Kiss had a rotating roster of lead guitarists over the decades – but one player in particular may very well have comfortably taken the crown for the shortest stint with the band.

Lauded L.A. studio musician and founding member and lead guitarist of the ’80s rock band Mr. Mister, Steve Farris, had the enviable, or – depending on who you ask, the unenviable – opportunity to join Kiss, at least for a few odd weeks.

Back when rumors were swirling that Ace Frehley was on the way out, Farris was well plugged into the Los Angeles music scene and, at the time, was playing with a couple of members of the country-rock band Poco.

“We started doing original shit and rehearsing down in Playa del Rey… or playing a gig at the Blue Lagune Saloon in Marina del Rey when that was still around, and [we were] playing original shit, [we had] a set,” Farris tells Vertex Effects.

However, the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself after one of those sets…

“Some tall guy comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, Ace Frehley is leaving Kiss. Would you be interested in auditioning for them? And I’m like, ‘Well, I eat peanut butter and jelly every day, and my Volkswagen Rabbit doesn’t start unless I push it off the clutch. Yeah, I would do that.’

“He writes down on a napkin – that's what you did those days – he goes, ‘Call this number; she’s handling all the auditions.’”

Farris frantically put together an audition tape with the help of his friend – record producer and Carpenters lead guitarist Tony Peluso – consisting of “demos I played with, songs I’d written while I was living in the Midwest, recorded in Chicago, instrumentals, things I sat in… just anything I could find that I showed I could play guitar well.”

Farris immediately drove down to an office on Sunset Boulevard, where he found the person who was handling Kiss’ auditions. “I gave her the tape, and she went and played it while I was there, which is kind of weird. So I sat there listening to the tape while she was listening to it.”

He drove off and didn’t think much of it until two weeks later, when he got an unexpected phone call.

“‘Is this Steve Farris?’ ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘This is Paul Stanley from Kiss.’ He said, ‘Gene and I listened to the tape last night. We really liked it. We're down at the Record Plant, cutting a record, and we just have guys come play on the records, kind of an audition. Want to come down? Come down tomorrow at 2[pm].’”

Valley Arts Strat, Goodrich pedal, and CE-1 Chorus in hand, Farris made his way to New York’s famed Record Plant studios. What he witnessed next is forever imprinted in his memory.

“There's four studios there. I’d been in there where somebody had some free time in the middle of the night, but I [had] never been in there to see anything real. They go to Studio D, and that's where Kiss was… sliding glass doors… You look through there, you see these tall guys with black hair, but at that time [1982] you’ve never seen them without makeup.”

After waiting for three hours, and even spotting a certain Bob Kulick – Bruce Kulick’s brother – being ushered out, Farris was finally summoned.

“Paul goes, ‘Hey, I got a Marshall out there, just plug into this.’ I got the engineer sitting here, Gene’s standing up, Paul’s on the other side, looking at me. He goes, ‘We need an eight-bar solo, it's in D or G – I can’t remember – We’ll scroll up the bridge, and I’ll count you in.’”

This turned out to be the title track of 1982’s Creatures of the Night – and, spoiler alert, his solo even made it onto the final record.

In fact, Stanley and Simmons were so impressed that they called it there and then.

“They go, ‘You dye your hair black?’ I go, ‘Yeah.’ ‘So you wear high heels.’ I said, ‘I’ll give it a try,’ and they go, ‘Don’t do a fucking thing, man. We got the guy.’”

“I was the guy,” Farris asserts. “Played two solos. So the next week, I go in and play a little more with them.”

Farris thought it was a done deal until around a month later, when he was asked to sing – a request which was less than ideal considering he didn’t see himself as a singer.

“I realized at one moment, ‘Well, I’m gonna take a stab at this… but if I don't sing, I don’t get the gig.’ So I have the dubious distinction of having played Honky Tonk Women with Kiss, with me singing lead vocal. I wish I had that tape.”

Alas, Farris’ strong suit wasn’t singing, and unfortunately, two or three weeks later, he got the dreaded call.

“Paul calls me and goes, ‘We don’t think you're the right guy for the band. We love your playing. We want to hire you to keep you in session.’”

While Farris ended up playing on a couple of other tracks as a hired gun, the job went to Vinnie Vincent, who stayed with the band until mid-1984.

And, speaking of guitarists who nearly joined Kiss, Punky Meadows, best known as the guitarist for glam-rock outfit Angel, recently discussed the time he accidentally turned the band down.

Ace Frehley’s iconic 1975 Gibson Les Paul just went under the hammer for $512,000 as part of auction house Julien’s' recent “Music Icons” sale.

Nicknamed “Budokan” after Kiss’ four shows at Tokyo’s legendary Budokan Hall in 1977 – which broke the attendance record set by The Beatles – the triple ’buckered, Cherry Sunburst model was a constant companion during Frehley’s tenure with the band.

“Ace used it to record the Kiss album Love Gun in May of 1977 and continued to use it on tour as his main guitar through 1979, when it was relegated to back-up duty,” specifies the listing.

The guitar saw less frequent stage time during 1980’s Unmasked Tour through to the end of Frehley’s tenure in the band at the tail end of 1982. He continued to use it post-Kiss, however, even modifying it to replace the bridge pickup with a black humbucker and installing a chrome Washburn Wonderbar vibrato system with a matching string retainer at the nut.

The guitar was eventually restored to its former specs and even spawned a series of high-end signature model collaborations with Gibson.

In 2011, Gibson unveiled a limited Custom Shop replica of this very guitar, offered in both Aged and VOS versions, alongside a Gibson USA release.

Several of Frehley’s other guitars were also sold during the auction, and even exceeded their initial projections.

