In a surreal moment at the heart of American power, legendary Kiss rocker Gene Simmons commandeered the White House briefing room on Friday, delivering an impromptu press conference while President Donald Trump was elsewhere.
An Unscripted Podium Takeover
The bassist and vocalist, accompanied by his wife Shannon Tweed and son Nick Simmons, entered the room and swiftly found himself at the centre of a media scrum. As reporters swarmed, shouting questions and snapping pictures, his son Nick issued a stark warning from the sidelines. "The longer you stand up there, the higher the chances you get cancelled," he yelled towards his father.
Simmons, however, was undeterred, using the platform to champion the cause that brought him to Washington. He is in the capital for two key reasons: to be honoured at Sunday's Kennedy Center Honors, which President Trump will host, and to testify before the Senate on Tuesday.
Fighting for Fair Pay for Artists
The core issue Simmons addressed from the famous podium was the American Music Fairness Act. This bipartisan legislation seeks to mandate that radio corporations pay recording artists for broadcasting their music. "If there's an artist who's heard on radio they should get paid," Simmons declared passionately.
He argued that radio stations are profiting immensely, making "billions of dollars" by using artists' likenesses in advertising without fair compensation. "Can the artists that we all admire from Sinatra to Elvis have a little bit of that? Would that be OK?" he mused. Expressing confidence, he added, "So this is our bipartisan bill that will get passed because the president is very pro-artist."
Simmons positioned the fight as a defence of American cultural heritage, noting that genres like rock and roll, blues, jazz, country, and hip-hop were invented in the United States. "We're letting our artists, the voices of America, American culture, get by, working hard on their craft, and not getting paid," he stated.
A Family Intervention and Exit
As Simmons began to field a question on free speech, his wife Shannon Tweed decided it was time to leave. Whistling to get his attention from the seating area, with son Nick stationed by the door, she called out, "Simmons, your time's up. Seriously, we've gotta go."
When a reporter asked about his evening plans and a potential meeting with Trump, Simmons began to divulge details before his wife curtly instructed him not to. He later confirmed he would be meeting with the President, as is customary for Kennedy Center Honorees, affirming, "I respect the presidency."
Tweed then marched to the front, physically extracting her husband from the podium and escorting him out. "It was wonderful to talk to me," Simmons joked to reporters on his way out. His son Nick added a personal note on their relationship with Trump, quipping, "I call him Donny."
This was not Simmons' first unofficial visit to the Trump White House. In May 2019, The Daily Mail photographed him and Tweed watching Marine One depart from the South Lawn, and he also made an appearance in the Pentagon's briefing room during that trip.
