Paul Stanley blasted Nikki Sixx for his take on Gene Simmons' comments about Prince's death, telling the former Mötley Crüe bassist on Facebook, "Would you please shut up, find another way to be in the news and get off your self inflated pedestal."

The spat between Stanley and Sixx arose out of the inner-Kiss turmoil after Simmons suggested that Prince's death was "a choice" due to his alleged addiction to painkillers. While Simmons did issue an apology, Stanley took it upon himself to apologize for his bandmate as well, tweeting, "Embarrassed by cold clueless statements re Prince's death. Without all the facts better to say nothing. My apologies" (coincidentally, Stanley's tweet got him called out by Simmons' wi...nnon Tweed).

Earlier this week, Sixx jumped into the argument, telling Norfolk, Virginia radio station FM 99, "We have no respect for Gene Simmons anymore — nobody in rock does. And I'm not gonna sit back quietly and allow a bully to go out there and put down people he doesn't know anything about … I think that Gene should call it a day, and that we should look at this beautiful catalogue of music that Prince has given us. And if you wanna compare Prince to Kiss … there's no comparison."

In his rebuke of Sixx on Facebook, Stanley admitted Simmons had said some things he disagreed with, but defended the musician on the merits of his own influence — suggesting Sixx and Motley Crue were among Kiss' musical progeny. "More importantly, his work, generosity and monetary contributions to numerous causes and charities for those less fortunate makes your ongoing rant, in the scheme of things, the unimportant but annoying squeak it truly is," Stanley added. "Move on."

Of course, the fight did not end there. Per Team Rock, Sixx, in a since-deleted Facebook post, lauded Stanley for calling out Simmons publicly and even "trying to hold my feet to the same fire." But Sixx also cracked: "I have to admit calling the next Kiss album 'Move On' would be a clever idea, though. Love to the Starchild."

http://prince.org/msg/7/425439 and http://prince.org/msg/7/425482 and http://prince.org/msg/8/425793

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[Edited 5/18/16 0:27am]

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