These included his modified 1996 Gibson Les Paul Junior “Flasher” light show guitar – customized by Sammy Sanchez – which went under the hammer for $57,600; a 1997 Gibson Signature Les Paul Custom artist prototype that Frehley played during the Super Bowl XXXIII pre-game show, which sold for $76,800; and his 1995 MTV Unplugged Epiphone PR 7E/RS acoustic, which fetched $28,800.

For the full rundown of items sold, including guitars owned and stage-played by Eddie Van Halen and Johnny Cash, visit Julien’s.

The art of luthiery is equal parts art, engineering, craftsmanship… and a whole lotta dreaming.

Les Godfrey from Godfrey Guitars is one such individual who, in his own words, “dreams of guitars all day and night. I just move lines around, and I do like to have fun with the classic shapes,” and has been doing so since his first attempt to make electric basses in 1995.

An apprenticeship with Carl Thompson, Les Claypool’s go-to luthier, and later, a move out to the country were catalysts for Godfrey’s career. “The isolation allowed my obsession with building instruments to be more realized,” he says.

In fact, the Canadian luthier's latest oeuvre, the Telecasso, turns the tried-and-tested Telecaster design on its head – with a touch of Cubism, and, as the name suggests, Picasso – and is the result of thousands of drawings.

“The motivation behind the Telecasso was merely to make a crazy guitar that I want to rock the crap out of!” he says. “Make people think, what the fuck is that?! The Telecasso is very comfortable to play, and it functions on a high level, regardless of the visual differences.”

Godfrey had a few guitar players in mind when he drew up his first back-of-the-napkin sketch.

“The person I design for, or imagine the designs on first, is ’70s era Ace Frehley, as well as Albert King and several others. I also make them with new talent in mind and imagine them throwing down like a maniac with their one-of-a-kind guitar!”

Godfrey explains that the design itself took two to three months to realize, from the initial sketch to actually crafting the two prototypes.

“The Telecasso design just came from drawing lines and arcs [but] I [mainly] based the design on the classic Tele format. That long, curved line and straight line of a Telecaster pickguard... I changed many things, but the weight is similar, and the influence is very much there.

“I see what I like and what I want to stretch, or chop, warp…” he adds. “I like to repeat a primary shape and have that theme and variation carried throughout the design.” As he himself admits, “It’s a challenge. It’s a puzzle and a mind-bender.”

Specs-wise, Godfrey opted for a one-piece butternut body – with a nitro lacquer finish – for the off-kilter model, alongside “one-piece [oil-varnished] necks [with] a very thick profile, no truss rods, [and] special pickups made by MJS [Mike Smitty Smyth] Pickups, which include a hidden coil wired in series with the bridge single coil.”

There is also a push-pull tone knob for switching between series and parallel wiring – the guitar is always in hum-canceling mode, so players can go “from a thicker tone to a more twangy tone, without the hum”.

After Godfrey posted photos of his creation, the Telecasso set guitar geeks’ tongues wagging – an experience that caught Godfrey, who’s been at it for the better part of three decades, offguard.

“I was very surprised by the reactions to the design!” he confesses.

“For the most part, people seem to really like it, while there are others who have been very vocal about hating it. It’s just a guitar. As long as I like it and the customer likes it, that is all I care about. It has always been a custom thing. It’s personal and not made for mass appeal. Almost the opposite.”

Godfrey is already working on his next idea, so expect more off-kilter designs in the not-too-distant future.

“Form and function. It has to excite me,” he says. “I enjoy making many different instruments. My favorite one is usually the next one!”

For more information, head to Godfrey Guitars.

Eric Clapton’s 1913 Gibson Style-0 archtop, nicknamed “Pattie” after George Harrison’s wife and Clapton’s love interest, Pattie Boyd, is up for auction on May 8 as part of Heritage’s Vintage Guitar Auction.

It's the same guitar that was used to write some of the most iconic tracks of Clapton's Cream era, as well as George Harrison’s post-Beatles career

Last May, the historically significant guitar went up for sale on Reverb for $949,999. Now, Beatles and Clapton music fans have another opportunity to lay their hands on a guitar on which tracks like Here Comes the Sun, Something, and I Me Mine were written.

“Few instruments capture a personal and artistic story as vividly as ‘Pattie’ – a guitar that sits at the intersection of love, collaboration and some of the most influential songwriting of the late 1960s,” says Aaron Piscopo, Heritage’s Director of Vintage Guitars & Musical Instruments.

While not much is known about the acoustic’s early years, the guitar – serial number 14106 – met its fate when it was acquired by Eric Clapton in 1968. Prior to that, it seems to have been well taken care of – retaining its original finish and the quintessential Gibson scroll design on the upper boat.

While he was in town for Cream’s October 19 concert at the Forum in Los Angeles, Clapton brought the guitar to the home of Alan Pariser, the manager of husband-and-wife act Delaney & Bonnie, where he ended up meeting Harrison.

As legend has it, the pair shared some of the most fruitful workshopping and songwriting sessions, sowing the seeds for tracks such as Here Comes the Sun, Something, I Me Mine, All Things Must Pass, Let It Rain, and Presence of the Lord, and also believed to have helped inspire Clapton’s Layla.

Fast forward two years, and Clapton would pass the guitar on to Delaney Bramlett, during his collaboration with Bramlett’s band, Delaney & Bonnie. It remained in Bramlett’s possession for decades till his death in 2008. In 2013, it was sold in the Bramlett estate auction, and is now up for sale again via Heritage.

The all-star auction lineup also features Ace Frehley’s 1972 Gibson Les Paul Custom, which the Kiss guitarist used on tour during the band’s mid-to-late ’70s era, with photographic evidence and documentation cementing Frehley’s link to the instrument.

“Ace Frehley’s identity is inextricably bound to the Les Paul,” Piscopo adds. “Its sound and visual presence became inseparable from the rise of KISS and the larger-than-life persona of rock in that era.”

