Gene Simmons Claims Peter Criss Had ‘Nothing To Do’ With Writing KISS Classic ‘Beth’

Few KISS songs have attracted as much mythology as ‘Beth’, nearly 50 years after its release, the band’s biggest U.S. hit is still a flashpoint, and Gene Simmons has once again poured petrol on the debate.

Speaking in a new interview with Professor Of Rock, the KISS bassist and vocalist pushed back hard on long standing claims that drummer Peter Criss co wrote the 1976 ballad, despite being officially credited.

“The history of ‘Beth’ is that Peter and I were in one limo,” Simmons said, recalling a drive through Michigan when Criss hummed an early version of the melody, according to Simmons, Criss referred to the song as ‘Beck’ but could not explain how to play it.

“I said to him, ‘Why don’t you bring up that song? By the way, what are the chords to that?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know.’”

Kiss ‘Beth’

Simmons says the title change was his suggestion, arguing that ‘Beth’ flowed better lyrically and emotionally, from there, producer Bob Ezrin reshaped the song during the Destroyer sessions, steering it toward the orchestral arrangement that ultimately defined it.

Then came the blunt assessment:

“Okay, children, now that you’ve all grown up, it’s time for the truth,” Simmons said. “Peter does not write songs. He doesn’t play a musical instrument. Drums are not a musical instrument, by definition. They’re called a percussive instrument.”

According to Simmons, the real songwriter behind ‘Beth’ was Stan Penridge, Criss’s former bandmate in CHELSEA.

“The person who wrote ‘Beth’ and ‘Baby Driver’ and one or two more was a guy named Stan Penridge,” he said. “Peter had nothing to do with that song — nothing. He sang it.”

Bob Ezrin also credited

Simmons also credited Ezrin for the song’s distinctive structure.

“It was Bob Ezrin who said, ‘I wanna do this like [THE BEATLES’] ‘Yesterday’.”

In 2014, Paul Stanley echoed similar sentiments, saying, “Peter had nothing to do with it.”

Criss fired back at the time: “Paul is so full of f***ing shit.”

Penridge himself weighed in back in 2000, stating: “[Peter was] absolutely not responsible [for it] at all.”

Nearly half a century later, ‘Beth’ remains KISS’s most unlikely hit and still their most contested.