Triple M's Network head, Mike Fitzpatrick has just pulled all Kiss tracks from playlists around Austalia.
Gene Simmons had been widely criticised for making insensitive comments about depression and suicide after he told sufferers 'f*** you, then kill yourself'.
In a statement on the Triple M web-site, Fitzpatrick says "Gene Simmons' recent comments are misguided and insensitive," Mike said. "Depression and Suicide are not topics he should be using to further his notoriety or sell records. His desperation to use mental health issues to find relevancy in a modern age is sickening. I can only put it down to a brain fade on his part. The Triple M Network can’t and won’t be playing or supporting this dickhead’s music. I put the challenge out to other stations across Australia and North America to also drop any of this nudnik's songs until such time as he reconsiders his thoughtless and insensitive position."
The KISS bassist dismissed depression as a mental disorder in an article with Songfacts.com. One in eight Australian men experience depression and mental health issues have been particularly highlighted this week in the aftermath of Robin Williams' tragic death.
In the candid interview recently, the 64-year-old said: "Fuck you, then kill yourself. I never understand, because I always call them on their bluff. I'm the guy who says 'jump' when there's a guy on top of a building who says, 'that's it, I can't take it anymore. I'm going to jump’. Are you kidding? Why are you announcing it? Shut the fuck up, have some dignity and jump! You've got the crowd.”
"By the way, you walk up to the same guy on a ledge who threatens to jump and put a gun to his head (and say) 'I'm going to blow your fuckin' head off', he'll go, 'please don't’. It's true. He's not that insane," Simmons said.
However, the rock star’s comments have been widely criticised.
Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx announced on his Sixx Sense radio show: “It’s pretty moronic … There is a 20-year-old kid out there who is a Kiss fan and reads this and goes, 'You know what? He's right. I should just kill myself’."
Simmons has also been labelled a hypocrite after he tweeted, ‘R.I.P. Robin Williams. A kind and generous man’, in the wake of the actor’s tragic death this week.
Kiss is celebrating its 40th year in rock and were recently inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame.
Australia has a tragically high suicide rate, with suicide killing three times more Australian males aged between 15 and 45 than all car accidents combined.
UPDATE: 16 August, 2014
Gene Simmons has since apologised.
