KISS frontman Paul Stanley has taken to Twitter to distance himself from comments that his bandmate, Gene Simmons, made about Prince.
Simmons made headlines earlier today when he told Newsweek about Prince‘s death: “His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?”
Simmons added that he still holds Prince in high regard as a musician. “I think Prince was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them,” he said. “I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that. But how pathetic that he killed himself. Don’t kid yourself, that’s what he did. Slowly, I’ll grant you — but that’s what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death.”
After Gene‘s comments were picked up by various news organizations, Stanley tweeted: “Embarrassed by cold clueless statements re Prince‘s death. Without all the facts better to say nothing. My apologies.” He also added a link to the Newsweek article containing Gene‘s quotes.
Initial toxicology tests showed the painkiller Percocet was present in Prince‘s body at his time of death, but autopsy and toxicology results aren’t complete, and the artist’s cause of death remains unknown.