Kiss bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons has weighed in on the deepening political divide in the United States, arguing that both the left and the right have drifted toward the extremes. The 76-year-old musician shared his views during an appearance on “We’ll Do It LIVE“, the weekly show hosted by conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly.
Speaking about the country’s growing polarization, Simmons said critics of President Donald Trump are free to dislike him but should accept the outcome of the 2024 election.
“You can argue and hate [current U.S. president Donald Trump], and you’re allowed to do that, but you have to recognize the fact that ‘of the people, for the people, by the people’ means that the people have spoken. He won the election by millions, and the electoral college as well. End of story. You don’t like it, you can wait until the next election and vote your conscience,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
For context, Trump received 77,302,580 votes, or 49.8 percent of the votes cast for president in the 2024 election, while Kamala Harris received 75,017,613 votes, or 48.3 percent.
Simmons went on to say he misses a time when a person’s vote was considered private, and stressed that political differences shouldn’t get in the way of human connection.
He continued: “When I was growing up, nobody ever asked me, ‘Who did you vote for?’ What do you mean, ‘Who did you vote for?’ Who are you, and what business is it of yours who I vote for? There used to be a curtain. You went behind it. You pulled the curtain because it was nobody’s business. You vote your conscience. Leave politics out of it when we sit around and break bread. I can break bread with anybody in this, other than Nazis, who completely disagree [with me]. Well, keep your feelings to yourself, and your power is the voting booth.”
O’Reilly brought up Bruce Springsteen, who has called Trump “reckless, racist, incompetent” and “treasonous,” and asked whether that view is common in music. Simmons said it is — among performers, not fans.
“Oh, yeah. On the [part of the] performers, not the audience,” he said.
When O’Reilly suggested agents and bookers pressure artists to “think a certain way” to get booked, Simmons wasn’t fully convinced but offered his read on the landscape.
“I’m not sure if that’s accurate, but I will say the lay of the land, I notice, is mostly they are… In the same way that if you go to California, it is a blue state. It’s mostly Democrat, and as you get to the major cities, it’s mostly progressive, far left Democrats. I mean, the runoff now in the Democratic Party [in California] are two people who I wouldn’t vote for if you paid me for it. On the other hand, if you paid me enough, I might consider [it]… I think Steve [Hilton] should be the next governor [of California].”
He also stressed that he doesn’t tie his business or friendships to politics.
“I’m not beholden to any political point of view or anything. I’m about issues, which is why I have friends from every area. I do business with all kinds of people. If I only did business with people who are Republicans and so on, it wouldn’t make financial sense because people of all political beliefs do business. So business is not what your political beliefs are. It’s whether or not we can both have a win-win relationship,” he clarified.
Responding to O’Reilly‘s point that the entertainment industry has become a “monolith” of progressive views, Simmons predicted the political tide will turn, as it always does.
“It will swing. The pendulum swings… There’s no question, because you’ve seen how politics — sometimes the far left takes a hold and the pendulum goes this way, and sometimes Republicans get into government and so on. And so laws keep changing state to state.”
That led to his central point about the state of American politics.
“People on both sides of the fence, I believe, have gone to the extreme so that it’s ‘my party says this is the way to do it. If you don’t march along with exactly these things…’ Which is why I’m much more a free thinker and closer to the center. On certain areas, I agree with either party. I’m a firm believer that the [Mexico] wall should be built. Absolutely. The previous Pope was a nice man and so on, I respected him, said that it’s inhumane to have a wall between Mexico and America. Except for the fact that the Vatican has a massive wall around it for the same reason that we should. Border security. You wanna know who’s coming into your border. Not that they shouldn’t. Do it through the legal system.”
Asked whether speaking his mind has cost him work, Simmons said it has.
“Yeah. There’s such a thing as being canceled,” he said.
“I didn’t always agree with my mother, and I would give my life for my mother,” he explained. “This idea of always agreeing with somebody is lunacy. Sometimes they’re wrong — for you.”
Pressed for specifics, the bassist pointed to a handful of local appearances he says he lost after declining to attack the president on camera.
“There were maybe two or three shows where somebody asked me on camera locally, as I’m doing interviews, ‘What do you think of the president?’ And I said, ‘I don’t have any problem getting the Kennedy Center Awards at all. He’s the president of these United States, and he was legally voted into power. And if you don’t like the man, you can at least respect the presidency.’ And this idea of just banding about ‘Trump this’ and ‘Trump that’. No, it’s President Trump, just like a doctor. I don’t like my doctor, but he’s a doctor. Doctor so-and-so. And that was not a popular sentiment.”
When O’Reilly asked if anyone confronted him over it, Simmons replied: “Yes, I lost those two or three shows.”
Notably, Simmons has voiced sharper criticism of Trump in the past. In a 2022 interview, he accused the president of fueling division during his first term, though his more recent comments strike a different, centrist tone.
