Peter Criss has responded to Gene Simmons regarding the “ridiculous” claim that Criss had no involvement in writing the band’s iconic song “Beth.”

Earlier this month, Simmons stated that his fellow founding Kiss member did not merit a writing credit for the Criss-performed Destroyer ballad, asserting instead that Criss’ pre-Kiss collaborator Stan Penridge was the actual songwriter.

“Through politics and hint, hint, nudge, nudge — and I wasn’t there when the conversation took place — Stan Penridge apparently agreed that Peter’s name would go in the songwriting credit,” Simmons claimed. “It appears first. Peter Criss, (Destroyer producer) Bob Ezrin, Stan Penridge, or the other way around. But Peter’s first. Peter had nothing to do with that song. He sang it.”

“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 countered in a recent interview with Billboard. “Gene’s statements are ridiculous and very uncalled for; he talks about things that he doesn’t know about.”

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Criss elaborated on how the song transformed over time from a more upbeat rock track to the orchestral ballad that reached the Top 10 on the singles charts in 1976. “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. From 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,” Criss explained. “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 modifying some of the second verse and phrasing with the slower tempo.”

Ezrin also contributed to the same Billboard article, stating that his recollection of events did not align with Simmons’ narrative, agreeing with Criss regarding his own contribution to shaping the song. “(‘Beth’) was a bit rockier and more macho (at first). I felt it had potential, so I asked to take it home and play with it a bit. I did slow it down, as Gene says, and I created that piano part but also (made it) more vulnerable and sensitive. …From what I was told, the original song was written by Criss and Penridge.”