KISS rocker Gene Simmons has reflected on the crucial role that Eddie Van Halen played in helping the band helm their 1977 Love Gun track, ‘Christine Sixteen.’
In a new video accompanying the Gene Simmons Vault collection, the rocker recalled one evening where he enlisted the help of Eddie and his brother to crack off a late-night recording session.
“In the middle of the night, I wanted to go in and record the three songs that I’d written,” Simmons recalled. “I called up Edward – he likes to be called ‘Edward’ – ‘You guys want to help me put this demo together?’ ‘Sure!’ And literally in the middle of the night, the Van Halen brothers came down, and it was a trio, the Van Halen brothers and Simmons.”
He continued, “I guess the only time that’s ever happened. We recorded those three songs in about two hours … and the solo Eddie played on CS was so wonderful that I, unfortunately for Ace [Frehley], forced him to play note-for-note that solo.”
It was Simmons “brotherly kidding and kibitzing” relationship with KISS bandmate Paul Stanley that served as the inspiration for ‘Christine Sixteen.’
“Paul would say, ‘Gene, all you ever write about are monster songs. Like ‘God of Thunder,'” he explained. “And of course, he went home and wrote that song, as a semi-parody of a Gene song.
“Ironically, I wound up singing it, because our then producer Bob Ezrin said he couldn’t envision [Paul] singing those words convincingly. And I countered, ‘Oh yeah, all you ever write are teenage girlie songs like ‘Christine Sixteen.’’ And as soon as I heard myself say that, I quickly wrote it.”
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Gene Simmons and Eddie have been intrinsically linked throughout their careers. The KISS rocker played a core role in the fledgling days of Van Halen.
After witnessing the then-unsigned band rip through a set at a Los Angeles club in 1977, Simmons brought Van Halen to New York where he produced their first-ever demo.
One year later and Van Halen were a bonafide tour-de-force, they signed to a record label and released a monolith of a debut album.
Witness the collaborative powers of Eddie Van Halen and KISS on ‘Christine Sixteen’:
