Peter Criss Fires Back At Gene Simmons: ‘Ridiculous!’

Original KISS drummer Peter Criss recently fired back at Gene Simmons over his assertion that Criss “had nothing to do” with the writing of the group’s 1976 hit “Beth”.

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.

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

Peter Criss responds to Gene Simmons’ comments

In an interview with Billboard, Criss said that Simmons’ description of the “Beth” creative process is “not correct.”

He said, “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. Gene’s statements are ridiculous and very uncalled for. He talks about things that he doesn’t know about.

Speaking about it, Criss added, “What Gene’s getting wrong is that as the singing songwriter, I wrote the melody and creating the phrasing for the song that’s on the original demo ‘Beck’ with Stan Penridge. 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 the 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 “Bob Ezrin changed the title from ‘Beck’ to ‘Beth’ and not Gene or anybody else. It was Bob Ezrin; He asked me, ‘Peter, do you mind if we change the title?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not. ‘Beth’ is much better.’ Bob took the song home and fixed the rest of the lyrics and the structure of the song. He added piano, some time changes and the incredible orchestra composition which elevated the song beyond my wildest my dreams. It was mind-blowing.