But he tells TeamRock Radio's Classic Rock Show in an interview "At least the guys who killed themselves, like Hendrix and all the rest of them � in those days not many people did that. You're a drug addict? That's so yesterday."

Simmons maintains rock'n'roll isn't about excess, or at least not in terms of drink and drugs. "Rock'n'roll is about the freedom to be whatever the eff you want to be," he states. "And if that's a big corporate capitalist pig, proudly so, unapologetic, then so be it."

He says he's enjoying the Kiss' current incarnation more than any other, but he's aware it's not going to go on for ever, reflecting: "You want to finish on a blaze of glory, not a pathetic shadow of what you were. I hope we don't stay on stage one day longer than we deserve. We introduce ourselves with 'You wanted the best,' not 'You wanted the second best.'"