Gene Simmons has apologized on Twitter to fans for saying Prince was “pathetic and killed himself.”(RELATED: Gene Simmons Calls Prince’s Death ‘Pathetic’)
The rocker said in a post Wednesday that his family was right and that what he said was wrong.
“I just got such shit from my family for my big mouth again,” he wrote. “I apologize-I have a long history of getting very angry at what drugs do to the families/friends of the addicts. I get angry at drug users because of my experience being around them coming up in the rock scene.”
“Needless to say, I didn’t express myself properly here-I don’t shy away from controversy, and angry critics really don’t bother me at all,” he added. “If I think I’m right, I’ll throw up a finger and dig my heels in and laugh. But this time, I was not. So, my apologies.”
— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) May 11, 2016
Simmons ended his statement by going after journalists, and blaming part of the controversy that occurred on what he called “quote mining.” It reads, “What I will say is that there is part of this that is journalist quote mining, things I’ve said in the past and applying it to new situations.”
“This, too, happens often, and not just to me,” he added. “So, quote mining too is wrong. It doesn’t make my past quotes anymore tactful, but-still be wary of click bait. The uglier they can make it seem, the more views they will get,” he concluded.