Gene Simmons recently made controversial claims about Peter Criss and the writing credits for KISS’s hit song “Beth.” He addressed longstanding mythology surrounding the track in a statement shared on Professor of Rock.
The KISS bassist provided detailed allegations about the true authorship of the song. He claimed that Criss had no involvement in writing the classic ballad.
“The history of ‘Beth’ is that Peter and I were in one limo, and Ace [Frehley] and Paul [Stanley] were in another, and we were going from Flint, Michigan to a little place called Cadillac, Michigan, which is a few hundred miles from Detroit,” Simmons said. “So, in the limo, Peter starts humming [the beginning of what became ‘Beth’]. I’m, like, ‘What is that? That’s a nice melody. What is that?’ He goes, ‘Oh, it’s a song I wrote called ‘Beck’.’ B-E-C-K.”
Simmons continued to detail his involvement in suggesting changes to the song’s title and structure.
“And I remember at the time, I said to him, because we had started working with Bob Ezrin, ‘Why don’t you bring up that song? By the way, what are the chords to that?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Oh.’ I thought that was peculiar,” he said. “So, Peter had a tape of it. He brought it up to Ezrin. But before then, I suggested in the car, ‘Why don’t you change it to ‘Beth’, because when you say ‘Beck’, that hard syllable stops the melody.”
The bassist then made his most significant claim about the song’s true authorship.
“The person who wrote ‘Beth’ and ‘Baby Driver’ and one or two more was a guy named Stan Penridge. Stan Penridge was with Peter in a group called Chelsea,” Simmons stated. “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.”
Simmons concluded by addressing what he called the “mythology” surrounding the song’s creation and production.
“So, the mythology of ‘Beth’ is exactly that: mythology. The real story is Peter was lucky enough to be in the same place at the same time as a guy who wrote a song called ‘Beth’, and then Bob Ezrin, when he heard the song, went home before it was recorded, and then Bob added the middle section of the piano,” he said.
These latest statements from Simmons add another layer to the ongoing dispute over one of KISS’s most commercially successful tracks. The song has been a source of tension within the band for decades.
The controversy surrounding “Beth” extends beyond just songwriting credits. It touches on deeper issues within the band’s dynamics. Parade reported that Criss has defended his role in the song’s creation. He claimed his bandmates resented his success with the track. This resentment appears to stem from the fact that “Beth” became one of KISS’s biggest hits. The song reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned significant radio play.
The song’s original title and inspiration provide additional context to Simmons’ claims. Blabbermouth noted that the track was originally titled “Beck.” It was named after Becky, the wife of Chelsea bandmate Mike Brand, who would frequently interrupt band practices. This detail supports Simmons’ narrative about the song’s pre-KISS origins and its connection to Criss’s former band Chelsea.
Simmons has also made broader statements about Criss’s musical abilities that further contextualize his claims about the songwriting dispute. Ultimate Guitar revealed that Simmons argued that Criss “doesn’t play a musical instrument.” He noted that “drums are not a musical instrument” but rather a “percussive instrument.” This statement appears designed to undermine any claims about Criss’s songwriting contributions to KISS material.
The dispute over “Beth” represents one of the most significant songwriting controversies in classic rock history. American Songwriter confirmed that despite being credited as a writer on the track, Simmons maintains that Criss had little to do with the song’s actual creation. The ongoing public nature of this dispute highlights the complex relationships and unresolved tensions that continue to define KISS’s legacy decades after the song’s release.
