Gene Simmons continues to be grilled over his backstage experience in which he offers a fan the chance to be his personal assistant and roadie for a day — all for the hefty fee of $12,495.
Now, Simmons is saying that the price for the package is due to “astronomical” insurance costs, as he put it.
In a new interview with New Jersey’s 95.9 The Rat, Simmons dismisses the fact that people would consider his roadie experience a ripoff. When he was previously asked about it, he stood by the price and lauded the roadie gig as the kind of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he dreamed of as a kid. He took a similar tone in the new interview before diving into the numbers a bit more.
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“Here’s the deal: when I was a kid and I went to see [Jimi] Hendrix or somebody, of course I enjoyed the show and really got off on it — we talked about it forever and stuff — but I didn’t know what it was like,” Simmons said [as transcribed by Blabbermouth]. “What’s the beginning of the day like? What’s it like to sit and have breakfast or lunch with my favorite rock stars, and then get in the limo, go to the gig, set up the drums, do soundcheck and then be onstage…”
He continued, “Now, having said that, we only do one roadie for a day per show. And I’ll tell you why — because nowadays everything is so litigious. … That means everybody sues everybody for no reason. So if you get a paper cut, somebody gets sued. And that’s just the way life is here in America — much more in California, by the way. It’s crazy out here. So, I can’t even, if I wanted to, bring out or do roadie for a day with 10, 20, 30, as many people [as we would like]. So we do one, because the insurance costs for that are astronomical. And so this ain’t cheap. It’s not for everybody. And for that one person, you do have to pay premium numbers. That’s just life.”
Simmons goes on to say that the $12,495 price also factors in “financial and legal exposure” in addition to “the classic stuff.”
“Somebody has a bad experience and they sue you and it costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars. You need insurance for everything,” he said. “Do you have a car? You’ve got insurance. Everything in life, apparently… In fact, you buy anything — a tool — they give you insurance. Would you like the one-year or three-year? Everything’s insured.”
Those who take the dive on the fan package — available to one fan per show — can bring one guest and will be “on the GS Band Team Crew for the entire day,” first meeting up at the hotel to go over the day’s plan. You will share a meal with Gene (at the hotel or backstage), help with load in, sit in on soundcheck, hang out backstage, and Simmons will bring you out onstage at some point during the show. You also get a signed Gene Simmons bass at the end — accounting for a portion of the $12,500 price.
As for the those content with purchasing just a regular concert ticket, Simmons will be performing shows in May with his solo band, although 17 dates of the tour were recently postponed. Get tickets here.
Check out the new interview with Gene Simmons below.
Content shared from consequence.net.