Gene Simmons Discredits Peter Criss

KISS bassist Gene Simmons recently cleared the air about the band’s hit ballad “Beth”, which holds the distinction of being KISS’s highest-charting single in the U.S., having reached position No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart back in 1976.

Original KISS drummer Peter Criss claims to have co-written the song with the late Stan Penridge while Criss and Penridge were in the band Chelsea. In the song’s original version, the title name was “Beck” after Becky, Chelsea bandmate Mike Brand’s wife, who often called during practices. Criss later received a People’s Choice Award for the track, which was heavily tweaked and arranged by producer Bob Ezrin for the “Destroyer” album sessions.

Gene Simmons talks about Peter Criss

Simmons spoke about Peter’s involvement — or alleged lack thereof — in the writing of “Beth”, saying: “Okay, children, now that you’ve all grown up, it’s time for the truth. Statement of fact: I love Peter. We all do. Families are complex. I don’t know of any family that doesn’t argue or get angry with each other and sometimes don’t speak with each other for sometimes decades and then get back together. ‘Cause family is family. Peter is always family. And sadly we saw Peter at Ace’s funeral [last October]. And we reminisced in between the sorrow and the pain — ‘remember when’ and all that. But it’s time for the truth.

Even though Criss is listed as a writer, along with Penridge and Ezrin, in the song’s official credits, during an interview with Professor of Rock, Simmons claimed the drummer had little to do with its creation.

Gene Simmons said he still loves Peter Criss and considers him family, but claimed it was time to “set the record straight” about the song “Beth.” He stated that Peter did not write the song and argued that Peter isn’t a songwriter, saying he doesn’t play melodic instruments and only contributed vocals.

“Peter does not write songs,” Gene explained.

“He doesn’t play a musical instrument. Drums are not a musical instrument, by definition. They’re called a percussive instrument. Really important — sometimes extremely important in a band. It was for us. But you cannot play a drum fill that can be copywritten [sic], but you can come up with a riff that you can own and a melody and a lyric. Those can be copywritten [sic], but nothing you do on drums will prevent anybody else from directly copying whatever you did and applying it to another song. Okay, that’s number one. Number two, as far as I know, Peter plays no other instruments that I’ve ever seen. Not keyboards, six-instruments at all. Peter’s got a great whiskey voice in the early days.

“The person who wrote ‘Beth’ and ‘Baby Driver’ and one or two more was a guy named Stan Penridge,” Gene continued.

“Stan Penridge was with Peter in a group called Chelsea. They had a record out, actually, I think it was on the MCA. So, Peter did not write ‘Beth’. And he did not write ‘Baby Driver’. Stan Penridge wrote that. But through politics and — hint, hint, nudge, nudge — and I wasn’t there when the conversation went down, Stan Penridge apparently agreed that Peter’s name would go in the songwriting credit. It appears first — Peter Criss, Stan Penridge… Or Peter Criss, Bob Ezrin, Stan Penridge, or the other way around. But Peter’s first. Peter had nothing to do with that song — nothing. He sang it. And to fix all the mythology and the gossip and the outright lies, it was Bob Ezrin who said, ‘I wanna do this like [The Beatles’] ‘Yesterday’,’ more like a string quartet and piano. So more acoustically, because the melody in the song demanded it. And we’d never done that. We never thought we’d be doing a song like that, but we all went, ‘Sure.'”