Katherine Turman of The Village Voice took a ride with original KISS guitarist, Ace Frehely, around his old Bronx neighborhood. Excerpts from the piece appear below.
Oh KISS’ current guitar player, Tommy Thayer, who also happens to wears Ace’s Spaceman makeup when performing:
“I could sense he always wanted to be me. He used to be in a KISS cover band [L.A.’s Cold Gin],” Frehley says. “He didn’t do anything; he was hired by Paul and Gene to put on my makeup and costume and play my guitar solos — a business deal.
Look, if he wouldn’t have done it, they would have hired somebody else. I walked out on the band; I quit. What they really should have done is, if they wanted to dress up a guy to play lead guitar, they should have come up with different makeup like they did with [other Ace replacements] Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent. That’s what the fans are upset about.”
Guitarist/singer and former Runaway Lita Ford concurs, though she observes, “I always thought that anyone could hide behind Kiss’s makeup. The band could grow old and no one could see through the makeup: a brilliant idea. Tommy Thayer is one hell of a nice guy but he is not Ace Frehley and shouldn’t be in Ace’s shoes. There is only one Ace!”
Well, technically, now there are two, and Thayer is currently pimping a guitar (created with Epiphone) called the Space Man. “I mean, how big are the balls on this guy?” snorts Frehley. “But I don’t really want to talk about Tommy Thayer,” he adds, half-apologetically. “Let’s talk about me.”
Discussing his former bandmate, Gene Simmons:
“The press made out that we hated each other, which wasn’t true. I called Gene just a few months ago when I was mixing my record. I was driving up to L.A., and after five minutes of talking, he started bringing up stuff that happened in the ’70s, when we used to drive around in station wagons. We were on the phone for almost half an hour,” he recalls. “He wouldn’t let me off the phone. There’s all this rivalry that the press tries to draw out of us, to have a dialogue going on.”
Talking about who possibly invented the two-handed tapping technique when playing guitar:
Frehely doesn’t know if he or Eddie Van Halen did it first. He does remember, though, that “Gene discovered Van Halen. He wanted to produce their first album, and we told him ‘No.’ Gene was always going off half-cocked, trying to do more things … like he still does today.” He added, “If Kiss would stop fooling around with football teams and restaurants, they might put out a better record next time.” Despite a few barbs, it’s clear Frehley, still retains a fondness for Simmons — if akin to the true brotherly love-hate you might find in the Kinks or Oasis.
Read the entire at The Village Voice.
Ace Frehley’s latest album Space Invader was released on August 19th and debuted at number nine on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
source: blogs.villagevoice.com
93 Responses
I am still a KISS and an Ace fan. I wish both would shut up and play music. I could care less about what they think of one another.
Ask yourself, can I be replaced at my job? Of course you can it’s called business.
Kiss is a business first and foremost. A brand before a band. They are keeping the machine running.
Ace and Peter both either sold or leased the makeup rights so the machine could continue.
I love Ace and Peter.I’m a lifelong Kiss fan. Does this bother me? Hell yes.Back in the day it was hard enough to swallow them being replaced with other guys in makeup, But we did eventually come around.
Fast forward to now and as still a Kiss fan we are supposed to just be ok with these guys straight up
being imposters. Rock is sad not dead.
One has to admit, in case Ace and/or Peter actually leased or licensed the rights to the make ups then they would be substantially financially disadvanteged if Kiss stopped touring, right?!!
I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but what I do know is that ALL the Kiss members are way too goddamned full of themselves. Pathetic.
Yea Tommy wishes he could be just like Ace,except not fat and able to sing and write lyrics that dont sound like a 5 year old wrote them. Ace, you were outsold week one by a friggin tribute album( Nashville Outlaws Motley Crue tribute that outsold Ace nearly 3:1, laughing hysterically)
Can someone tell me a Kiss album or song with insightful heavy lyrics? I mean it’s laughable when people talk about great lyrics with some bands. When was it ever about that? That Christine Sixteen and pulling the trigger of my Love Gun was just poetry huh?
