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
Ace sold everything to Paul & Gene. P&G had enough of him much like Eddie Van Halen with Mr. soggy Cabo Wabo chips and $23 watered down drinks at the Strip and “yessa Sammy” Michael Anthony. You aren’t a team player yer gone. Ace’ll play where Warrant and 1 Riot Of Quiet play in December.
And now a prophet-like reading from the book of Lick It Up, Chapter of Fits Like A Glove, “Ewww cuz’ when I go thru her, it’s just like a hot knife (stop the music, cross your arms, look around with a silly mean face), thru buttttteeeeeerrrrrr!” And so it was written and so it shall be done.
Saw Kiss last month and it was a great show. Haven’t heard the new Ace record but I did see him do New York Grove on the Late Show. That gave me pause to sample the record before buying it.
I refuse to join either camp, just wondering out loud. How many of the Tommy bashers would gladly throw on the suit and play the part for half the cash he’s getting? Every guitarist wants the dream gig. I guess if you can’t have it rag on the guy that got it. Ain’t that right Jake E Lee.
Jake E. Lee…? What am I missing here…?
Seriously disappointed with Aces lame response to the Singer/Criss makeup question but for anyone to be happy with this Era of KISS is ridiculous. … Gene has turned a proud rock n roll history into Disney land. .. Regardless Ace is a rock n roll guy and is exactly why we love him he doesn’t sugar coat for profit ….it’s about the music. That’s also why bands like acdc and motley were always about the music.
Gene gone reality show, G and P gone restaurants and football, Kiss going Vegas, in one word, Kiss gone establishment – all the way. Whereas back in their heyday in the late 70s it was clearly anti establishment to be a Kiss fan. But that is how the mainstream (pop) culture devours all things rebellious at one point in time, we all have a price, once you are offered millions it is hard to stay a rebel at heart even though you might still put on the same “make up” to make believe you haven’t changed. It then has become folklore. These times of rebellion will not come back.
I just saw KISS a few weeks ago and took my kids to see their first rock concert. They still put on a great show regardless of who is in band and my kids were awe struck of the KISS stage show which is still one of the best values for my hard earned rock and roll dollars! As a life long KISS fan that has seen them many times, including for the 1977 Destroyer tour, I can say there has been nothing as good as the original line up. We all have a tendency to romanticize the past and I will never forget seeing that 1977 show and nothing will compare, but I am also happy that 37 years later I can share part of the spectacle known as KISS with my kids. Like them or not they are an important part of Rock n Roll history!!
Well said Dan…
The Destroyer tour was 1976.