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
That’s quite unfortunate. Loved his attitude, personality and his solo work. His solo work in the 80’s is what caused me to like KISS in the first place. Rather young at 74. RIP Ace!
When he was on, you couldn’t touch him as a musician and guitarist. I only met him once briefly, and he was a sweetheart. “I’m not the guitar player, I’m the…trout player.” LOL…This was way too soon, it’s just not right losing him this way, but I will have to make peace with it. God Bless you Ace, I was wondering if God would meet him wearing his Kiss makeup…lol…We lost one of the Fantastic Four, I knew this was going to happen someday, but …I am just numb right now.
This is terrible news, so sad.
My condolences to his wife and family, friends and fans, and especially Eddie Trunk.
This must be really hard on Eddie, we know he was a close friend for a very long time. Sorry for your loss.
what I don’t want to see right now: these celebrities in their Ace makeup from days gone by…..like I don’t give a shit, dude….it’s just lame.
This is sad horrible news , my thoughts are with his family and of course gene ,Peter and Paul heartbreaking