ORIGINAL KISS GUITARIST ACE FREHLEY DISCUSSES THE ROCK HALL INDUCTION, BEING CALLED AN ANTI-SEMITE AND HIS THOUGHTS ON THE BAND’S MERCHANDISING

AceFrehley600 J. Bennett of Noisey spoke with original guitarist KISS guitarist Ace Frehely about the band’s Rock Hall induction and all the controversy surrounding it. The interview appears in entirety below.

Noisey: This whole Hall of Fame thing has turned into a real fucking soap opera, hasn’t it?

Ace Frehley: [Laughs] That’s a good word for it. I haven’t been paying too much attention to what people are saying on the internet, no matter who it is. I’m trying to finish my new record, so I can’t let that rent a lot of space in my head.

Noisey: It seems like every day Paul Stanley has a new disparaging comment to make about you and Peter Criss.

Ace Frehley: Well, I’m appalled at Paul. [Laughs] I’m appalled at the whole thing.

Noisey: One thing he’s been saying that makes a lot of sense is that the Hall of Fame has basically been shamed into inducting KISS. They don’t really want to do it, but the demand from fans has been overwhelming for the past 15 years. Do you agree with that assessment?

Ace Frehley: There’s been a lot of pressure on them to induct us over the years, and they resisted. We could’ve been inducted 15 years ago. You’re eligible after 25 years as a band, but they waited 40. Sooner or later, it doesn’t matter to me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a big honor and I plan to have a good time. Paul’s been getting involved with the politics of who’s being inducted—who should be, who shouldn’t be, as far as the people who joined the band after me and Peter left—but I try to stay away from all that stuff because it’s politics. I’ve always tried to keep music and politics separate.

Noisey: Do you think the guys who came after you and Peter—Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent, Eric Singer, Tommy Thayer, Bruce Kulick—deserve to be inducted as well?

Ace Frehley: I don’t know what the rules are. Supposedly there are certain guidelines that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has, and obviously they didn’t meet those criteria. I know for a fact—the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame told me—that the reason they refused to induct Tommy and Eric [Singer] is because they’re not contributing anything original to the band. They’re just copying stuff that Peter and me did during the first ten years of the group. So they’re just actors, basically.

Noisey: Do you have any sort of relationship with Tommy and Eric?

Ace Frehley: I’m friends with those guys. I really like Eric—on the last Kiss tour I did, I’d hang out with Eric and have a few laughs when we were in Australia. At the time Tommy was our road manager, which is kinda bizarre. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up. What rock supergroup has a dynamic lead guitarist who leaves the band, and they replace him with the tour manager? You can’t make this shit up. If somebody wrote that as a script for a rock ‘n’ roll film, nobody would believe it. But Tommy’s not a bad guitar player. He’s got his chops. Not very original, but it is what it is.

Noisey: There’s been a huge pissing match over which members of Kiss should play at the ceremony. The Hall of Fame wanted you and Peter to play, but Paul and Gene said they’d only play with Tommy and Eric, because they’re the current members. Some folks are saying that all of you should play. As it stands now, there will be no Kiss performance. What do you think about the whole debacle?

Ace Frehley: I don’t have a problem with Tommy and Eric playing. The problem I have is that Paul and Gene shot down the idea of playing with Peter and me and wanted to perform with just Tommy and Eric—in makeup, too. That’s makeup I designed. I’m supposed to sit there while I’m being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I gotta watch some other guy playing in my costume and makeup? That didn’t sit very well with me because the Hall of Fame requested that just the four original guys perform.

Noisey: You recently said that the reason Paul and Gene don’t wanna do that is because the fans will want a full-blown reunion tour afterwards.

Ace Frehley: Well, that’s what a lot of people say. They’re afraid of history repeating itself. When we did Unplugged in 1995, Peter and me came out and did two songs and the place went crazy. Paul and Gene had to buckle to public opinion, and the fans wanted a reunion. They had just done an album with Bruce and Eric that they had to put on the back burner. But it was the most successful tour that year. We grossed over 250 million dollars. It was insane. So they don’t wanna open a can of worms. Outside looking in, as an unbiased person, I don’t blame them. But it’s been 40 years. I was in the band, I left the band; I rejoined in ’96 for five years, left in 2001 and the fans have always been there for me. They really want the reunion. Ever since the announcement that we were being inducted, that’s all I hear from fans. All they want is for me and Peter to perform two or three songs and that’d be the end of it. But Paul and Gene shot it down. They can’t give the fans ten minutes for supporting us for 40 goddamn years?

