WATCH: KISS’s Gene Simmons Delivers Emotional Tribute To Chuck Berry
Image by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images
By Talya Zax April 10, 2017
On April 9, the late, great rock ‘n’ roll icon Chuck Berry was laid to rest.
His funeral, a four-hour affair marked by performances by Berry’s collaborators and tributes from fans ranging from Paul McCartney to Bill Clinton (both in absentia), took place at St. Louis’s Pageant Theater.
Berry, a St. Louis native, lived there throughout his life. Into his last years, he played monthly shows at Blueberry Hill, a bar located on the same street as the Pageant.
Israeli-born Gene Simmons of the band KISS, in town for a comic-book convention, took to the stage to deliver an impromptu eulogy for Berry.
“He broke down the barriers, made all kinds of people’s hearts and minds open up to the idea that we all belong to the same people,” Simmons, disguising tears behind a pair of dark sunglasses, said.
Watch his full speech, below.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
