Gene Simmons vs. Peter Criss | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: We got a little bit of time left. We'll we'll,

0:01 Speaker 1: we'll do this. Uh, we should talk about the Gene

0:05 Speaker 1: Simmons the latestmonsuff so regular listeners, longtime listeners of the show. No,

0:13 Speaker 1: Kiss is my my all time favorite band, But Gene

0:18 Speaker 1: Gene Simmons, for as long as I can remember, has

0:21 Speaker 1: had these moments where he upsets people. Uh. Here's the

0:25 Speaker 1: latest little controversy and it involves Peter Chris and the

0:28 Speaker 1: song Beth. Everybody knows that song Beth. I hear you

0:32 Speaker 1: call in all right, So this is from parade dot com, who,

0:37 Speaker 1: by the way, shame on parade dot com because in

0:42 Speaker 1: the uh, the picture that they used is not in

0:48 Speaker 1: the headline. They used a picture of Eric Carr, not

0:51 Speaker 1: Peter Cris. Eric Carr is not the original singer of Beth.

0:55 Speaker 1: Peter Cris is, but they use the wrong drummer, Wow,

1:00 Speaker 1: replaced Peter Chris.

1:01 Speaker 2: Oh that's really that's a really shoddy journey.

1:07 Speaker 1: Really sloppy, Yeah, really sloppy. All right, he's here's what

1:10 Speaker 1: the article says. In nineteen seventy six, Kiss released what

1:14 Speaker 1: would become their biggest hit song, Beth, the power rock

1:17 Speaker 1: ballad I wouldn't call it a power rock ballad appeared

1:21 Speaker 1: on the glam band's fourth studio album, Destroyer, and started

1:24 Speaker 1: out as the B side to Detroit Rock City, which

1:28 Speaker 1: is which is true, which is interesting, and this is

1:31 Speaker 1: not you know, this has happened with other hit songs.

1:34 Speaker 1: But but yeah, a lot of people might not know

1:38 Speaker 1: that Beth was actually the B side. Beth was never

1:41 Speaker 1: intended to be the single. And you know, the reason

1:45 Speaker 1: Beth was the B side is because and I remember

1:47 Speaker 1: noticing this when I was a kid. You know, singles

1:50 Speaker 1: would usually have on the A side would be what

1:53 Speaker 1: was supposed to be the single, and the B side

1:56 Speaker 1: would usually be actually one of the weakest tracks on

1:58 Speaker 1: the album. Because they would always record labels would always

2:03 Speaker 1: make sure that the B side was a song that

2:06 Speaker 1: they didn't think had any chance. They didn't want the

2:08 Speaker 1: B side to be something they might want to release

2:10 Speaker 1: as a single later, because so they would put what

2:13 Speaker 1: they considered to be a throwaway track as the B side.

2:18 Speaker 1: At least in America, British bands have a history of

2:22 Speaker 1: actually recording a separate song for the B side that

2:26 Speaker 1: isn't on the album, so it's kind of like a

2:28 Speaker 1: bonus track. But that's but that I think is cooler.

2:32 Speaker 1: Oh me too, But that was not the case in America.

2:35 Speaker 1: Hasn't been the case in America generally. So so the

2:38 Speaker 1: B side to Detroit Rock City. Everyone knows the song

2:41 Speaker 1: Detroit Rock City, but the B side was Beth. So

2:46 Speaker 1: Beth reached number seven on the Billboard Hot one hundred

2:48 Speaker 1: and won the People's Choice Award for Favorite New Song

2:51 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy six. In a post on his official website,

2:55 Speaker 1: Chris Peter Cris has touted Beth as Kiss his biggest hit.

2:59 Speaker 1: He added that the People's Choice honor was his favorite

3:02 Speaker 1: award because the people voted, and he's even prouder of

3:05 Speaker 1: the song decades later than he was in nineteen seventy six.

3:09 Speaker 1: But in a January twenty twenty sixth interview with the

3:13 Speaker 1: Professor of Rock podcast Kiss co founder Gene Simmons downplayed

3:17 Speaker 1: Peter Cris's involvement with the hit song. Now, part of

3:23 Speaker 1: this story I already knew, but part of it I,

3:25 Speaker 1: as well as I think most Kiss fans, was hearing

3:27 Speaker 1: for the first time. Okay, here's what Jean Simmons said. Quote.

