Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley dies at 74

Ace Frehley, the wild Spaceman of Kiss who played guitar in the band throughout their ’70s heyday and again during the ’90s reunion period, inspiring an entire generation of musicians to pick up the instrument along the way, died on Thursday in Morristown, New Jersey. He was 74 years old.

Lori Lousararian, Frehley’s representative, attributed his death to a “recent fall at his home,” although the specific cause of death was not immediately available.

“We are completely devastated and heartbroken,” Frehley’s family said in a statement. “In his final moments, we were fortunate to be able to surround him with loving, caring, and peaceful words, thoughts, prayers, and intentions as he left this earth. We all cherish his fondest memories, his laughter, and celebrate his strengths and the kindness he bestowed on others. The magnitude of his passing is epic in scale and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible achievements, Ace’s memory will live on. forever! »

In late September, Frehley canceled a concert at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster, California, after suffering a “minor fall in his studio” that required a hospital visit. “He is doing well,” a note to fans read, “but against his wishes, his doctor insists that he refrain from traveling at this time.” On October 11, Frehley removed the remaining 2025 dates from his calendar due to unspecified “ongoing medical issues.”

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were Kiss’ primary songwriters, but Frehley’s guitar skills and rock star attitude were key elements in the group’s success. As a songwriter, Frehley wrote “Cold Gin,” “Parasite,” “Shock Me,” “Talk to Me” and other fan favorites.

As a child growing up in the Bronx, Frehley was torn between athletics and rock music. But after taking a few bad hits on the football field, he had an epiphany. “This is bullshit,” he later recalled thinking. “My hands are too important. The guitar comes first.”

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He became even more confident at age 16 when he saw the Who and Cream at the RKO Theater in Manhattan. “The Who really inspired me towards theatrical rock,” he said. “When I saw them, it completely blew me away. I had never seen anything like it. It was a big turning point.”

Frehley played in a series of unsuccessful bands in the late ’60s and early ’70s until he came across a Village voice announcement that changed his life forever: “Lead guitarist wanted with Flash and Ability. Album coming soon. No waste of time, please.”

Unable to pay for the taxi, his mother drove him to the Kiss rehearsal room in Queens. Simmons, Stanley and drummer Peter Criss initially made fun of his bell-bottom pants and multi-colored shoes. The laughter stopped once they showed him their new song “Deuce.” “I just soloed for the whole song,” Frehley recalled. “They all smiled. We played a few more songs, and then they said, ‘We really like the way you play. We’ll call you.”

At that time, the group didn’t even have a name. And their first attempts at stage makeup didn’t really work. “We did makeup, but it wasn’t Kiss makeup; it was women’s makeup, like the New York Dolls,” Frehley said. rolling stone in 1976. “At the time, the Dolls were the hottest thing and we always wished we could be the Dolls because we were nobody at the time. But we weren’t physically like the Dolls, who were short, skinny guys, so we decided to go big in black and silver.”

The group’s distinct stage lineup and bombastic live show garnered immediate attention when they began performing in New York in 1973. But they didn’t achieve any mainstream success until their 1975 concert album. Alive! took off. To a segment of young, outspoken fans, Frehley was the coolest member of the group. “When I play guitar on stage, it’s like making love,” he said. rolling stone in 1976. “If you’re good, you get away with it every time. »

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But it didn’t take long for hard drugs to enter the picture. “There was so much cocaine in the studio with (producer) Bob Ezrin, it was crazy,” Frehley recalls. rolling stone in 2015. “And I hadn’t even drank Coke before that. I liked drinking. But once I started doing Coke, I really liked drinking more, and for longer, without passing out. So I was really up for the races. I made life difficult for myself because there were so many times I showed up hungover, or sometimes I didn’t even show up.”

In 1978, when all members of Kiss were releasing solo albums on the same day, Frehley’s self-titled LP reportedly sold the most thanks to his cover of Russ Ballard’s “New York Groove,” which became his signature song.

And as the band gained success in the late ’70s and the band’s audience began to get younger, Frehley became concerned. “We were a heavy rock band,” he said. rolling stone in 2015, “and now we had little kids with lunch boxes and dolls in the front row, and I had to worry about swearing into the microphone. It became a circus.”

This circus also featured numerous behind-the-scenes battles related to Frehley’s drug and alcohol use and the band’s decision to use session guitarists on some tracks. By 1982, Frehley had simply had enough. “I was confused,” he later recalled. “I thought if I stayed in this band, I would have killed myself. I would drive home from the studio and I would drive my car into a tree. I mean, I walked away from a $15 million contract. That would be $100 million today. And my lawyer was looking at me like, ‘What are you crazy?’

In the 1980s, he formed the group Frehley’s Comet and released two little-known albums. But a brief Kiss reunion at the group’s 1995 party MTV unplugged This led to a massive reunion tour in 1996 in which all four original members put on makeup, dusted off old songs and returned to stadiums and arenas around the world.

In 1998 they recorded the new studio LP Psycho Circusbut Frehley only played on one track. “I wasn’t invited to the studio,” he said Ultimate Classic Rock in 2014. “When you hear Paul and Gene talk about it, they say I didn’t show up. The reason I’m not on any of the songs is because I wasn’t asked. They tried to make it look like I wasn’t there.”

He left the group again in 2002 after the conclusion of a farewell tour. He was replaced by Tommy Thayer, who wore his signature Starman makeup and replicated all of his guitar parts. “Tommy was hitting the right notes, but he didn’t have the right swagger,” Frehley said. Guitarist in 2014. “He just doesn’t have my same technique.”

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Over the past two decades, Frehley has toured extensively as a solo artist and played sets filled with Kiss classics. His most recent show was last month in Providence, at the Uptown Theater in Rhode Island, with Frehley closing, of course, with “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

In a 2013 interview with rolling stoneFrehley spoke of the ardent devotion of the band’s fans. “I have a lot of die-hard fans,” he said. “Ace Frehley and Kiss fans are the biggest fans in the world. They have always been there for me through the ups and downs. My life has been a roller coaster, but somehow I have always managed to land on my feet and continue playing guitar.”