Ace Frehley, GRAMMY® Award nominated and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted rock guitarist; and iconic founding member of KISS, died today at age 74. Frehley passed away peacefully surrounded by family in Morristown, New Jersey, following a recent fall at his home.
Frehley’s family issued the following statement:
“We are completely devastated and heartbroken. In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth. We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter, and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others. The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”
Paul Daniel Frehley was born in The Bronx, New York, and began playing guitar at age 13. Frehley’s musical influences ranged from Led Zeppelin to Cream to The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix (to whom he was a roadie for at age 18). With a musical legacy spanning 50-plus years, Frehley began performing with various bands in the early 70s until he joined Peter Criss, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons to form the ionic rock band KISS. As lead guitarist for the band, his persona was known as “Space Ace,” and later, “The Spaceman.”
In 1972, Frehley delivered his debut solo album, Ace Frehley, which reached Platinum status. In 1987, he dropped Frehley’s Comet, followed by 2009’s Anomaly. In 2014, his Space Invader album hit the Top 10 of the charts at #9 on the Billboard 200. Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Slash, Lita Ford, and John 5 collaborated with Frehley in 2016 on Origins Vol. 1, which reached the top spot at #1 on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums Chart and in the Top 5 of the Billboard Top Rock Albums Chart. Frehley followed up Origins Vol. 1 with Spaceman in 2018 and Origins Vol.2 in 2020.
Frehley was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with KISS in 2014. In 1999, he was GRAMMY® nominated with KISS for “Best Hard Rock Performance” for the album Psycho Circus and was inducted into Hollywood’s Rock Walk that same year. He also received a 1999 Gibson USA Legends award. He was to be a recipient of The Kennedy Center Honors with KISS this December 7th.
Frehley’s current album, 10,000 Volts was released on February 23rd, 2024 — he was on tour this year in support of the collection which features guest appearances by Paul Stanley, Robin Zander and Bruce Kulick.
Frehley is survived by his wife Jeanette, daughter Monique, brother Charles, sister Nancy Salvner, nieces Suncere Frehley and Julie Salvner, nephews Sky Frehley and Andrew Salvner, sister-in-law Michelanne and brother-in-law Ron Salvner.
19 Responses
As someone who became a fan of Kiss in 1975, I I felt obligated to jot down a few thoughts – hopefully this makes some sort of sense.
To Ace’s family, friends, Paul-Gene-Peter and the rest of the Kiss family and fans – my thoughts are with all of you and hope all your memories are a blessing.
I first heard of Kiss was the end of my 5th grade school year where a teacher from an adjacent class allowed students to bring in records to play. My friend Bobby brought in Alive. When the needle was set down on Record 1/Side 1 and the first strains of “Deuce” played, I was hooked – 10 seconds later, the record stopped to be replaced by the mellow sounds of Barry Manilow. Ah Catholic school.
In our year, Bobby, Chris and I were the only three fans of the band (at least those who would admit it). We were verbally tortured thru 8th grade. Gene, where is my combat pay? 🙂
As I got more into Kiss, I was thrilled that Ace, was born in the Bronx – the place I called home thru college until I moved out to New York City. Ace lived in a rougher part of the Borough, but a 30-minute car ride separated us.
Rock and Roll Over is my favorite makeup band release. Ace’s guitar work was clean and infectious. Its been said many times, Ace’s solos are memorable and easy to hum. Kudos to Paul Stanley who really shone as a lyricist on this release.
The Tomorrow Interview with Tom Synder will always be a classic – while I wish Ace was sober, his time on the show was hilarious and even more funny was how freaked out control freaks Gene and Paul were. Plumbers around the world – Ace had your backs. It also showed the first fracturing in the band.
In some ways, we should feel lucky we had Ace as long as we did. His troubles have been well documented.
Glad he got it life back together. And while I was not a big fan of solo Ace (more due to changing musical tastes) – I thought ‘Anomoly” was an incredible record. Very introspective. I absolutely love “Fractured Quaantum” and most of the release. Harder rocking than what Kiss produced in “Monster”
Now, we are back to the present.
I hope Ace’s life will provide healing for Paul, Gene and Peter. Life is too short to carry such negative weight.
When the band is honored at the Kennedy Center – I hope for the following:
1) Bruce plays and extended version of the Intro to “Rock Bottom” and the ‘Fractured Series” – I love Bruce’s acoustic work. 2) I want the classic band play “New York Groove” where Paul / Gene / Peter sing a verse each. 3) After that, I don’t care what the band plays – including Eric and Tommy – I want the band to honor Ace that night……Curly deserves that.
Thank you Ace, RIP (It Out!!!)