Kiss’ Gene Simmons has spoken out against the illegal downloading and sharing of music.

Ultimate Classic Rock reports that Simmons believes illegal downloading is killing music.

“I blame the fans,” he said. “Because the fans have decided en masse — in other words, the masses have decided — that they should get free music, download, fileshare […] You’re killing the next Elvis [Presley] and The Beatles and the next Kiss and the next whoever, because you have to give your music away for free […] It’s disappointing, because they would prefer not to support a new band […] It affects the next great band, who won’t have a chance. Why? Because the talent isn’t out there? It sure is. The fans killed it. They killed the infrastructure.”

However Simmons was full of praise for the record labels of his day, saying the companies “gave bands money that they never had to pay back – ever! If the band failed and the records were a complete disaster, the advance money was all theirs. What other business would give you that? If you go to a bank and they give you a million dollars, and your business goes under, they don’t care it failed; they want their money back.”

He continued by dubbing labels “a gift from heaven. Yeah, they’re greedy, they’re this… but they wanna make money just like you do. But they gave you money – millions! And if it wasn’t for record companies, there’d be no Sex Pistols, there’d be no punk, there’d be no nothing. There would be punk, but it would be in a small club. It would never become huge.”

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the August 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now – featuring David Byrne, Sly & The Family Stone, BB King and the death of the blues, The Monkees, Neil Young, Merle Haggard and more