Even when it seems everyone is opposed to something as awful as Donald Sterling’s racist rant, everyone isn’t always on the same page. In an interview forThe Wall Street Journal, Kiss’ Gene Simmons expressed his support for the former Los Angeles Clippers owner.
In doing press for the new AMC series 4th and Loud — about the Kiss-branded Arena Football League team L.A. Kiss — Simmons was asked if he had followed the Sterling incident.
“I’m on the side of Don Sterling,” he replied, before his position was even asked. Although he admits that Sterling is “heinous,” he opines that he should have been let off with a fine, since the rant occurred in private.
He goes on to insinuate that all people make racist rants or off-color jokes in private:
“Because you say an off color joke or make a racist rant privately, that causes you to lose a job — nobody would have a job!”
To prove his point, he offers a slippery slope argument:
“They’re going to go after Sterling and he’s going to put a few million dollars out there, because he can afford it – and he’s going to ask the paparazzi out there to find videos of all the other team members talking trash and racist rants.”
And finally, Simmons links a loss of privacy to Sterling’s fate:
“I’m on the side of free speech in the privacy of your own home or privacy of the situation. Big brother has finally crawled in bed with us.”
Surprisingly, Simmons claimed earlier in the interview that he supported changing the name of NFL’s Washington Redskins. However, these views apparently did not cross over.