GENE SIMMONS SAYS BOB DYLAN DIDN'T EVEN PLAY BY HIS OWN RULES

Gene Simmons shed light on why his good friend Bob Dylan absolutely deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature. Many fans of both artists were surprised back in 2004, when Simmons' solo album, titled Ass****, featured a collaboration with Dylan, called, "Waiting For The Morning Light." On Friday (October 14th), Simmons was on hand at the Visual Japan Summit at the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hallby and performed "Rock And Roll All Nite" during a jam session after the main set by the X Japan.

Simmons explained the reasons why he feels Dylan was awarded the prestigious honor, telling, Ultimate Classic Rock: "Those lyrics. Instead of wagging his finger into people’s faces, it seems to me that those lyrics are more about self-observing. Observations on what he saw that was going on all around him. So, very few of the songs were about moon and June, and you broke my heart -- like so many songs are. Dylan never played by those rules. Bob didn’t even play by Bob Dylan’s rules. He kept doing new versions of whatever he felt. He’s a folkie, then he plugs in and goes electric -- even if his fans turned on him. How f***ing cool is that? He will go what he wants to do. So very few artists have a word that’s attached to them that’s called integrity. Not many like him."

• He went on to point out that Dylan deciding to go electric -- despite his fans protests -- underscores the rare level of artistry he embodies: "1965 Newport Folk Festival, when fans reacted poorly to his new sound. He was booed off the stage. He didn’t care. He was going, 'This is what I want to do.' And that’s the best thing. How cool is it for an arrogant guy who couldn’t give a s*** what anybody else thought -- and, to this day, marches to the beat of his own drummer? He continues to play by his own rules, in the grand tradition of the Greeks: 'To thine own self be true.' And the rest of the world, be damned. No matter what’s popular, through disco and through metal, through pop and through this era, Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan. He is his own definition. How grand is that?"
  
• We asked Gene Simmons about his second, still-unreleased, Dylan collaboration, called, "Laughing When You Want To Cry," and asked him when he thinks the track might see the light of day: "At some point. I still have that. Like anything, again, I wanted to write with Bob Dylan, so how does that happen? Well, you gotta pick up the phone and go for him. 'Hi Bob, it’s Gene.' 'How are you doing?' 'You wanna write a song?' 'Sure.' That afternoon he’s at the house and we’re writing. And actually the song came off sounding like a cross between what Bob would do and because of my love for the Beatles it sort of comes out like Traveling Wilburys music. I prefer Bob write the lyric because there’s nobody better, and we both did the music together." :
  
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