Noisey: Do you think it would be unfair to Tommy and Eric if you and Peter performed at the ceremony?

Ace Frehley: What do you mean unfair? They’re not even being inducted!

Noisey: What I mean is that Tommy and Eric are current members of KISS. It’d be kinda shitty of Paul and Gene to ask them to sit out a performance so they could play with you and Peter.

Ace Frehley: A lot of people are being honored at the ceremony. Some people are getting up to do a few songs, and some people aren’t. We’re only talking about a couple of songs. It’s not a concert. If I was in charge of the whole thing, we could just get up there in Italian-cut suits or something—we wouldn’t even have to wear the makeup.

Noisey: Paul’s book recently came out. Have you read any of it?

Ace Frehley: I haven’t read it, but I’m sure he threw me under the bus in one way or another. [Laughs] Although I heard he threw Gene under the bus more than anyone.

Noisey: Apparently he thinks you and Peter are anti-Semitic.

Ace Frehley: That’s absurd. I’m engaged to a Jewish lady! I’ve been with her for five years. Her name is Rachael Gordon and she’s a singer-songwriter. I met her in San Diego on my 2008 tour. And my whole life I’ve been in the music business. You know the music business is controlled by Jewish people: My attorney, my accountant—everybody’s Jewish. [Laughs] I’m anti-Semitic? Are you out of your mind? You know what the problem is? Paul’s cranky because he can’t call me a drunk or a drug addict anymore. He can’t say I’m unemployable. He can’t say I don’t show up, because I do these days. So now he’s grasping at straws just to grab headlines for his goddamn book.

Noisey: After 40 years, KISS made the cover of Rolling Stone for the first time this month. Did you see the article?

Ace Frehley: Yeah.

Noisey: At one point, both Paul and Gene acknowledge that they think about you and Peter every day.

Ace Frehley: I don’t believe that for a second. [Laughs]They try to avoid us. We’re like a bad rash that won’t go away. [Laughs] But it has to be irritating when all they hear from the fans is, “Yeah, Tommy’s OK, but there’s nothing like the real thing.” That’s gotta be frustrating for them. Their fallback position years ago was, “Yeah, Ace was great, he contributed a lot to the group, but he’s a drunk and a drug addict so we can’t use him.” But I’ve been sober for seven and a half years, so what’s their fucking excuse now? And now Paul’s calling me a Nazi? It’s ridiculous.

Noisey: Is that why you didn’t participate in the new KISS documentary that’s coming out?

Ace Frehley: I wasn’t actually contacted by KISS about that. Their bodyguard contacted my bodyguard and offered me a small amount of money to do it. They tried to come in through the back door because, you know, they don’t wanna pay me any money. But if they don’t pay me now, they’re gonna pay me a lot more later. That’s just the way it works. My attorney is on top of it. If they would’ve been up front, that’s different. But they go through my bodyguard and say it’s some guy from England who’s producing it when really it’s Paul and Gene that are producing it. They’re the money behind it, and they’re trying to get me cheap. But I’m in the middle of a record. I don’t have time for nonsense. Supposedly they’re using some old interviews I did. I probably come off like a knucklehead, but who knows?

Noisey: Later this month, you’re gonna present an award named in honor of fallen Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was actually buried in a “KISS Kasket.” Don’t you think that’s a little weird?

Ace Frehley: Yeah, it is a little weird. But KISS fans are weird—everybody knows it. These days I have to be transparent, you know? [Laughs] There’s nothing I’m gonna say that’s gonna shock anybody. So, yeah, a lot of KISS fans are kinda strange. But that’s okay because we’re strange.

Noisey: I can’t believe the KISS Kasket is a thing that exists.

Ace Frehley: If it was my decision, I wouldn’t have gone there. There’s a lot of things that Gene has done with the merchandising that are just over the top. He’s got everything from prophylactics to toilet paper—anything to make a buck. It’s embarrassing.

That’s one of the reasons I left the group. Towards the end, I’d go out and see kids in the front row with KISS dolls and lunchboxes and my manager is going, “Hey, Ace—watch the cursing tonight. We’ve got kids in the front row.” I mean, we started out as this heavy, mean, nasty rock ‘n’ roll group wearing leather and it turned into a goddamn circus.

source: noisey.vice.com

127 Responses

  1. Tommy was a guitar player in Black ‘N Blue back in the 80’s before he was a “tour manager”. They put out 4 records on Geffen. Good stuff.

