Gene Simmons says artificial intelligence has already changed the world and musicians need to learn how to use it. In a television interview, the 77-year-old KISS co-founder argued that adapting matters more than debating whether the technology should exist. He also returned to his campaign for US terrestrial radio to pay performers for broadcasts of their recordings, a separate issue involving proposed legislation.
Gene Simmons does not believe the music industry can simply stop the spread of artificial intelligence. Appearing on NewsNation’s “The Hill”, the KISS co-founder described the technology as an existing reality, regardless of whether artists welcome its effects. Asked whether AI would help or harm music, he responded that the future was already here.
He followed that position with a warning: people needed to learn to use the technology or risk being used by it. For him, the central question was adaptation, rather than universal agreement about whether AI should be accepted. The statement did not come with a specific proposal for applying it to composition, recording or music production.
Gene Simmons did not disclose whether he personally uses AI tools, nor did he announce a new creative project based on them. His remarks described a general attitude towards technological change. They should therefore be distinguished from evidence of a particular workflow in his own music or a finished recording produced with artificial intelligence.
The outlook also continued comments he had made in September, when he argued that concern about AI could not, by itself, halt its development. The latest interview returned to that position during continuing debate about creators’ rights. Simmons concentrated on becoming familiar with a technology he considers unavoidable, rather than resolving each point of disagreement.
In music, those disagreements include the use of recordings, imitation of recognisable voices and training systems with protected material. Some creators object to practices they regard as infringements of their rights, while others consider possible creative uses. Gene Simmons did not offer a detailed answer to those separate questions in this exchange, keeping his comments at the level of adaptation.
The conversation then turned to an issue on which he has made a more specific demand: payments for performers when recordings are broadcast on American AM/FM radio. He renewed his support for the American Music Fairness Act, a legislative proposal intended to change the treatment of sound recordings on terrestrial broadcasts.
The proposed change concerns a performance right connected to the recording itself and those holding rights in it. That is distinct from royalties attached to a song’s composition and lyrics. Gene Simmons used the discussion to argue that radio businesses should share revenue with the performers whose recordings help attract the audiences listening to those stations.
His examples included Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift and KISS. He argued that performers do not receive the corresponding sound-recording performance payment when their recordings are played on conventional US radio. His complaint focused on that category of compensation, rather than claiming no money associated with music is paid by those broadcasters. His question was why the companies benefiting from those audiences should not return a portion of their income to the artists whose recorded performances supply an essential part of the broadcasts.
The distinction is necessary because US radio stations already pay royalties relating to songwriting through the relevant rights organisations. The gap addressed by the proposal concerns the separate rights in a recording. Saying musicians receive no kind of radio royalty would blur those categories and miss the particular change being sought by the campaign.
Gene Simmons has also supported the legislation at the US Congress. In December 2025, he participated in a Senate committee hearing addressing the treatment of performers by the radio industry. That appearance forms part of an ongoing, sustained public effort, connecting the position he repeated in the television interview with earlier, more formal testimony supporting legislative action.
The proposal has supporters from both major American political parties, but remained proposed legislation at the time of the interview. The payments Simmons is seeking should therefore not be described as a newly implemented obligation. His remarks continue an argument for changing the rules, rather than announcing that the change has already taken effect.
The interview arrived as KISS prepared another release looking back at the band’s history. “KISS: End of the Road”, a documentary drawing on the farewell tour, was scheduled for November 19, 2026. Gene Simmons also discussed completing the group’s major concert run with the December 2023 finale at Madison Square Garden.
He said musicians needed to recognise the right time to leave the stage. KISS have made appearances without their characteristic makeup since that farewell, but the tour’s end marked the conclusion of a particular chapter. Those later occasions do not change the distinction between an individual appearance and the large-scale touring programme that ended in 2023.
The two main subjects of the interview involved different kinds of change within the industry. On AI, Gene Simmons offered an argument for learning and adjustment without explaining a personal creative plan. On terrestrial radio, he pressed a concrete request for a legislative change, continuing a campaign about who is compensated when a recording reaches listeners.
