In a new video interview with music journalist Joel Gausten, legendary songwriter Russ Ballard (KISS, Argent, Rainbow, Ace Frehley, Santana) talks about his forthcoming album, Songs From The Warehouse / The Hits Rewired, and highlights from his decades-long career.
Ballard has had a long association with KISS, including writing two songs recorded by Ace Frehley and Peter Criss respectively. In 1991, KISS had a hit with its version of Ballard’s 1973 song “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You” (originally recorded by his former band Argent), as “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll to You II” with a faster tempo and slightly changed lyrics.
“I don’t honestly know Ace’s version (of ‘In The Night’),” Ballard reveals in the interview. “He called it ‘Into the Night’, didn’t he? I think I’ve heard it before. I don’t recall ever sitting down listening to it, but I like what I’ve heard of his stuff, what he does. (His version) worked for him, because I’ve seen it a lot around; I used to get Billboard, and it was all over the place. Same with Peter Criss; I’ve never heard very much. I know he did ‘Some Kinda Hurricane’, and he did ‘Let Me Rock You’.”
“I think what KISS did with ‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You’ was perfect. I think the tempo is dead right, and (so was) changing the lyric. I made my first verse more spiritual, as it was ‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You’. I used that ‘love your friend, love your neighbor’ idea at the front, and they used the thing about getting a guitar and (doing) the whole thing as a ‘rock’ thing, and it was perfect for them. It was right for them. The tempo was absolutely spot-on. For me, our one with Argent was too slow; it was draggy and laid back … but KISS got the groove into it, and I loved that.”
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