James Hetfield’s son and Bastardane drummer Castor Hetfield recently joined Mike Nelson Show for an interview and revealed his thoughts on Gene Simmons‘ much-debated ‘rock is dead’ remark.
In 2014, Gene Simmons made a controversial move by arguing that rock music is dead. Speaking to Esquire, Simmons claimed rock, soul, and blues finally died due to contemporary rock musicians because there aren’t any new music acts representing the genre successfully.
After this remark made the headlines, many rock musicians criticized Simmons for his comments. Along with contemporary artists like Wolfgang Van Halen or Taylor Momsen, the musicians who have been rocking for years like Dave Grohl, Slash, Jerry Cantrell, and Rudolf Schenker, disagreed with the rock icon.
As this is an endless debate without any clear answer, many still question Simmons’ remarks. James Hetfield’s son and the talented drummer of Bastardane, Castor Hetfield, also joined the debate recently and revealed his thoughts on whether rock music is dead during Bastardane’s recent appearance on Mike Nelson Show.
Castor Hetfield said that nowadays, musicians use computers to create sound, and the audience watches them on stage using a microphone and computer. He stated that a few enjoy listening to real instruments during shows, but they gradually realize it’s real. So, Castor believes that although there is computer-generated music, people have begun appreciating listening to rock music live.
During the conversation, Castor Hetfield said the following:
“I think a lot of people that all the shows they’ve seen live are just some guy with a microphone in front of a computer. I’m not going to hate on the music, but the live aspect of it, what will you watch? There are quite a few people who, I feel like, have come to one of our shows and been, ‘Wow. This is the first real instrument show I’ve seen, and it’s more of a spectacle.’
And I think people realize that it’s a real thing, and I feel like there’s a lot of appreciation towards it, especially now that there’s a lot of those computer music guys out there. I think it’s cooler to watch live more going on, and it just feels more intense. You can mess up playing guitar. The computer is not going to mess up.”
You can watch the interview below.