The live auction will be taking place at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, starting at 12:00 PM CT, while the online session will be kicking off at 4:00 PM CT.

For more information, visit Heritage Auctions.

In more recent news, the seventh edition of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival was announced, featuring a packed lineup including the likes of Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, and John Mayer.

Ace Frehley’s legendary 1975 Gibson Les Paul is headed to auction and is expected to sell for as much as $600,000.

Julien's Auctions has helped sell some truly historic instruments over past few years, including David Lynch's Parker Fly, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson's heavily-modded 1965 Telecaster, and some weird and wonderful guitars from Joe Walsh's collection.

The auction house will be at it again in late May, with instruments from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Kirk Hammett also set for new homes. But it's the late Kiss guitarist's workhorse LP that stands as the centrepiece.

It’s being dubbed by Julien's as “one of the most historically significant guitars in rock and roll”. It was by Frehley’s side from the start of his career and was his go-to for the studio and stage, accompanying him more than any other electric guitar in his arsenal over his Kiss tenure.

The guitar, which sports a triple threat of humbuckers, shows signs of its busy life, particularly above the bridge, where its burst finish has been worn away by Frehley's forearm.

The $600k estimate is a reflection of the guitar's prestige. It is, however, a drop in the ocean compared to the $1,315,708 (£1,068,500) Jeff Beck's Oxblood Les Paul – the world's most expensive Les Paul – that was sold last year.

Other notable axes set to be sold at the upcoming auction include the 1969 Guild F-412 12-string that Stevie Ray Vaughan played on MTV Unplugged; Billy Duffy’s 1976 Les Paul, as featured on the cover of the Cult’s Sonic Temple; and Hammett’s very first Ouija ESP custom guitar, which was his main touring and recording tool throughout the 1990s.

The 1987 Gibson HR Fusion 1 that Izzy Stradlin wielded in the Welcome to the Jungle music video is also included in Julien's 800-item collection.

Highlight pieces are set to tour at three Hard Rock Cafe locations, starting at Piccadilly Circus, London, today (March 25) and running until April 13, before traveling to Tokyo, Japan, from April 27. Other items will be displayed at Times Square between May 13 and 30.

The auction itself takes place May 29-30.

Visit Julien’s Auctions for more information.

Following his passing, a host of guitar stars, including Tom Morello, Justin Hawkins, and John 5, have paid tribute to the Ace Frehley.

The 2026 Grammys took place last night (February 1) and proved to be something of a guitar music love-in. From Justin Bieber wielding a 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S, to Turnstile winning both Best Rock Album and, perhaps more controversially, Best Metal Performance, pop stars and quintessential rock bands alike were out in full force this year, flying the flag for the instrument.

The Ozzy Osbourne tribute (or should that be tributes?) took center stage across the weekend. Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll both honored the Prince of Darkness at record executive Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammys gala on Saturday night – with MGK opting for 2007's I Don’t Wanna Stop and the country star giving a heartfelt rendition of 1991's Mama, I’m Coming Home.

The award show’s own tribute took place on the actual Grammy stage, with an all-star lineup that included a Les Paul-laden Slash and Ozzy producer Andrew Watt brandishing an SG, Duff McKagan on bass, and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums.

Post Malone – who collaborated with Ozzy on Take What You Want and It’s a Raid from Osbourne’s first new album in a decade, 2019’s Ordinary Man – took up vocal duties on an abbreviated rendition of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, a version that visibly left the Osbourne family fighting back tears.

Aside from the Prince of Darkness, this year's In Memoriam segment kicked off with a voiceover from Bruce Springsteen, paying tribute to Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson: “The last of the Wilson brothers may be gone, but he leaves behind so many great songs, and good vibrations.”

John Mayer also paid his respects to Dead & Company bandmate and Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir, also in a voiceover: “He understood songwriting to its core, having written and performed some of the most enduring music in American history.

“Bob was a messenger, not only for the music he made with the Grateful Dead, but for the tapestry of influences that birthed it … Bob has left us, but the songs he sang will remain a road map for a better, more meaningful life. See you down the road, Ace.”

Neo-soul pioneer D'Angelo was honored by a host of artists and contemporaries: Lauryn Hill – marking her first Grammys performance since 1999 – Raphael Saadiq, Anthony Hamilton, Leon Thomas, and Jon Batiste.

And while guitar stars, including the likes of Ace Frehley were included in the segment, Mastodon fans pointed out that Brent Hinds was noticeably omitted, with Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and Zappa Plays Zappa bassist, Pete Griffin, taking to social media to call out the institution: “Shame on @grammys for not including my brother (and fellow Grammy winner) Brent Hinds in their ‘in memoriam’ segment.”

The omission seemed particularly odd, given Hinds had been nominated for no less than six Grammys, and won one in 2018 – Best Metal Performance for Sultan's Curse – during his tenure with Mastodon.

Yungblud, Ozzy’s mentee and part of the new vanguard leading rock into the future, won his first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance for his career-making rendition of Changes at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning concert.

“To grow up loving an idol who helped you develop your identity, not only as a musician, but as a man, is something that I’m truly grateful for,” he said in his acceptance speech.

“But then to get to know them and to form a relationship with them, and to honor them at their final show, and receive this because of it, is something that I and I think we are finding a bit strange to comprehend.

“We fucking love you, Ozzy,” he continued. “We would all like to thank Sharon, Jack, Kelly and Aimee [Osbourne] for this opportunity, and everyone at the Back To The Beginning show. Six generations of rock musicians came together in the name of our genre, in the name of Sabbath and in the name of Ozzy Osbourne.

“I deeply love this genre, it’s all I’ve ever known. I want to dedicate it to everyone in the guitar shop that I grew up in, and everyone in a guitar shop or in a bedroom with a dream. Rock music’s fucking coming back – watch out pop music, we’re gonna fucking get ya.”

