Nuno Bettencourt has spoken about Kiss guitar legend Ace Frehley in the wake of his passing, with the Extreme virtuoso looking back on the influence that the Spaceman's playing had on his own style.
“Man, think about it for a second. How incredible, what a miracle it's been; a run that Ace has had?” he tells Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM (via Blabbermouth). “I hope I get to the age of 74 – to do what he's done and to party like he partied and to be able to do the music and to contribute the music that's gonna live decades and centuries after he's gone. It's a great run.”
Frehley was part of the original and most successful Kiss line-ups across his two spells with the band. His passing followed the cancellation of a string of solo tour dates in light of a fall at his studio.
“Ace came from [what I call] simplexity. It's not simple and it's not complex,” Bettencourt states.
“Everybody thinks you play technical and you play fast, and that's harder. It isn't. It takes a lot more courage and it takes a lot more style to tone it down and play what's right for the song, and that's what Ace did in Kiss – memorable riffs, memorable solos.
“But what was more influential, as a kid, was [that] we were listening to musicians before and we wanted to be guitarists. But when we saw Ace and when we saw Kiss, we started learning how it was to perform, how to put on a show,” Bettencourt goes on. “He changed the game in that way.
“So imagine being seven, eight years old, and seeing this and staring, for hours and hours at the Destroyer album cover. It was a culture that they were giving us. It was character.
“What they did really shaped your childhood, not just musically but culturally. And you don't realize the impact until somebody passes away.
“There was a bond between you and your friends that were all into Kiss that was very different than other bands,” he concludes. “It would be one of those things where it was religion.”
Guitar World scribe Andrew Daly, who spoke to Frehley multiple times across the final years of his life, has also reflected on his impact and legacy.
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