Kiss' Gene Simmons apologizes for calling Prince's death 'pathetic'

Kiss frontman Gene Simmons has apologized for calling Prince's death "pathetic," saying he made those comments because he was frustrated over "what drugs to to the families/friends of the addicts."

Simmons said he heard from his family "for my big mouth."

"I apologize," he tweeted Tuesday night. "I have a long history of getting very angry at what drugs do to the families/friends of addicts. I get angry at drug users because of my experience being around them coming up in the rock scene. In my experience they've made my life, and the lives of their loves ones, difficult."

The singer also added a paragraph about how "there is part of this that is journalists quote-mining things I've said in the past and applying it to new situations," telling his fans to be wary of "click bait."

Also Read: Gene Simmons Blasts Prince's Death: 'How Pathetic That He Killed Himself'

On Tuesday, Simmons blasted Prince's death and said "how pathetic that he killed himself."

"I think Prince was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them. I thought he left [Michael] Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that," Simmons said in a recent interview with Newsweek. "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."

Though TMZ has reported that Prince overdosed on a prescription painkiller the week before his death, it was unclear why Simmons believes alcohol was a factor.

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"His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?" Simmons said, contrasting Prince's death with David Bowie's earlier this year. According to Simmons, Bowie's was "the most tragic of all because it was real sickness."

Prince died in April at the age of 57 at his Paisley Park compound in Chanhassen, and the cause of death is still unclear as the autopsy results are still pending.