And speaking of rock music's comeback, Turnstile bagged Best Rock Album for last year's triumphant album, Never Enough.

Accepting the award, frontman Brendan Yates commented, “The community we found through punk and hardcore music has given us a safe place to swing in the dark and land somewhere beautiful. So to our family, our friends, our partners, our peers, and to Baltimore, thank you. We love you.”

Perhaps more surprisingly, the genre-blending band also managed to win Best Metal Performance for Birds, beating the more metal through-and-through acts Dream Theater, Ghost, Sleep Token, and Spiritbox.

More standout guitar moments came by way of Bruno Mars, who, together with K-Pop star Rosé, delivered an overdriven rendition of their global hit APT.

Armed with a black Les Paul – as opposed to his signature Fender – Mars added some extra grit, as well as a squealing guitar solo, to the pop-punk-inflected track as the duo, who were nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, opened the show.

And it very much seemed like Justin Bieber went full-on Mk.gee with a stripped-down, guitar and looper performance of Yukon – from last year's album Swag (which, fun fact, included the contributions of both Mk.gee as well as his frequent collaborator Dijon).

Bieber’s guitar of choice was a left-handed purple 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S that definitely stood out on stage – an off-kilter choice that continues the trend of pop and indie stars à la Kesha and Phoebe Bridgers opting for ’80s and ’90s guitars more typically associated with metal or hardcore, whether for aesthetics or tone (or both).

Here's the full list of winners and nominees in the big four categories – and the guitar-adjacent ones:

Song of the year

Billie Eilish - Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Doechii – Anxiety

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Hunter/x – Golden

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA – Luther

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Record of the year

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA - Luther

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Doechii – Anxiety

Billie Eilish – Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Album of the year

Winner: Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Kendrick Lamar – GNX

Leon Thomas – Mutt

Tyler, the Creator – Chromakopia

Best new artist

Olivia Dean

Katseye

The Marías

Addison Rae

Sombr

Leon Thomas

Alex Warren

Lola Young

Best pop solo performance

Lola Young – Messy

Justin Bieber – Daisies

Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild

Lady Gaga – Disease

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Best pop vocal album

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful

Teddy Swims – I've Tried Everything But Therapy Pt 2

Best pop duo/group performance

Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – Defying Gravity

Huntr/x – Golden

Katseye – Gabriela

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

SZA With Kendrick Lamar – 30 For 30

Best traditional pop vocal album

Laufey – A Matter Of Time

Laila Biali – Wintersongs

Jennifer Hudson – The Gift Of Love

Elton John & Brandi Carlile – Who Believes In Angels?

Lady Gaga – Harlequin

Barbra Streisand – The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume 2

Best rock performance

Yungblud ft Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman, II – Changes (Live From Villa Park) Back To The Beginning

Amyl and The Sniffers – U Should Not Be Doing That

Linkin Park – The Emptiness Machine

Turnstile – Never Enough

Hayley Williams – Mirtazapine

Best rock song

Nine Inch Nails – As Alive As You Need Me To Be

Sleep Token – Caramel

Hayley Williams – Glum

Turnstile – Never Enough

Yungblud – Zombie

Best rock album

Turnstile – Never Enough

Deftones – Private Music

Haim – I Quit

Linkin Park – From Zero

Yungblud – Idols

Best alternative music album

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Bon Iver – Sable, Fable

Tyler, The Creator – Don't Tap the Glass

Wet Leg – Moisturizer

Hayley Williams – Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

Best alternative music performance

The Cure – Alone

Bon Iver – Everything Is Peaceful Love

Turnstile – Seein' Stars

Wet Leg – Mangetout

Hayley Williams – Parachute

Best metal performance

Turnstile – Birds

Dream Theater – Night Terror

Ghost – Lachryma

Sleep Token – Emergence

Spiritbox – Soft Spine

Best country solo performance

Chris Stapleton – Bad As I Used To Be

Tyler Childers – Nose On The Grindstone

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Best country duo/group performance

Shaboozey & Jelly Roll – Amen

Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson – Trailblazer

Margo Price & Tyler Childers – Love Me Like You Used To Do

George Strait & Chris Stapleton – Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame

Best country song

Tyler Childers – Bitin' List

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Best contemporary country album

Jelly Roll – Beautifully Broken

Kelsea Ballerini – Patterns

Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter

Eric Church – Evangeline vs The Machine

Miranda Lambert – Postcards From Texas

Best R&B performance

Kehlani – Folded

Justin Bieber – Yukon

Chris Brown feat Bryson Tiller – It Depends

Leon Thomas – Mutt (Live From NPR's Tiny Desk)

Summer Walker – Heart Of A Woman

Best African music performance

Tyla – Push 2 Start

Burna Boy – Love

Davido feat Omah Lay – With You

Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin – Hope & Love

Ayra Starr feat Wizkid – Gimme Dat

Best Latin pop album

Natalia Lafourcade – Cancionera

Rauw Alejandro – Cosa Nuestra

Andrés Cepeda – Bogotá (Deluxe)

Karol G – Tropicoqueta

Alejandro Sanz – ¿Y ahora qué?

Best música urbana album

Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

J Balvin – Mixteip

Feid – Ferxxo Vol X: Sagrado

Nicki Nicole – Naiki

Trueno – Eub Deluxe

Yandel – Sinfónico (En Vivo)

Ace Frehley had simple tastes in gear. A Gibson Les Paul plugged into a dimed Marshall amp and that was enough to get his rockets blasting – metaphorically, yes, but also quite literally, because the late Spaceman was also a player who liked, who needed, guitars less ordinary.

Here we celebrate five of them, some of which are the most dangerous electric guitars we have seen. And what is rock ’n’ roll without a little danger?

