Kiss singer Gene Simmons wants people to stop complaining about being in lockdown during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking in a new interview, Simmons said he doesn’t think it’s that hard to just stay at home, especially in comparison to a time that saw his mother live through World War II.

“Right now, the pandemic is not fun,” Simmons told Canada’s K-97 radio station. “It is devastating for families who’ve lost loved ones. A million people are dead around the world – two hundred thousand dead in America, and many, many fewer – thank God – in Canada, because you’re more sane and more, sort of, non-political about it. But as you can tell, in America, there are areas where certain segments of the population see health and wearing a mask, or not wearing a mask, as political, and that’s a shame. It just makes sense.”

He continued: “In either case, the perspective is my mother lived through World War II. My mother was a victim of the concentration camps of Nazi Germany when she was 14 years old. My mother survived. The rest of our family were wiped out, and you don’t wanna get into that.

“The great generation, we call them, of the last century had many wars – over a hundred million people died in World War II. There were food shortages in America. There were many countries in the world that couldn’t feed their population. And at the turn of the 20th Century, there was a flu epidemic where, again, 50 million people died from it.

“Now we’re being asked to stay in our homes and quarantine for two weeks, and you order room service, or somebody brings you food exactly the way you like it. FedEx brings you, or UPS brings you, whatever you like.”

He concluded: “I understand the job rates are not good – there are people who are losing the way they support their families. I get it. And governments are being sort of smart about it – stimulus packages and so on. But to compare today to what went on before is… C’mon! The older folks, your grandparents are looking at you like you’re on crack.” Listen to the chat above.

Elsewhere in the interview, Simmons criticised those choosing not to wear a mask during the pandemic.

“Be kind to each other,” the bassist said. “C’mon! Seeing these YouTube and TMZ videos of everybody going insane. I know the nerves are up, ’cause we’re all scared – what’s gonna happen and all that stuff. It’s okay. The sun is gonna come out one of these days. It’s all gonna get better. And just be kind to each other. That doesn’t take much effort. And wear your goddamn masks. It ain’t about you.”

“If you sneeze, you put your hand over your mouth,” he explained. “Why wouldn’t you cover your face for something that might be life-threatening. ‘Well, you can’t tell me what to do.’ Actually, you get told what to do all the time. When there’s a red light, you’re told to stop the car. ‘Well, I don’t wanna stop the car.’ It’s not about you. ‘Cause if you go through a red light, you’re gonna kill somebody, possibly. So when there’s a red light, you’re told to stop.”

“Wear a goddamn mask. It’s not about you; it’s about the rest of us,” he reiterated.

Earlier this year, Gene Simmons took some time to educate his fans on the importance of wearing face maks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.