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
tommy needs to be bitch slapped…
Does anybody think that KISS and Spinal tap should have a song writing session together? Think about all the great sexual rock songs those two all time great rock groups could come up with. A match made in Heaven I say.
Am I the only one who doesn’t wan’t an Ace Frehley covers album?
I love Ace, and his new album is far better than any album KISS has put out since .. Revenge!? I personally think it’s a stupid move, especially when having an album like this one out, I’d much rather have another album full of his own material…
IMO Ace hasn’t had good luck recording covers, “2000 Man” aside. Hide your heart blows worse than the Kiss version. Even Molly Hatchet’s version stunk. The song is terrible. “The Joker”? I love the album but skip over that one. “Fox On The Run” runs flat. So no, I do not want an Ace album of all covers.
Only place you will ever see the Beatles and Kiss mentioned in the same sentence! Although, there was always the story that it’s not the original Paul (McCartney)……………..
The bottom line is, the majority if KISS fans will forever recognize KISS as Paul, Gene, Ace, and Peter.
Sure there were other talented members in the group, but when you think lead guitarist,… we will
always think Ace Frehley. Tommy Thayer may be in the band today and probably will be until KISS calls it quits, but he will never get the same love, admiration, recognition,.. nor will he ever inspire as many future guitarits as Ace Frehley. Just consider how many Tommy Thayer solo albums would sell. That’s real,… damn real