1973 Tobacco Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Deluxe

It's long been rumored that Frehley auditioned for Kiss with a late-Sixties Gibson Firebird in nasty condition. And once he'd entered the fold, he reportedly recorded the band’s debut record with an Ovation Breadwinner.

Whatever. By February 1974, the Spaceman had found a gorgeous Tobacco Sunburst ’73 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe at Manny's Music in NYC. Frehley's first single-cut had mini humbuckers when he bought it, but Frehley quickly swapped them for a combination of full-sized DiMarzio Super Distortion/Dual Sound pickups.

The ’73 LP had Kluson double-bar tuners, a pancake body composed of four-ply maple and mahogany, and a three-piece maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard.

At some point, Frehley contoured the heel with a screwdriver, making it extra comfy, until he all but retired the guitar in 1976.

1976 Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Custom, AKA “The Budokan Guitar”

While it's been rumored that Frehley's ’73 Deluxe had been stolen, the truth is he painted it black, didn't like it, and then turned it into a double-cut. The result? It was time for a new guitar.

Ace went back to Manny's and nabbed a ’76 Les Paul Custom with a distinctive two-pickup look; Frehley added a “dead” middle pickup because he “liked the look of it.”

Again, the stock humbuckers were discarded, with Frehley opting for DiMarzio Super Distortions as he felt they gave him a “hotter sound.”

Now brandishing the guitar that’d become synonymous with the Kiss sound/aesthetic, Frehley hit the road for some of the largest shows of the band’s career, sporting it in Japan (where it was dubbed his “Budokan Guitar”), Europe, and the U.S. Frehley would use guitars modeled after his ’76 Les Paul well into Kiss’s Reunion era and beyond.

1977 Black Les Paul Custom, AKA “The Smoker”

Frehley first developed the idea for what became known as “The Smoker” in 1976 and reportedly used a Black ’76 Les Paul Custom. Ever the mad scientist, Frehley is said to have modified the guitar himself. While the guitar initially acted as intended, the homemade electronics eventually proved faulty.

The Spaceman gave it a second go in ’77 using another Black Les Paul Custom. This time, the guitar and its hot-wired innards held up, seeing that the ’77 version stuck around through the Seventies and into the early Eighties.

So yeah, it held up, but that didn't mean “The Smoker” was safe. To keep himself from being burned by the gobs of smoke spewing from the guitar's middle dummy pickup during the Shock Me solo, Frehley installed a cardboard shield. It's worth noting that his smoking guitar returned during the Reunion era, along with another insane guitar – a ’57 Gibson Black Beauty that shot rockets – which we’ll get to later.

Late-Fifties Les Paul Special (TV Yellow), AKA “The New York Groove Guitar”

As far as we can tell, the exact year of Ace Frehley's infamous “New York Groove” light-up guitar is unknown. But we know Frehley took what would now be considered a sacred guitar – a late-Fifties TV Yellow Les Paul Special – and had the face routed to hold upwards of 1,000 incandescent lights. This was before the advent of LEDs, so Frehley went with bulbs powered by a Ni-Clad battery pack, leading to a mostly reliable unit.

To be sure, the guitar was the brainchild of Frehley, but instead of doing it himself, this time he solicited the services of Milton Bradley toy designer John Elder Robinson. The guitar first surfaced in 1979 while on the Dynasty tour and was exclusively used by Frehley when playing New York Groove from his ’78 solo record.

While generally reliable and certainly cool looking, the guitar wasn't always user-friendly, and the old-school lights often became red hot, leading to burns. In recent years, Frehley played an updated version of the guitar; it was decked out with battery-powered LEDs.

1957 Les Paul Black Beauty, AKA “The Rocket-Shooting Guitar”

It’s a bit unsettling to think that a 1957 Black Beauty was used in this way, but, hey, it’s legendary all the same. In Frehley’s early rocket-shooting days, he’d shoot bottle rockets from his headstock while tufts of smoke spewed from “The Smoker.”

Eventually, that wasn't enough, leading him to push the proverbial envelope. The most famous of his rocket-shooting Gibson Les Pauls would be the ’57 Black Beauty, which can be seen in Reunion-era videos on YouTube; examples include Tiger Stadium in 1996 and Madison Square Garden in 1997.

“The Rocket-Shooting Guitar” featured classic Grover kidney-bean tuners and Ace’s typical dummy middle pickup surrounded by DiMarzio Super Distortions. But this time, Frehley had Steve Carr design a double-barreled contraption that shot rockets at the ceiling of whatever venue he was playing at. Crazy, indeed – but effective.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

After quitting Kiss in 1982 due to his heavy drinking, drug use and stifled creativity, Ace Frehley was seen as a liability in the music industry. He thought leaving the band would be fruitful, but things hadn’t gone to plan. Despite his influential guitar style, swagger, showmanship and songwriting ability, no record company would touch him.

By 1984, Frehley had begun to sober up. He connected with bassist John Regan, guitarist Richie Scarlet and drummer Anton Fig (who had played drums on Frehley’s ’78 solo record and Kiss’s Dynasty and Unmasked) and formed what would become Frehley’s Comet.

Frehley also had tunes. Regan and Scarlet helped him refine songs like Breakout, which dated back to Frehley’s Kiss days and had been co-written by Kiss drummer Eric Carr.

But that wasn’t all, as Frehley was also working with songwriter Chip Taylor on another soon-to-be classic, Rock Soldiers, based on Frehley’s newly adopted “say no to drugs and alcohol” lifestyle – and a certain car chase through Connecticut involving a DeLorean.

But Frehley needed a record deal, and no-one came calling – except Johnny Zazula’s Megaforce Records. Even so, Megaforce only wanted Ace because a young Eddie Trunk, Megaforce’s vice-president at the time, vouched for him, resulting in a six-album deal and the initial sessions for 1987’s Frehley’s Comet.

