Never one to mince words, during an interview with Jonathan Clarke at New York's Q104.3 KISS icon Gene Simmons addressed his now infamous "rock is dead" comment from a September 2014 Esquire interview and unloaded on the current generation of music fans.

Simmons: "The culprits are the young fans. You killed the thing that you love. Because as soon as streaming came in, you took away a chance for the new great bands who are there in the shadows, who can't quit their day job because you can't make a dime putting your music out there, because when you download stuff, it's one-hundredth or one-thousandth of one penny. And so you've gotta have millions to millions, and even billions of downloads before you can make a few grand. And the fans have killed that thing. So the business is dead, and that means that the next Beatles or the next whoever is never gonna get the chance that we did. We had record companies that gave us millions of dollars so we can make records and tour, and not worry about a nine-to-five. Because when you're worried about nine-to-five, you don't have the time to sit there and devote to your art, whatever that is."

AXS TV recently released the video below, along with the following message:

"On January 30th, 1973 KISS stepped on stage at the Popcorn Club in Queens, New York to perform their very first live show. After making a cold call to the venue, Gene Simmons landed the gig and they were paid a whopping $50. While KISS now plays to sold out stadiums, there were only about ten people in the audience for that very first show."