GENE SIMMONS DISCUSSES PRINCE – “I THOUGHT HE LEFT MICHAEL JACKSON IN THE DUST… BUT HOW PATHETIC THAT HE KILLED HIMSELF”

“Bowie was the most tragic of all because it was real sickness,” KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons tells Newsweek in a new interview where he discusses recently deceased musicians David Bowie – who died at 69 in January – and Prince, just 57 at the time of his death in April.

“All the other ones were a choice.” Even Prince? “His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?”

Simmons continues: “I think Prince was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them. I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that. But 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.”