With Eddie Kramer in the control room and a reshuffled band consisting of Regan (bass), Fig (drums) and Tod Howarth (guitars), who replaced Scarlet after his drug-related firing, Ace hit Right Track Recording Studios in New York City and reeled off one of the finest studio albums of his career.

On the strength of songs like Rock Soldiers, Breakout and Calling to You, Frehley’s Comet proved that Ace was a viable commercial entity amid the ’80s hard rock and glam-metal scene. Now his influence wasn’t only in the past but on full display across stages and on MTV, the latter of which was new to Ace, too.

Frehley’s Comet nearly went gold upon its release – and many, including Trunk, have called for a re-evaluation, meaning it’s widely believed that if it didn’t go gold in the ’80s, it sure as hell has gone gold by now. But no matter, as Rock Soldiers echoed, Ace was back – and just in time, as his album was in direct competition with Kiss’s 1987 album, Crazy Nights.

Frehley’s record didn’t outperform Kiss’s, but it did leave Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley wanting what they once had while knowing full well they wouldn’t get it… yet. As for Frehley, he was just happy to be back in action.

“That album was the first after I left Kiss,” he said. “It took me a while to get my act together, because I was getting off drugs. But in the end, it was a good record. It might have taken me several years after I left Kiss to put that record together, but I was – and I am – happy with the way it turned out.”

Why did you choose John Regan and Richie Scarlet for the initial version of Frehley’s Comet, and why did you replace Richie with Tod Howarth when it came time to record?

I met John at Northwick Studios. I was impressed with his bass playing, and I asked him to be in the band, which really worked out. And with Richie Scarlet being in the band, I was in the process of getting sober, and Richie wasn’t sober. I talked to John about it, and he said, “Let’s get somebody that doesn’t get loaded.” So I fired Richie and hired Tod. Richie was a showman and a little wilder than Tod, who was a little more reserved. But Tod is a talented guy.

Eddie Trunk has a big hand in Frehley’s Comet being signed to Megaforce Records. Did you have trouble getting a deal before then?

Not really. Once Johnny Zazula, who passed away a few years ago, heard the demos of our stuff, and Eddie said he knew me well, I got signed. Eddie was vice president of Megaforce, so they gave me a shot, and the record was a success.

You co-wrote Breakout with Eric Carr while Kiss was recording Music from The Elder, but you recorded it for Frehley’s Comet. What’s the story there?

I actually went to Eric’s apartment, and he was fooling around with that riff, and I just took it to the next level. I kind of rewrote the song and added some guitar parts. I think I wrote most of the lyrics, though Eric might have written half of them. I don’t remember the exact breakdown with the lyrics, but I know Eric came up with the riff, and I worked on it from there, and we finally recorded it for Frehley’s Comet.

How about Rock Soldiers, which has become a signature song for you?

[Singer/songwriter] Chip Taylor came to my house, and we wrote that together. Rock Soldiers was originally called “Just Say No.” I was going to AA, and I wanted to do a song about sobriety, and Chip said, “Why don’t we do a song called ‘Just Say No?’”

I think that was a slogan people used at the time to say no to drugs. So we started the song with that, and then, when we were recording it, Chip walked into the room and goes, “I’ve got a brainstorm. Let’s try singing “Rock soldiers come, rock soldiers go.” So we switched it from “Just Say No” to “Rock Soldiers Go,” and that’s how that song was born. Chip was an interesting guy. When I first started working with him, I had no idea he also wrote Wild Thing, which was recorded by the Troggs.

Eddie Kramer, who produced your 1978 solo record, produced Frehley’s Comet. What was it like working with him again?

I hadn’t changed my guitar sound. It was always the same. Eddie helped tweak my guitar tone. He showed me a lot of micing techniques I wasn’t familiar with, like blending two different mics together. Eddie liked to use a Shure SM57 and a ribbon mic and blend the two together.

Those mics have different qualities; every microphone has its own sound. But the SM57 is universally used on guitar amps, and they’re inexpensive, too. By the same token, every speaker sounds different. Depending on the angle at which you place the mic, that can be very important.

People don’t realize that. People just think, “If the mic is in front of the speaker, it always sounds the same.” But depending upon the angle of the mic, you get a little bit of a different tone. So if you experiment with that stuff, which Eddie did, you get different tones. He taught me how to put a mic far away and blend it with a mic that’s close to the speaker so that you get ambience. I did that a lot.

One of the most singular solos on Frehley’s Comet is on Tod’s song, Calling to You. Do you remember how you approached that?

I didn’t really think about it. I did my best guitar work there without thinking. I just emptied my head! As long as I knew what key I was playing in, I’d do three or four takes, sometimes even half a dozen, and we just picked the best one. A lot of times, we even used Fender guitars. I’d blend the Fender and Les Paul on a rhythm, and then I’d double the solo with a Tele or Strat, so I probably did that for a thicker sound.

The promotional pictures of you from that era show you endorsing Laney amps. Do you use Laneys in the studio, or did you stick with Marshall amps?

I may have used a Laney, but I know I also recorded with Marshalls at that time. I also recorded with a Fender tweed. Sometimes I’d do a track with the Marshall, and then I’d do a track with a smaller amp. But there was a Laney around, and I know I tried the Laney, but Marshalls are just more consistent with their sound.

You were also pictured holding a Les Paul with what looked like a Floyd Rose on it. Did you use that on Frehley’s Comet?

It actually wasn’t a Floyd Rose; it was a torsion whammy bar, and it was a big hunk of metal. [Laughs] I remember using it when I did Rock Soldiers. But when I used the whammy bar, it became too easy to depend on it to get tremolo.