Let’s Put the X in Sex was a masterful display of poetry and deep thinking, right up there with The Wall or I am the Walrus. How about You Make Me Rock Hard? Again Stanley is on his intellectual game. Don’t like that one, how about Heavens on Fire? What a brilliant play on words, I mean it’s supposed to be Heaven but it’s on freakin fire! Not convinced? Try Hide you Heart? I mean that’s a love story better than Romeo and Juliet. I mean Rosa and Tito and Johnnie? You can’t make that stuff up. And if none of those don’t convince you, you can’t say no to All Hells Breaking Loose. I mean a street hustler is is literally coming up to him and he’s just minding his own business and then….well I really should let Richman finish that one. Anyways Trunk, stop being a hater.
Be careful with ALL HELL’S BREAKING LOOSE. Very sensitive topic these days. THE DOUGMEISTER used it against MILKMONEY at least twice and the cops as well as the FBI are involved. This thing is huge. I’m talking stolen BARBARA STREISAND merchandise, a JOHN DENVER LOOK-A-LIKE CONTEST and a person who refers to himself as a dairy product. I took it off my iPOD. The cops stopped me the other day, I told them I listen to PRINCE and TEDDY PENDERGRAST. They let me go but they had their suspicions. Wisely, I got a DIXIE CHICKS CD and I used my debit card to get it. Your really doing a number on SMASHES, THRASHES AND HITS which is my desert island album pick along with FAITH and THRILLER. Nah just kidding. I do like those albums though.
LMFAO! Richman, the invitation from last week still stands, but remember, “You’re Invited” (But Your Friend Can’t Come), no milk duds allowed! See you in Margaritaville! Jimmy Buffett rules! Cheers 🙂
Should I? What the hell! This one’s for you Richman –
Well I got me a fine wine I got me an ole fiddle
When the sun’s comin’ up I got eggs on the griddle
Life ain’t nothin’ but a funny funny riddle
Thank God I’m a country boy! LOL! 😉
See you later Richman………… 🙂
Lets not forget this gem from Take Me, (a great fucking song), “sitting in the back, her head down in my lap, the moonlight shining down on her head, the radio was playin’ her fingertips were strayin’, her mama didn’t know she was there NO ! Lets all start a KISS club were we sit around and read KISS lyrics like poetry!! LOL What a riot!
Rock’n Roll Poets Society with Robbie Williams teaching us to worship true masterpieces in heaven or hell …
Exactly, KISS were never poets.
Bottom line, Kiss haters love Ace, Ace haters love Kiss. Me, I think Space Invader and Monster are both just really bad albums. Anyone who thinks either album sounds like the old Kiss sound is just grasping at straws.
Look at when Rock and Roll started. “Wop bop a loo lop a wop bam boom”.
That is it Trunk. You really did it this time. AHEM……
SHES A DANCER, A ROMANCER
I’M A CAPRICORN AND SHES A CANCER
SHE SAW MY PICTURE IN A MUSIC MAGAZINE.
How dare you make that statement Mr. Megaforce Records. Could Steve Harris write that? Geddy Lee? The Glimmer Twins? John Keats? William Wordsworth? Lord Byron? William Blake? Samual Taylor Coleridge? C’MON AND LOVE ME changed my life. I graduated college, got a good job, got married and moved upstate all under the influence of EISEN. INSIGHTFUL, HEAVY, DEEP, LIFE CHANGING. Although MAKIN LOVE from R N R OVER sounds like a rape anthem. I JUST HATE WHEN THE GIRL SAYS WAIT…….
I REALLY WANT HER BY MY SIDE, DON’T HESITATE. True poetry in motion. Like watching Ali in the ring back in his prime.
Hot, Hot, Hotter than Hell…you know she’s gonna leave you well done. Not sure if everyone has ever caught on to the irony in that line, but its sheer brilliance. Imagine what Paul Stanley and John Lennon could’ve done together. I would’ve loved to have heard Lennon’s take on Plaster Caster.
Richman and Dr…you are both killing my job today from trying not to laugh so freakin hard!! Hysterical!!
But all TRUE!!
… Lennon PUT on plaster caster …
A World Without Heroes
Saying it doesn’t matter who wears the make up is kind of like telling Colin Kaepernick to wear #16 for the 49ers with the name Montana on the jersey and telling everyone there’s no difference between the two. Get outta here! Tommy Thayer is a yes man. Nice guy but come on. A spaceman guitar??? Really?? I agree with Ace that dude got some pineapples dangling! And I have to say I cannot stand that smirk Thayer has on his face in practically every photo.