3:32 Speaker 1: The history of Beth is that Peter and I were

3:33 Speaker 1: in a limo and he starts humming. I'm like, that's

3:36 Speaker 1: a nice melody. What is that? He goes, Oh, it's

3:38 Speaker 1: a song I wrote called Beck because we had started

3:42 Speaker 1: working with Bob Ezrin. I said, why don't you bring

3:44 Speaker 1: up that song? By the way, what are the chords

3:47 Speaker 1: to that? He goes, Oh, I don't know. I thought

3:50 Speaker 1: that was peculiar. But before then I suggested in the car,

3:54 Speaker 1: why don't you change it to Beth, because when you

3:57 Speaker 1: say Beck, that hard syllable stops the and Beth is

4:01 Speaker 1: a much more romantic idea. By the way, In another interview,

4:06 Speaker 1: Jeene Simmons had once said about that specific moment, because

4:09 Speaker 1: this is part of the story I already had heard,

4:12 Speaker 1: and this is part of the story that's been consistent

4:14 Speaker 1: over the years, that they were in a limo and

4:16 Speaker 1: Jean said to Peter, Hey, that's interesting. What's that? And

4:19 Speaker 1: Peter said it's Beck and and But the previous version

4:23 Speaker 1: of the story, Jean said, he suggests these are his

4:27 Speaker 1: exact words. He said, Oh, why don't you make it

4:30 Speaker 1: instead of Beck?

4:30 Speaker 3: What?

4:31 Speaker 1: Oh, that's right, I remember now he said to Peter Beck,

4:34 Speaker 1: what is that about? Is that? Is it? About Jeff

4:36 Speaker 1: beck and uh, and Peter said, no, no, it's about

4:39 Speaker 1: Becky because I guess I was his girlfriend. And and

4:43 Speaker 1: then Jean said, well, I wonder you should instead of

4:47 Speaker 1: beck maybe you should change it to Beth so that

4:49 Speaker 1: people don't think you're playing for the other team. Those

4:53 Speaker 1: Jean's words, that's how he puts. Yeah, yeah, but anyway,

4:56 Speaker 1: but but so that's but that's the basic story, very

5:00 Speaker 1: the basic story.

5:02 Speaker 2: Okay, Well, what did did Peter ever give his side

5:06 Speaker 2: of that? I don't he ever say that conversation didn't

5:09 Speaker 2: happen or it did happen.

5:10 Speaker 1: No, I've never heard Peter dispute any of that. Okay,

5:13 Speaker 1: but he's But here's where it gets interesting. So here's

5:15 Speaker 1: here's what Jean said on the on the podcast, he said,

5:18 Speaker 1: it's time for the truth. Peter does not write songs.

5:20 Speaker 1: He doesn't play a musical instrument. Drums are not a

5:22 Speaker 1: musical instrument by definition, as far as I know. Peter

5:25 Speaker 1: plays no other instruments that I've ever seen, not keyboards,

5:28 Speaker 1: extreme instruments. Peter's got a very Peter's got a great

5:31 Speaker 1: whiskey voice in the early days, had a great whisky voice.

5:37 Speaker 1: He said, This is the important part. The person who

5:40 Speaker 1: wrote Beth is a guy named stan Pendrich. Stan Pendrich

5:45 Speaker 1: was with Peter in a group called Chelsea. They had

5:48 Speaker 1: a record out, actually it was on MCA. So Peter

5:52 Speaker 1: did not write Beth. Stan Pendrich wrote that, but through

5:56 Speaker 1: politics and hint hint, nudge, nudge, and I wasn't there

5:59 Speaker 1: when the conversation went down, stan Pendrich apparently agreed that

6:03 Speaker 1: Peter's name would go in the songwriting credit. It appears

6:07 Speaker 1: first Peter, Chris bob Ezrin, Stan Pendrich or the other

6:12 Speaker 1: way around. But Peter's first Peter had nothing to do

6:15 Speaker 1: with that song. He sang it. In other words, he

6:17 Speaker 1: had nothing to do with writing it. I'd like to

6:20 Speaker 1: know that.

6:20 Speaker 2: Any of those people have to say.

6:22 Speaker 1: Well, Pendrich died in two thousand and one, so we'll

6:26 Speaker 1: never get his story, but say that he's not a

6:31 Speaker 1: musicians so oh, well, what he said and they didn't

6:34 Speaker 1: include the full quote here, So what he actually said

6:37 Speaker 1: is he said drums are not a musical instrument. They're

6:40 Speaker 1: a percussive instrument, which is nitpicking and insulting. So Gene

6:46 Speaker 1: was definitely out of line for saying that that's a

6:49 Speaker 1: that's a crazy thing to say. Now this is the part,

6:53 Speaker 1: the part that I did not know. So because everyone

6:56 Speaker 1: knows the song Beth, but I'll just play for anyone

6:59 Speaker 1: who doesn't, I'll just play a little bit of it.

