KISS' Gene Simmons recently stirred up a lot of debate in the music industry when he declared, "Rock is finally dead." But aside from that headline-grabbing quote, Simmons did have some valid points about the state of business in the music industry. Guitar great Slash was recently asked to weigh in on the top with Ultimate Classic Rock and while he sees Simmons' point, he's not exactly agreeing with it.

In the clip above, Slash says that he feels Simmons' comments were based on the difficulty of getting started for many musicians. He explained, "The music business itself is not catering to rock 'n' roll at all. And if you're aspiring to be a guitarist or a drummer or a singer in a rock band and trying to make your way up the ladder, the obstacles are much bigger than they were when I first started."

But Slash says he also sees an upside to things in that the hard work and quality often shines through. He adds, "The rock 'n' roll audience is rabid. It's huge and just as alive and kicking as it ever was. So I get what [Simmons is] saying, but I also think it's really great to separate the men from the boys. If you're really passionate about the kind of music you wanna do and you're not looking at it from a dollars and cents point of view, but you just want to create new music and somehow go out there and play live and get it out there, that passion has to be honed in and it has to be real."

In the same video, Slash also discusses the relevance of putting continuing to put out full-length albums in the digital age, and his thoughts on U2 recently releasing their 'Songs of Innocence' album for free on iTunes. Check out the full interview in the video above.

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