KISS main men Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons refused to regroup the original KISS line-up for a performance at the band’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction because they were afraid fans would demand a reunion tour, according to guitarist Ace Frehley.
Stanley and Simmons pulled the plug on a performance at induction in April after the Hall of Fame bosses refused to honor their current bandmates alongside original members Frehley and drummer Peter Criss, so the live spectacular fans had hoped for was nixed – and now the group’s original guitarist tells WENN the KISS army will never forgive his old bandmates.
He explains, “After 40 years, you think they could have given the fans 15 minutes that night. Peter and I wanted to perform, the Hall of Fame wanted us to do it, but Paul and Gene shot it down. It was a moment in history that was lost and some of the fans will never forgive them for that.
But I’ll tell you why Paul and Gene didn’t wanna perform with me and Peter – they were afraid of history repeating itself. When me and Peter performed with them on the MTV Unplugged sessions in 1995, the place went completely crazy and they had to scrap their album that they had just recorded with Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer and they had to do a reunion tour.
They’re on tour right now with Tommy (Thayer) and Eric (Singer) and they didn’t want anything to overshadow that. They were afraid that everyone was gonna demand a reunion again if we played.”
And Frehley has used his new WENN interview to respond to fresh criticism from Stanley, who recently stated his former lead guitarist was not fit “to wear the uniform,” explaining, “If you no longer can uphold your end or live up to the stature that we set for ourselves in the beginning, if you are compromised by drugs or alcohol, if you’ve lost sight of how lucky we are to be in this position, then you no longer deserve to wear the uniform.”
Frehley insists he was never as bad as his former bandmates paint him – and he hopes his new album Space Invader, due August 19th and his first solo album in five years, will prove he’s still got what it takes.
He adds, “It’s a joke. In concert, I always delivered, and 95 per cent of the time I delivered on record. It’s there, it’s history. All they’re trying to do is discredit me, so it validates the new line-up. They’ll look foolish when my new album comes out.
“I think they’re just cranky that every time they go on the Internet they have to read fans saying, ‘Get Ace back’.”
source: express.co.uk
187 Responses
I would have no desire to see another reunion tour!! I am still debating on going to see them, when they come with Def Leppard, here in Indy, but the prices are outrageous for good seats!! If they really wanted to play at the Rock n Roll Hall of Shame, and make a huge impact on it, they could have put out a flyer saying, “We are planning on the original members playing 3 songs, and this will be the last time you ever see the original members on stage together, again. So, everybody get your tickets now, and enjoy The Hottest Band In The World one last time!” Everybody wins, especially the fans, and they go out in some sort of style!! FYI…I would love for Ace to go out on tour with this album, and come to the Indy area!!
I have been a fan since the Love gun album. I bought both sonic boom and monster. Sonic was okay, monster sucked balls. I listened to it once and almost had to tear my ears off. Both albums are uninspired and if we are all truly honest, Paul and Gene are living off what they and Ace and Peter created. I actually liked anomaly, and for the record this was all before the RRHOF debacle. Gene and Paul would lie to their own mothers and lick shit off someone’s shoe for a buck. Tommy and Eric are playing someone else’s role and the whole drama thing going on is really tired. KISS should have packed it in after the so called Farewell tour. But to all the fans of KISS, the mystique is much, much better than the reality. Love the memories and laugh at the old fools who can’t let it go. And Ace is right, P&G are scared shitless Ace’s new stuff will be much better than that pile of steaming horseshit Monster was. And for you Tommy and Eric lovers, I think they both have no self respect and as ironic as this may sound, their songs on Monster were the ones I liked most. Up the irons metal heads!
Lanny that was awesome! Thank you ha ha ha!!
I do not know if it will be better, but it sure will be more authentic.
I love Ace!! Always will!! He was always my favorite member of KISS in the 70’s, and I had the poster from his solo album on my bedroom wall until I graduated high school. But I have to admit, he fucked it up!! He wanted the bottle more than the band. That wasn’t Gene and Paul’s fault, that was his! And when Gene and Paul relented and got the original band back together again, he fucked up again! He says his is clean now, and I hope he is. I bought Anomaly, and I thought it was okay. It wasn’t great. But I am sure I will by Space Invader, and I hope it is great. I also bought Monster, and it was a good, solid, KISS album. Why can’t we all just be glad both Ace and KISS are still out there putting out new music and entertaining their fans? In a few years, when all of our favorite artists are retired, we will look back on all of the bitching, blaming, and complaining we are doing, and wonder why we wasted so much energy on this shit.
Great post…unfortunately many won’t understand your very valid and well said points
Saying that G and P “relented” is BS, sorry, it is missing the major point that Kiss was playing to half-empty venues at the time and their album sales were poor (even though Revenge was and still is one of the best records ever made by Kiss), why would they have dumped an album already recorded and paid for (COS) for something irrelevant or just a favour to old members, why would they accept to have to cope – as they alway say -with difficult and unreliable characters again on tour if not for a very good reason?? – So I rather think it was a clever business move for ALL of them whose careers and bank accounts were ALL fading at the time.
threesidesofthecoin.com has a video review, track by track for Ace’s new album, found it interesting
Ppl need to know basic facts when commenting on ace. I think for one ace has and had a way of working and gene n paul were workaholic. There’s nothing wrong with that but I tend to look at facts no hear say if ppl remember it was ace that left twice. He did . Question is do u really ever wonder why.. I think it was in part by ace wanting to do one thing and gene n paul wanting another. Remember before ace 78solo he would and only did shock me after his solo 78do u ever think look at next week albums he was getting 2/3 songs each in those records. I t ruely believe if ace was not a part of kiss there would have not been a kiss especially the one we has all come to love . The problem is gene n paul can reach more ppl in the media and always trying to downplay ace. And again theirs nothing wrong when someone wants to go off n do something else . I mean I was bummed when he quit but still understood why he did.I would think it would like always having someone biasing u around. Some ppl aint cut out for taking orders they like to give out orders. Like theirs always gonna be leaders n followers.. ace is good n both in n out of kiss I wish he would have stayed but it is what it is. I just wish gene n paul would just start with stopping all the ace n peter bashing because they in whole are the ones starting all this nonsense. . I have also noticed in last 1219yrs gene n paul have countless times either have lied or contradicted them selves. Its all on record to see. I think they do what they do today to validate the brand . Because we all know its not about the music it clearly reaks. Gene n paul have clearly n my opinion have more concern of the brand of kiss then the band. Because once u start changing members you do take way that chemistry of what they as a whole created
Major grammar and/or typo issues my friend.