7:01 Speaker 1: But then, this is the part that blew my mind

7:04 Speaker 1: was when I found the Chelsea version. I actually went

7:07 Speaker 1: and listened to the Chelsea version of Beth. We'll go

7:10 Speaker 1: ahead and play a little bit of this, but then,

7:12 Speaker 1: well then we'll play the Chelsea version.

7:16 Speaker 2: You call in but I can't come home and this

7:22 Speaker 2: Chelsea and the boys.

7:24 Speaker 1: No, this is the kiss version.

7:26 Speaker 2: Oh okay, throw me up like really, yeah.

7:28 Speaker 1: No, this is the Kiss version. I'll be to you.

7:44 Speaker 3: What can I do?

7:48 Speaker 2: What can.

7:51 Speaker 1: Okay? So that's that's Beth by Kiss with with Peter singing. Now,

7:56 Speaker 1: this is what I had never heard before. This is Chelsea.

7:59 Speaker 1: This is Beck. It's called Beck, and the band is Chelsea.

8:03 Speaker 1: And this is the band that Stan Pendrich was in.

8:08 Speaker 1: Again he's dead, so nobody can get his side of

8:10 Speaker 1: things from from. Uh. This is this is the original

8:15 Speaker 1: this blew my mind from from when Peter and Stan

8:18 Speaker 1: Pendrich were in a band together called Chelsea.

8:42 Speaker 3: But a.

8:51 Speaker 1: But we just can't sow. Yeah, so it's definitely the

9:18 Speaker 1: same song jeans.

9:20 Speaker 2: Sour because this is the song that got real. That's

9:24 Speaker 2: the number one.

9:25 Speaker 1: No, I don't think he cares about that, and it

9:28 Speaker 1: wasn't one he wrote. I don't. I don't think. I

9:30 Speaker 1: don't think that's why do you think he's so so

9:32 Speaker 1: part of his I don't think he's I don't think

9:34 Speaker 1: he's sour necessarily.

9:35 Speaker 2: I think you just look hateful after somebody dies.

9:40 Speaker 1: Well you're now you're conflating with uh A.

9:45 Speaker 2: But you don't find it, you don't find it odd

9:49 Speaker 2: that they're happening so close together that he dies and

9:51 Speaker 2: now suddenly we're hearing this about Peter. I don't know.

9:56 Speaker 1: No, it's Jean's uh it's very on brand for Gene.

10:00 Speaker 3: He's been doing this for decades, making enemies. Well he does, Yeah,

10:05 Speaker 3: but why why do this? Why why do this? It's

10:10 Speaker 3: such a great Now this is nastiness about it?

10:13 Speaker 2: Or is he trying to garner more money by creating controversy.

10:17 Speaker 1: I think I think he likes being in the news certainly, but.

10:21 Speaker 2: This say we should say the podcast is the professor

10:24 Speaker 2: of rocks.

10:25 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I mean he's not wrong though here, Like,

10:30 Speaker 1: I had no idea. See this to me as a

10:34 Speaker 1: as a Kiss fan, this is very interesting to me.

10:36 Speaker 1: I'm actually glad. I mean, I don't agree with what

10:39 Speaker 1: he said about Peter doesn't play a musical instrument and

10:42 Speaker 1: all that. That's absurd, it's mean, but but it is mean,

10:45 Speaker 1: and I don't know that he intended it that way.

10:47 Speaker 1: But but I had no idea. I had never heard.

10:52 Speaker 1: I knew. I mean, you know, obviously I know a

10:54 Speaker 1: lot about Kiss and I knew that Peter Chris was

10:58 Speaker 1: in a band called Chelsea with Pendrich.

11:00 Speaker 2: That's all I knew. I had no idea that he

11:02 Speaker 2: was involved at all with this song. You thought this

11:04 Speaker 2: song came from Kissed, right.

11:07 Speaker 1: So I didn't know. Well, I knew that San Pendrich

11:11 Speaker 1: was because he has a songwriting.

11:13 Speaker 2: Writer, but it was Kissed that did it first? That

11:14 Speaker 2: there wasn't a bandit.

11:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, I had no idea this song beck by Chelsea existed.

11:19 Speaker 1: And by the way I'm looking at this, I just

11:24 Speaker 1: I found it on YouTube. This was posted on YouTube

11:27 Speaker 1: fourteen years ago, and I had no idea until now.

11:32 Speaker 2: Doesn't the guy kind of sound like Rod Stewart?

