Co-founding KISS drummer Peter Criss has taken issue with Gene Simmons' assertion that Criss "had nothing to do" with writing the band's 1976 hit "Beth."
Simmons said in a recent interview that Criss simply accepted credit for the song in exchange for its placement on Kiss's Destroyer album, but the song was actually written by Criss's former bandmate Stan Penridge and arranged by producer Bob Ezrin.
Criss tells Billboard that Simmons' account is simply "not correct."
"Gene wouldn't know how the song was originally written because Gene wasn't there from the conception of the song in the late-'60s and he wasn't there for the completion of the song with Bob Ezrin," Criss said. "Gene's statements are ridiculous and very uncalled for; he talks about things that he doesn't know about."
Simmons suggested that not only did Criss not write "Beth" (or his other Penridge co-write "Baby Driver"), but that Criss couldn't have written any songs during the mid-'70s because he "doesn't play a musical instrument."
Criss countered, arguing that the "Beth" process is precisely what the credits suggest.
"...[As] the singing songwriter, I wrote the melody and created the phrasing for the song that's on the original demo, 'Beck,' with Stan Penridge," Criss said. "out of Stan's little black book what remained on the reworked version of 'Beth' is Stan's original verse and chorus, and my core melody remains on the reworked composition. The core melody was expanded with Bob's orchestration symphony and musical genius. Bob and I sat at the piano at the Record Plant studio working out that song. Bob Ezrin changed the tempo and made it slower, and I worked on changing some of the second verse and the phrasing with the slower tempo."
Criss added that it was not Simmons' suggestion but Ezrin's to change the title lyric from "Beck" to "Beth."
Simmons' statement about the writing of "Beth" are nothing new; similar statements have been made in the past by KISS frontman Paul Stanley, as well as Criss's credited cowriter Penridge.
"Beth" is Kiss's best-selling single and Criss has suggested that the song's success has driven Simmons and Stanley's tear-downs.
"They hated the fact that I wrote a hit record and won a People's Choice," Criss said in a 2014 interview with 'Rolling Stone.'
This August will mark 50 years since Kiss's landmark Destroyer album was released.
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