According to Desmond Child, Gene Simmons thought KISS wrote better songs than Bon Jovi and Aerosmith.
“When they made this album called ‘The Elder,’ where they didn’t use any outside songwriters, he [Simmons] said, ‘We don’t need outside songwriters like Bon Jovi and Aerosmith. We can do it ourselves and in fact, we put two guards at the front of the studio door to keep Desmond Child out,’” the producer recalled about his time with KISS.
Child went on, “He didn’t say it once. He said it like a hundred times in a global publicity tour and I started getting… Everybody was sending me this quote. He said it the same way every time and my feelings got hurt. So I called Paul [Stanley] up.”
“And I said, ‘Paul why would he slag, why would he attack someone who puts money in his pocket, who loves KISS? There’s so many enemies of KISS that he could attack. Why me?’ He said, ‘Oh, well you know Gene. I can’t… You know Gene.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t and I don’t understand it,’” Desmond shared the conversation between him and Paul Stanley.
The producer continued, “I said, ‘Paul, you were there when he were saying this stuff. Why didn’t you speak up?’ He said, ‘I can’t control Gene, you know.’ I said, ‘Well, you can tell him to go f*ck himself. All right?’ So, it was not a very nice conversation.”
“Paul wasn’t defensive at all. Well, a few hours later when I got back and checked my answering machine when we had answering machines, there was a four-word message that said, ‘Hi, it’s Gene, sorry.’ Click [laughs], ” Child lastly said.
“I never wrote with Gene Simmons. I didn’t know him until much later. My relationship was always with Paul Stanley, and Paul would bring Gene the songs that we co-wrote. The only time I became aware that he didn’t like ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You’ was when KISS started doing an album called ‘The Elder,’ produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin,” Desmond also previously said of working with KISS.
The producer worked with KISS on their following albums, ‘Dynasty,’ ‘Animalize,’ ‘Asylum,’ ‘Crazy Nights,’ ‘Smashes, Thrashes & Hits’ and ‘Hot in the Shade.’