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
paul Stanley wants kiss to go on even after him & gene retire, obviously the makeup & costumes mean more to him than the music. zeppelin, stones, aerosmith, will always go on/live on through their music, MUSIC paul, music. you’re so obsessed with the “brand”, just like gene, you’re not thinking about the band, or the music, which is what matters most, to most! you will find out sooner or later MR. STANLEY, TO MOST PEOPLE IT REALLY DOES MATTER WHOSE BEHIND THE MAKEUP!!!! I, like most others if not all, don’t want to see another, any other “starchild” or the others, paul Stanley is and always will be the one & only starchild, not john doe or whoever! paul & gene care more about the brand, but the fans care more about the band, just leave well enough alone. kiss will live on forever, through the MUSIC! and the memories! nobody cares if in the future 4 guys dress up like the original kiss and sing, play & even perform better than the originals, bottom line, THERE’S ONLY 1 KISS! ONLY 1 ZEPPELIN, 1 STONES, 1 AEROSMITH, do you get it paul? I hope so.
I agree, from what they have been talking about this idea of retiring and letting Kiss go on forvere, I am sure it will not work. But of course they are trying to make it happen (which is why they started constantly talking about it maybe a few years before the actual retirement?) because it will fill their pockets. But I am sure it will not happen. At least not on anything similar to the scale this band needs to finance their kind of show and play the respective kind of venues.
Allegedly Vincent Cusano is in Brooklyn and plans on hitting Paul Stanley over the head with an acoustic guitar (much like the honky tonk man used to do in the wwf days) while Paulie is giving his two minute speech. While this is happening, Bruce Kulick, who has been invited to sit at Paulie, Genie, Eric & Tommy’s table, will sneak up behind Genie as he watches on in horror as Paul lay unconscious on stage with his wig half off his head exposing the ol’ “Stanley The Monster” ear proceeding to put Genie to sleep with the ol’ cobra clutch. While all this is happening, Ace & Peter are unaccounted for only to be found when the dust settles applying clown make up to a bounded & gagged Eric Singer & Tommy Thayer. Ace is laughing hysterically while saying ack and Peter is bitch slapping the make up onto Singer’s face while calling him a “motha focka” in his deep Italian New York accent over & over. (Dave Marsh & Jan Wenner look on laughing uncontrollably about the money & attention the Kiss drama has brought to the RRHOF while Dave Grohl’s guitar gently weeps). Finally Cusano, Kulick, Ace & Peter cut out Gene’s tongue (which unsurprisingly has a fucking price tag on the bottom side of it!) and auction it off on eBay to be purchased by Doc McGhee who has the tongue made into a belt to keep his pants from falling off his fat ass. You can’t make this stuff up!!!
Ace was bulletproof in this interview. KISS will never be as popular as it is with Gene, Paul, Ace, and Peter….period. This 40th anniversary co-headlining tour with Def Leppard is a good example. They can’t fill seats or sell tickets without a co-headliner…..but they’d be selling out everywhere headlining on their own with Peter and Ace in the band. But let’s face it…on every tour since the Farewell Tour, Paul’s voice gets worse and worse. Paul sings like total shit these days. Talk about ripping off the fans. This interview with Ace, and Peter’s appearance this season on TMS prove that they are classier and way more interesting people than Paul and Gene. I can’t wait until tomorrow and the RRHOF is over so Gene and Paul can slowly regress back into the washed up and non existent status they were at in 1994 with KISS….which is that no one gives a shit about KISS past 1979.
I respectfully say that there’s not a whole heck of alot of substance in your post. Just closed-minded emotional opinion, which you are entitled to…. but impresses no one.
I want a Kulick ’85 band set, same outfits. Kiss was garbage in ’85.
Does paul actually believe that the fans would want a reunion? I for one would hope not…has anyone seen their show lately? Its lame….gene and paul barely can move…not to mention pauls voice is shot…I cant believe any fan of tbe band would want that, let alone pay big $$ for tickets…he probably doesnt want to do anything that could hurt attendance to the upcoming shows with def leppard…I guess playing with ace/peter could do that…they cant/wont do a full setlist which is why they been doing co-headlining tours…bottom line: its been fun but its time to go…
I for one doesn’t want a reunion either. But what I really want/wanted is this ..
My hopes for this night was, that they’d play a couple of songs as the original KISS, and then maybe a couple as the current line up, and get Bruce and Vinnie on stage for the final song “RNR all nite” and announce the retirement of KISS.
It won’t be Peter and Ace that would ruin a reunion, it would solely be Pauls horrible voice. As you sais “It’s been fun, but it’s time to go” …