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Ding! LAADEEEZ AND GENTLEEEMEN! Our Main Event Begins!
In one corner: Demon Rock Star and Dark Lord of Self-Promotion, Gene Simmons. In the other, respected music journalist and hobbit, Bob Lefsetz. This is it! The fabled rumble in the music jungle, the decade’s debate between Gene and Bob, at the Music Conference during Canadian Music Week 2009.
The big problem with picking a side is that the combatants are very much of the same cloth: both are arrogant, opinionated, alpha males. Gene’s just much taller, Bob has better hair. It’s almost a miracle they weren’t peeing circles around their chairs to mark their territory. But that’s what made the confrontation so compelling. Gene and Bob held mirrors up to each other, as each rose to the other’s bait. This is world-class wrestling, but with words and wills.
Gene virtually twirled his mustache as Bob challenged him to do more than just “shill.” “What’s your track record behind the scenes?” Bob asked. Gene, for his part, remained serenely superior, forgetting or mispronouncing Bob’s last name, asking again and again, “Who are you, exactly?” Neither one backed down. Nor should have.
Bob Lefsetz has been an entertainment business attorney, which certainly helped him navigate the shark-infested waters of the music industry. He’s best known as an industry analyst and critic, and for writing the on-line Lefsetz Letter. (lefsetz.com/) He’s not really a hobbit, they’re usually not so cranky.
Since forming the rock band Kiss with Paul Stanley in 1973, Gene Simmons has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, had his own reality television show, and turned 3 chords and the ability to breathe fire into a media presence of significant scope. Gene continues his Adventures In Capitalism to this day.
2014 HD edit, assembled from 2009 SD line-cut.