In his autobiography, Simmons recounted that "I have never seen compose a single song. Peter might have contributed a line or two of the lyrics, but after listening to Penridge's original demo, it's clear who made the original song". In 2014, during an interview for "Rolling Stone", Paul Stanley agreed with Simmons's assessment that Penridge was the main author, and he commented that Criss had nothing to do with the composition of "Beth", adding that "if you write one hit, you should be able to write two". Criss, in his defense, mentioned that Stanley was jealous because "he is the main vocalist of a group in which he did not write the greatest success. That's his problem. They hate the fact that I was the songwriter of a hit and won the People's Choice".