With the bar, you do it with your right hand, and my tremolo with my left hand suffered. So I just ripped that thing off the guitar. I focused on developing many different styles of tremolo with my left hand. I could do fast, slow, up and down. I could even tremolo with my pinky! [Laughs] I didn’t even realize I was doing it at first, but I started barring with my pinky, since I have a long pinky.

Frehley’s Comet was your first album after quitting Kiss and, at the time, your first solo album in almost 10 years. What did its success mean to you?

“I always enjoyed working with Eddie, so that was great. He always thought outside the box. He was willing to try different techniques, amps and configurations of mics and amps. I found a different harmonic range and blended some things together – and that was great.”

One of our our favorite Ace Frehley quotes is something he told us last year: “If I’d known I was going to influence thousands of guitar players, I woulda practiced more!”

He was joking, of course, but there’s an element of truth to the Spaceman’s words. No one ever could’ve accused Ace, a free-spirited (and, in his youth), hard-partying type, of being meticulous when it came to his playing. The Spaceman was more of a grip-it-and-rip-it guy.

“I’m always flattered when people tell me I influenced them,” Frehley told GW in September 2024. “I’ve had so many players come up to me and say, ‘You are the reason I play guitar,’ and I’m always like, ‘Wow…’”

To Frehley’s point, everyone from John 5 to Marty Friedman to Richie Kotzen to Tom Morello to Nuno Bettencourt (should we keep going?) was encouraged to pick up the guitar because of Frehley’s electrified antics.

No, the man from Planet Jendell didn’t possess the skill of Eddie Van Halen, the work ethic of John 5 or the business acumen of Paul Stanley. But Frehley had a vibe, look, style and tone that transcended all that other stuff.

He also had a knack for writing catchy riffs, solos and songs that many kids-turned-rock stars learned in their bedrooms and still play professionally today. Here are six of our favorites.

1. Cold Gin – Kiss (1974)

It’s no secret that Frehley liked to drink in his younger (and yes, some of his older) days. Alas, one of his earliest contributions to Kiss’s catalog was Cold Gin, a hard-riffing drinking song tailor-made for biker-bar singalongs.

There have been rumors that Frehley used an Ovation Breadwinner on 1974’s Kiss, but he ended those rumors last year, when he told Guitar World that – that for most of the album – he used a red double-cut Epiphone Coronet like the one the Small Faces’ Steve Marriott played.

As for the Cold Gin riff, Frehley reportedly came up with it in his head on the subway on the way to a Kiss rehearsal. The rest, as they say, is Kisstory.

2. Strange Ways – Hotter Than Hell (1974)

Strange Ways is generally considered one of Frehley’s nastiest solos. There’s a good reason: it’s heavy, cutting, kinda psychedelic and very off the cuff. It’s got the vibe of a madman – with a Gibson Les Paul slung over one shoulder – standing in front of a mighty Marshall and letting it feed back as he attacks the strings uninhibited – and that’s precisely what happened.

By this point, Frehley had his trusty ’73 Tobacco Burst Gibson Les Paul Deluxe equipped with DiMarzio Super Distortion/Dual Sound pickups. With those in hand, he let rip and produced what Gene Simmons has often referred to as Frehley’s “dinosaur bends,” followed by a hard-charging, frenetic guitar solo.

3. Parasite – Hotter Than Hell

From the album of the same name – and recorded with the aforementioned hot-rodded Les Paul Deluxe – comes this majestic track. It was penned by Frehley, though at the time he wasn’t comfortable singing, so he let his guitar do the talking.

Parasite was a Kiss concert staple through 1976 and returned to the setlist in the ’90s and early 2000s when Frehley returned to the fold. After leaving Kiss again in 2002, Parasite became a Frehley solo staple, with Ace having the courage to sing this time.

Guitar-wise, Parasite is one of Kiss’s heaviest songs, with a curb-stomping proto-metal riff and an off-the-rails solo that finds Frehley demonstrating his version of shredding, which is basically him grinding across all six strings and flying along the neck as quickly as his fingers would allow.

4. Deuce – Alive! (1975)

If there’s one solo that epitomizes early Kiss – and what Ace was about as a player – it’s the outro solo from Deuce. The song appeared on Kiss’s 1974 debut, but that version has this searing solo faded out.

The one we’re blabbing about here is the live version from Alive!, which finds Frehley rattling the walls of a forlorn Rust Belt arena with his ’73 Les Paul Deluxe. If you’ve seen Frehley live with or without Kiss, you’ve seen him perform this solo.

There was simply nothing like watching him slip into another world while he sloppily (a style choice!) lacerated your eardrums with a 100-watt driven Les Paul dustup.

5. Shock Me – Love Gun (1977)

No one could have accused Frehley of being hyper-focused on technique, but that didn’t stop him from writing solos that subscribed to the “song within a song” theory.

Aside from being Frehley’s first-ever lead vocal, Shock Me features a typically repetitive yet catchy riff, leading into a solo that sounds as if it crawled out of the Spaceman’s amp and hit you upside the head.

As usual, the solo is relatively straightforward and, as he told Guitar World in 2024, resulted from Frehley “emptying his head.” He handled the rhythm parts with a Fender Strat but grabbed his Les Paul for the solo, all while plugged into a dimed 100-watt Marshall.

6. Rocket Ride – Alive II (1977)

Remember how we said Frehley wasn’t so technical? For this one, we can throw that out. Rocket Ride, which comes off a random suite of studio cuts on Side Four (an old term from the age of vinyl) of Alive II.

The riff is notable as it features a flange effect, something Frehley wasn’t known for. And then there’s the mid-song solo, which isn’t anything special technique-wise, but is interesting as Frehley deployed a wah, creating a sound and vibe that was unique to him.

Lastly, there’s the end solo, which finds an unaccompanied Frehley dialing into his blues roots and delivering an unusually hyper-focused, yet clearly off-the-cuff guitar solo with a tone that’s rich and enticing.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

A commonly uttered warning is “Never meet your heroes,” but Ace Frehley is a hero I met on many occasions – and I'm thankful I did.

