As Iman pointed out yesterday, Gene Simmons made some comments about depression, just been released in the wake of Robin Williams’ sad suicide… To me, they sounded totally ignorant and ridiculous, revealing no basic knowledge about brain chemistry… what can I say, I don’t buy the ‘my mother was in concentration camps and nevertheless loves life, so nobody should be depressed’… good for her, she is a lucky one, born with a balanced brain chemistry, able to recover from the worst of the worst. But, it doesn’t mean everybody can do the same in any case. When it comes to genes and chemistry, we are all born unequal, we are all living in different environments, facing different challenges, and some will make it, others won’t. Nobody’s story can substitute for anybody else’s story and true depression is a real disease. I have met a girl who was born without legs, and she became a gymnast, I know a guy who was born with everything, and he plunged into deep depression. And I don’t believe the first one made more efforts than the second one… some people have to work very hard to just survive.
So Simmons is an idiot, but, surprise, he just recognized he is one! Or almost…. According to Spin, he just released an apology on his Facebook page:
‘I want to make this statement about my views on depression for the record and to clarify my prior remarks.
To the extent my comments reported by the media speak of depression, I was wrong and in the spur of the moment made remarks that in hindsight were made without regard for those who truly suffer the struggles of depression. I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my comments. I recognize that depression is very serious and very sad when it happens to anyone, especially loved ones. I deeply support and am empathetic to anyone suffering from any disease, especially depression.
I have never sugarcoated my feelings regarding drug use and alcoholics. Somewhere along the line, my intention of speaking in very directly and perhaps politically incorrectly about drug use and alcoholics has been misconstrued as vile commentary on depression. Unkind statements about depression was certainly never my intention. Fully, you will know that and I do not intend to defend myself here and now, by listing the myriad charities and self-help organizations I am involved with. Rather, I simply want to be clear that my heart goes out to anyone suffering from depression and I deeply regret any offhand remarks in the heat of an interview that might have suggested otherwise.’
He totally contradicts himself as his first statement was not at all recognizing depression a true disease… ‘Unkind statements about depression was certainly never my intention’? You can remove this horrible toupee that covers your head and Kiss my ass Simmons, you said this in the intention to provoke and chock and now you are retracting it because you got criticized by Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx (who went public after Simmons’ rant) and because Australian radio station Triple M announced a boycott of all Kiss material. Simmons is always ready to trade some swag against some good old money.