    1. Saw Black n Blue open for Kiss in 1985, and they were better than Kiss. Seriously. Kiss on that tour were a joke. The songs were played at breakneck speed and they looked ridiculous. BnB rocked so much, that my friend who was with me, who hated L.A. hard rock/glam, thought they were great. “Without Love” is 10X better than “Asylum”. Gene was the one who ruined that band.

  2. How can the assholes at the r&r hof say eric singer & tommy thayer did not contribute to the band ?!!! they have been on the last 2 albums & have been touring as kiss for over 10years & every one knows that criss & ace did not play on any kiss records after dynasty!! so in my opinion they should all tell the r& rhof to go fuck off.

    1. This is what the HOF President said, and hes 100% right

      “With KISS, there wasn’t a single person we spoke to that didn’t feel the reason these guys were being inducted was because of the four original members I appreciate how Tommy and Eric have filled in and the way they do things,” says Peresman. “They are fine musicians and I’m sure they’re lovely guys, but they are basically replicating the two members that are getting inducted. How could we have asked Ace and Peter to accept the award and then have other people in their guise playing their music? They probably wouldn’t have even come. They were very clear about that”

      -The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s President and CEO Joel Peresman

    2. “There wasn’t a single person they spoke to”… who? Dave Marsh? The guy who said that Kiss – in any incarnation – would get in “over his dead body”? Please.

      And that whole argument conveniently and carelessly forgets about Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick who DID contribute to the band’s legacy.

    3. You guys seem to forget that part of the reason that KISS was inducted is the fact that new blood has entered the committee. And that new blood has KISS fans in its ranks. Tom Morello is a KISS fan and he worked behind the scenes to make this happen. What I’m getting at is, KISS fans had a hand in the decision. How big or small a hand I don’t know. Btw, Paul even acknowledged that new blood in the committee.

    4. Kiss with Tommy and Eric have been buying time. That’s it. NO contributions to merit iconic status. Sorry.

  3. Yikes, Eddie I listened to the Ace interview lastnight, just two quick comments:

    1) You should pre-screen SOME of your callers and have them answer a skill testing question. That was sad.

    2) Nice attempt at saving Ace when he was making jokes about a missing airplane with 300 people aboard. From a huge Ace fan; at best he sounded like a moron and at worst just a stupid drunk. Ace likely has as much understanding of Quantum physics as a toilet seat. Not impressed. I officially hate all four original members now, will be glad when this HOF crap is over and KISS and Ace Frehley are no longer relevant. 15 minutes is almost up again. You should stop propping this clown up, it makes you look like a wannabe.

    1. How does a guy who’s been in the industry for 30 years, has 2 national radio shows, 2 books and a national TV show that’s had 106 episodes shown possibly look like a ‘wannabe’? I don’t agree with everything Trunk says, especially about Steel Panther, but the guy is the real deal. You don’t stay in business for 30 yrs if you’re not!

    2. Thank you. And all I ever said about Panther is it’s a parody, which it is, as the band will say themselves. Not sure why that’s bad but I just don’t get excited about a parody or spoof. I loved Spinal Tap the movie, but did not need to hear those records or see them live. Just me..

    3. Panther is besides the point…I just think that they should be played, but Florentine has them on now so I’m happy.

    4. Quick, name another TV or radio show that bothers to even menton KISS repectfully, if at all. THERE IS NONE! I find it amusing how some of you KISS KRUISERS bash Eddie for telling it like it is about KISS. I thank Eddie for all his hard work in bringing us the radio show and That Metal Show. Oh yeah, Dana does a hell of a job too.

    1. As opposed to just about every Paul song touted what a supposedly great lover he is? :}

    2. Yes, because Tutti Frutti, Heartbreak Hotel and Peggy Sue are just chock full of genius pen to paper moments.

  4. They were on 2 completely forgettable albums dressed as other people…yeah, that’s enough to put them in the Hall of Fame! Good Lord, just look at the setlist for the last tour…one song from Monster and one song from Sonic Boom was played, and the rest are all songs that have been played for the last 15+ years…you know, the songs that they ‘had to play because those are the only one’s Ace and Peter could play’. Thayer and Singer belong nowhere near the HOF.

    1. Look at ANY classic rock band that is still touring. The setlist is always like that. People want to listen to songs that remind them of a better time – when they were young. It has NOTHING to do with who was or wasn’t with the band.

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