeting — he also is going after pop stars!

“But if you asked Donna [Summer], ‘What kind of artist are you?’ do you think she would say ‘rock?’ If you asked Madonna, ‘What kind of artist are you?’ do you think she would say, ‘Oh, rock!’ So what they hell are they doing in the Hall of Fame? They can run their organization any way they’d like, but it ain’t rock! It just isn’t! If you don’t play guitar and you don’t write your own songs, you don’t belong there.”

Gene’s group, KISS, will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame on April 10 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. But Gene and Paul Stanley are refusing to perform because only the group’s original members are being inducted not longtime and current members Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer.

Do you think Gene is right? Should hip hop, R&B and disco acts be included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame??