Greg Prato for Ultimate Guitar, recently spoke with guitarist Ace Frehley, and asked him if he owned the rights to his “Spaceman” image and/or makeup, but licensed it to KISS “for perpetuity?”
Frehley replied, “It’s true.”
He continued to explain, “I get paid for the usage – for merch and stuff. And I would consider this avatar stuff a merchandise ploy. But I just saw something the other day on YouTube that [KISS bassist/vocalist] Gene [Simmons] is having second thoughts about the whole avatar thing. But who knows with those guys – every day is a different story with those guys. And to be totally honest with you, I really don’t follow what they do very closely – because I’m more involved with my own career. I can’t believe… or I don’t understand why they haven’t recorded a record in 20 years. And I’ve done, I don’t know… six or seven. Pretty much I have to create to keep things fresh. Even though I don’t get a chance to play sometimes a lot of the songs I’ve written on my most recent albums live, it gives me an outlet to create. Because I’m still like a little kid when it comes to rock n’ roll.”
Frehley goes on to discuss his forthcoming new album, 10,000 Volts, saying, “Believe it or not, this album was probably the most fun out of almost any album I ever did – except for probably the first one with Anton Fig and Eddie Kramer [his 1978 solo debut]. And I think it shows. I’m really thrilled with the way the record came out…”
Read more at Ultimate Guitar.
To read more details about 10,000 Volts , and to hear the title track, please click here.
7 Responses
Shut up Ace.
Ace claims to not follow KI$$ closely?? What a bunch of B.S.. And he needs to stop “slagging” Paul and Gene.
I saw Ace perform live about 8 months ago.
He should play live only the songs he’s written rather than performing songs he didn’t write…like “Deuce”, “Detroit…”, or “2,000 Man”. Maybe Ace would, if he had more respect for his own solo catalog. Personally, I think Ace writes great songs and should rely on his own material.
If I had wanted to see/hear Ace’s KI$$ material performed live, I could just have attended a KI$$ show to see/hear Tommy Thayer sing them.
Can’t wait to hear the new one and F the avatar thing.
I never understood why Ace’s set list is so over saturated with KISS songs. He has sooooo many great solo songs that Ace fans would love to hear instead of “Love Gun” for the millionth time. I think either the decades of drugs and alcohol have rendered his brain incapable of learning his own songs, or as stated in another post, that he doesn’t have much respect for his own material. At least he still puts out decent new albums every few years. That’s more than KISS has done.
I think the smart one of the original 4 is Peter he’s been pretty quiet even though Paul & Gene continually bash him and Ace for no reason with the same tired substance abuse idiocy – I personally respect Ace first because he plays and sings live warts and all , he continues to put out new stuff ,his cover choices are pretty good all while dealing with being bashed and insulted pretty hard by those 2 kisstards for way too many years- Ace is standing up for himself when he reacts, thankfully KISS is done – they have completely ruined their legacy at least for me..I’m so disappointed in what they turned into and resorted to these last years I used to love them- , I’m sure I’m not alone with these thoughts –
Even though KI$$ had a comic book based on them (props for marketing) they (Paul and Gene) had become “cartoon characters” of themselves. Sure, it’s a business but it’s also an “art” and sometimes the money overshadows all of your hard work. I agree, they should put out an album “DESTROYER of Legacy”!