11:35 Speaker 1: Well, that's Peter singing on it the way.

11:38 Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe it just sounds like Rod Star.

11:41 Speaker 1: Well, well, Peter sounds like Rod Stewart, he's got that

11:43 Speaker 1: same kind of voice. Yeah, Yeah, that's why there's this

11:46 Speaker 1: there's this weird story that's gone around for decades that

11:51 Speaker 1: we even talked about it. I'm not sure if we

11:53 Speaker 1: talked about it on air or off air, but it

11:55 Speaker 1: was on Retrospectrum Radio one night. We were talking about

11:58 Speaker 1: how I think we talked about it on air, this

12:01 Speaker 1: this story about Beth, that uh, that it was actually

12:06 Speaker 1: written for Rod Stewart and that and that he rejected

12:10 Speaker 1: it because it sounded too much like Maggie May. But

12:12 Speaker 1: I don't believe that.

12:13 Speaker 2: Story anymore anyway.

12:15 Speaker 1: I don't.

12:15 Speaker 2: Even if you halfway believed that, you.

12:17 Speaker 1: Can't believe it anymore. Yeah. I don't believe that story anyway, right,

12:20 Speaker 1: because that doesn't even make sense. Why would you know?

12:23 Speaker 1: Why would why do that? I think I think the

12:28 Speaker 1: way that story started. This is my theory. I think

12:33 Speaker 1: that back when when Beth came out, a lot of

12:35 Speaker 1: people probably thought, oh that kind of uh, that kind

12:38 Speaker 1: of reminds me of Rod Stewart, And so then it

12:40 Speaker 1: just became this thing. You know, some people just write

12:45 Speaker 1: an urban legend exactly. But uh but no, uh, that

12:49 Speaker 1: that is the same song. I mean, there's no getting

12:51 Speaker 1: around that.

12:53 Speaker 2: The revelation about the song fine and acknowledging that it

12:58 Speaker 2: came from another band could be very good, but to

13:01 Speaker 2: do so in the same breath as just being rotten.

13:06 Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's rotten. I think drummers and musicians, and

13:11 Speaker 2: I think their drums are there their instrument. I don't

13:13 Speaker 2: understand that one either musical instrument versus percussion instrument. They

13:18 Speaker 2: both have instrument in the sentence. So how is how

13:22 Speaker 2: do you how do you explain that one?

13:25 Speaker 1: I understand what he's saying. I just don't. I don't agree,

13:29 Speaker 1: don't agree.

13:29 Speaker 2: I think drums is one of the hardest things to

13:32 Speaker 2: learn because all your limbs are moving in different directions.

13:36 Speaker 2: And then some of the people we watch, like under

13:37 Speaker 2: the Horizon singing at the same time. Oh by god,

13:41 Speaker 2: both legs are going, the arms are going, and singing

13:45 Speaker 2: versus screaming all in the same It's amazing talent, it's

13:50 Speaker 2: and they're incredibly musicians. And to cut them off at

13:55 Speaker 2: the knees and call them you know, anything other or

13:58 Speaker 2: make them less than anybody playing any other instrument, whether

14:01 Speaker 2: it's a guitar or whatever. It kind of gives that

14:04 Speaker 2: feeling of a drummer being less than the guitarist or

14:07 Speaker 2: the bassist. And I don't I don't like that at all.

14:10 Speaker 2: I think it's pretty cold and rude and wrong. And

14:13 Speaker 2: I guess, like you said, in keeping with his style.

14:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, we gotta go. Thank you everybody who

14:22 Speaker 1: joined us today. And I thought it was a fun show.

14:26 Speaker 1: Paul Nazzole, I'm sure I'm not saying his name correctly.

14:30 Speaker 1: Of course, we had the members of Generations join us

14:34 Speaker 1: and in the first hour, of course, Uh sick dude.

14:36 Speaker 1: Hell yeah. I love those guys so much fun as

14:40 Speaker 1: I love their music, and they're really good people too.

14:41 Speaker 1: So if you want to know more about what I'm

14:45 Speaker 1: up to, Matt Connerton dot com especially you know it

14:47 Speaker 1: is January. If you want to book a hypnotherapy session,

14:50 Speaker 1: you can do that right through the website. And Jenny,

14:52 Speaker 1: you want to mention your website.

14:54 Speaker 2: Absolutely, you can always keep up with the good trouble

14:56 Speaker 2: I'm getting into at Jencoffee dot com. J E N

14:59 Speaker 2: N C O F F e y dot com and

15:02 Speaker 2: stay tuned for some stuff coming.

15:03 Speaker 1: Up this week. That's right, that's right.