Gene Simmons was asked by Mitch Lafon about signing Van Halen and producing their demo tape way back in 1976-77, to which he replied:
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“I discovered Van Halen playing in a club and signed them to my Man of 1,000 Faces production company, flew them to New York, produced 15 songs at Electric Lady Studios.
“And then when I got too busy I tore up the contract and I said, ‘You guys are free. I gotta go back on tour, and if I have time at the end of the tour I’ll go shopping for a deal for you. I can’t ethically, personally, hold on to you guys while I’m off on tour.’
“So I did the right thing. And the guys, of course, got signed right away. And in return, the brothers Van Halen were kind enough to appear on three songs that I wrote when we came back from Japan in 1978.
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“One of those songs was ‘Christine Sixteen’ that we recorded about 2 a.m. in the morning.
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Wow on the “Christine Sixteen.”