
Ten years ago, Esquire asked Nick Simmons, son of Kiss legend Gene Simmons, to interview his father. In the piece, provocatively headlined Gene Simmons: 'Rock Is Finally Dead', Simmons Sr. claimed that rock music was kaput. It had ceased to be. Bereft of life, it rested in peace. Rock was now ex-rock.
"The death of rock was not a natural death" quoth the God Of Thunder. "Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered."