Gene Simmons says Zimbabwe, France have nothing on US music: 'Elvis, baby'

Watch Gene Simmons says Zimbabwe, France have nothing on US music: 'Elvis, baby' - New York Post on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00I want to talk about why this is called the American Music, you got to stop there, American

00:08Music Fairness Act. Yes, it's an act that's fair because there isn't fairness ongoing right now,

00:15but it's American music, America. Last time I checked, Zimbabwe gave the world no music.

00:22I can't sing you a French song and nobody else. It's America's music that rules this planet.

00:29Elvis, baby, the king. Elvis, who sang hundreds and hundreds of songs, and I met the gentleman

00:39when he was alive, and sadly, Elvis never got a penny for all the times, all the millions

00:46of times that his music was played around the world. If you go to Africa, you ain't nothing

00:52money. You hear that music. That is our emissary. That's bigger and cooler and better than any

01:00foreign minister that goes on. American culture spreads with our music, with our pop culture.

01:07Elvis never got a penny. You know who got all the money? And this is not to demonize Mr. Hinton,

01:14who's a powerful and attractive man. He came over and tried to dissuade me, which is a big word

01:21like gymnasium. But I'm a big fan of his and more power to him. He works hard and he's got

01:27four radio stations. God bless America. I hope you have 400. This bill, when it's passed, because the

01:36word if is for losers, we are going to pass this bill. It is bipartisan. You will do the will of the

01:43people, because 70% of the United States of America in a recent poll said, we want this injustice cured

01:52now and once and for all. Getting close to the finish line does not work. And Mr. Hinton, I understand

01:59everything you talked about when emergency reliefs and hurricanes came, and I'm important. We're only

02:05talking about AM and FM radio and paying our Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion,

02:15even my newest best friend, George Strait, who's a co-winner, a proud winner of the American

02:22I'm sorry, of the Kennedy Honors. I walked up to George and we started talking about family and

02:27where are you from? I'm from Texas. And I said, I'm from Israel. Same thing, planet Earth. And we

02:34started talking and trading stuff. And I told him, George, do you know one of your biggest songs,

02:40Amarillo, which has been broadcast on AM and FM radio hundreds of thousands of times? Do you know

02:50you never got a penny for any of those broadcasts? He looked around. He said, what do you mean?

02:54Because he sings other people's songs. What do you mean? He turned to his handlers. No, that's true.

03:00How do you defend that? Mr. Hinton, God bless him. We all live in America. We disagree, but he's wrong.

03:08He said that the four radio stations, I beg your pardon, may have some financial issues ad infinitum,

03:18ad nauseum. Four of those stations, sorry, three of the four stations may have to pay $500 when,

03:27not if, this bill is passed. What's your problem? How do we dare come in second to Russia,

03:34an alleged country led by a despot, when they do a better job of paying our king of rock and roll,

03:43and we're going to stand by and not pay today's artists and future artists, because let's face it,

03:49our children are tomorrow's stars. They're going to claw and fight their way up to the top,

03:56and it's really hard to do it. And once you reach the top of Mount Olympus, which is in the center of

04:02America, baby, don't kid yourself. It ain't in Greece. This is the land of opportunity where

04:08greatness is possible. If you put your metal, I'm talking about heavy metal, so what I just said,

04:14it was a joke. When you work hard and you get to the top, what do you got? Zip-a-rooney.

04:19That's not the American way. If you are against this bill, you are un-American.