I believe he said tongue in cheek.....every generation has terrible songs, but this one actually got a lot of airplay for some ghastly reason, so it's the easiest of targets IMO....
I saw a doc once that claimed (just speculation that made some sense) that there was a power struggle in the band between Kath and Cetera and the band was mostly on Cetera's side. Cetera (as later proved to be true) wanted to do ballady, poppy stuff.....Kath wanted to go fusion/experimental......again, don't know if it's true or not but it does make some sense.....One thing that I do believe is true, is had Jimi, Kath and SRV survived the music scene may be just a little bit different, for the better....