However, Gene Simmons is nothing if not brash and abrasive, and so that was never going to happen. He also seems pretty high on life, saying, “Every day I wake up and I never take it for granted” amongst other things. Newsweek prefaces their interview with Simmons by saying that he is “nothing if not frank” and that “it’s not difficult to see how he can be seen as inflammatory,” which are certainly understatements. When asked about Prince’s death, Simmons said, “His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?” (Prince’s body was found with prescription painkillers in his possession; however, his longtime lawyer denied he was “drugged up,” calling allegations of addiction “foolish.”) 
 
 [RELATED: A remembrance of Prince, who reinvented what it means to be a pop star] 
 
 Simmons is nothing if not frank. There is a way, as weird as it sounds, that Simmons could have expressed his opinions about drugs and not come across in such a creepy way. What do you think, he died from a cold?” He didn’t end there, though, adding, “How pathetic that he killed himself. Don’t kid yourself, that’s what he did. Slowly, I’ll grant you… but that’s what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death.” 
 
 Simmons is basing his feelings on the murmurings that Prince had an issue with prescription painkillers that played into his untimely death, and it probably is worth taking a moment to discuss Simmons’ feelings on life and stuff. Newsweek: Did you ever meet Prince? He says in the interview that he has never been drunk or high, and he seems quite proud of that fact, although he also says, “I can almost understand drinking or getting high if it made my schmeckel bigger, or made me smarter, but nothing happens.” He also invokes David Bowie into this rant by saying he’s earned real sympathy “because [his death] was real sickness,” unlike Prince’s reported addiction. Among other things in this interview, Simmons takes a moment to trash Prince. There’s a load of strange stuff in this interview (apparently Simmons loves EDM because it is “honest”), but his comments on Prince are what people are going to latch onto. If you like it you’ll vote for it, if you don’t you won’t.
– Gene Simmons set off an Internet firestorm Tuesday when he called Prince's death "pathetic" in an interview with Newsweek. “His drugs killed him," the former KISS frontman says. "What do you think, he died from a cold?” A cause of death has not been established, but prescription painkillers were found with Prince's body. "How pathetic that he killed himself," Simmons continues. "Don’t kid yourself, that’s what he did." Uproxx wasn't surprised by Simmons' thoughts on Prince's death. "If you are looking to hear an obnoxious opinion on a topic, you can often look no further than Simmons to find 10," the site states. Unlike Prince, Simmons tells Newsweek he's never done drugs because, in part, they won't make his penis bigger. If Simmons wanted to make a point about the dangers of drug addiction, Uproxx points out there's probably a better we he could have done it. Simmons does have some praise for the late music superstar. “I think Prince was heads, hands, and feet above all the rest of them," Simmons says. "I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust." He also calls David Bowie's death "tragic" because it was from a "real sickness" as opposed to Prince's supposed drug addiction.