Even though he met countless people, he always greeted me with a big smile and a loud, “Hey, I know this guy! How’s it going, Nick?” He also made me laugh – a lot. He was a truly funny guy, not to mention a master storyteller.

The first few times I met Ace, I was either wearing my “Guitar World journalist” or “Marshall Amplification Artist Relations” hat. Then we became friends – a priceless gift that still blows me away. The fact that I was also fortunate enough to play rhythm guitar on Parasite and Cold Gin on stage alongside Ace at a couple of Dimebash charity concerts will always seem surreal too. Can you say, “huge bucket list item”?!

In the early 2000s, I performed a Marshall demo at a big public guitar show in New York City. Ace was there doing a signing, so I opened by playing a segment from his She solo spot from Alive!.

I apologized to him afterwards, saying, “I hope you didn’t mind me doing that, my friend. I love that part and couldn’t resist playing it.” He replied, “I didn’t mind at all, Nick. You played it pretty well.” Then, after a perfectly timed pause, he added, “But not as well as I do, kid!” before breaking into one of his instantly recognizable, trademark laughs. Classic Ace.

Another unforgettable Ace moment was his touching tribute speech to the much-missed Abbott brothers (of Pantera fame) at Vinnie Paul’s funeral service. I had the honor of being the emcee at the ceremony, which was a celebration of an amazing life, and the speech Ace gave that day was unforgettable – thoughtful, emotional and funny.

Aside from a few texts, the last time our paths crossed was after he performed at the Eagles Theater in Wabash, Indiana, in 2022. His band played a proverbial blinder, and so did he. Ace was 71 at the time, but he performed with the energy and passion of someone less than half his age.

After he’d signed a pile of stuff backstage, he told me an amazing story about how he’d managed to buy the white-gold watch he had on his wrist for next to nothing because, “the pawn-shop dealer was a total moron who had no freakin’ clue what he had or how valuable it was!”

Once again, it was classic Ace, and my sides were aching from laughing; boy, could he spin a captivating yarn. I left the venue that night with a spring in my step and a big-assed grin as I’d just been entertained and inspired by a living legend – on and off the stage!

My thoughts are with Ace's loved ones, family, friends and bandmates. He was one of a kind, and there’ll never be another quite like him. Ace, thank you for the incredible inspiration your playing has blessed me with, and thanks for all the belly laughs! Your music, memory, influence and legend will live on.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

News of Ace Frehley’s passing on October 16 wasn’t just a shock to the Kiss Army, but to rock and guitar communities at large. This was a man who had survived car crashes, police chases, addiction, relapse and two tumultuous stints in the Hottest Band in the World.

The expectation was that the guitarist, affectionately known as “Space Ace,” would live forever… or at least longer than 74 years. If he were going to be taken out, surely it wouldn’t come at the hands of not one but two seemingly innocuous falls in his home studio, right? Wrong. As Frehley told Guitar World in 2024, he had experienced balance issues throughout his entire guitar-playing life.

“I’m mostly a guitar-into-an-amp type of player,” he said. “I can’t have pedals on the floor; I’d trip over them. You’d be hard-pressed to find a photo of me playing with pedals; I’d be shocked if you could find one. It’s rock ’n’ roll, so I don’t need ’em much anyway.”

It was apparent from a young age that Ace – born Paul Daniel Frehley on April 27, 1951, in the Bronx, New York – was born to rock. Like many players of his era, he was influenced by the guitar gods of the British Invasion, especially blues-based players like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards.

As a teen, Frehley, who had experienced a rough home life that led him to join a gang, acquired the nickname “Ace,” reportedly because he had a knack for picking up the ladies. Something else he was also pretty good at by the time he reached his teens was playing guitar. He ditched his studies for it, then dropped out of school and made it his life’s work.

Soon, Frehley found that a life playing music is kinda hard to come by. As a 22-year-old would-be guitar-slinger, Frehley spent his days driving a cab around New York City. It was around this time that he came upon an ad in The Village Voice that read: “LEAD GUITARIST WANTED with Flash and Ability. No time-wasters please. Paul 268-3145.”

The Paul in question was Paul Stanley. The band? Soon to be named Kiss. Frehley showed up at the fledgling act’s New York City rehearsal space on East 23rd Street with a guitar and two different-colored tennis shoes on his feet, one red and one orange.

Frehley has often said that the chemistry between him and the other members of Kiss – Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley – was immediate. But it was Stanley, the other guitarist in the band, that he initially connected with on a musical level.

“More than anything, it was chemistry,” Frehley told Guitar World last year. “But it’s hard to say; it’s always that way with those things. I do know that the little things about my style fit well alongside Paul’s.”

After joining the group in 1972, Frehley was up and running: he designed the band’s lightning-bolt logo and came up with his Spaceman makeup design, lending a hand to Stanley’s Starchild image, too.

But his most significant contribution was an unschooled, frenetic guitar style that took songs like Deuce, Strutter and Black Diamond to the next level. According to Frehley, he didn’t put much thought into it, telling GW, “I was always old-school, with a Marshall turned up to 10, playing a Les Paul. That’s my sound.”

By 1973, Kiss had hooked up with manager Bill Aucoin, and within a year, Casablanca Records label head Neil Bogart had agreed to take a chance on the band, inking them to a contract. Kiss fired off three albums in short order – Kiss and Hotter than Hell (both 1974) and Dressed to Kill (1975) – none of which sold well.

The albums featured Frehley’s fiery playing and a few monster cuts like Cold Gin, Parasite and Strange Ways, which he had penned – although he was afraid to sing – and the anthemic Rock and Roll All Night, but people just weren’t into Kiss as a studio band.

With Casablanca on the verge of bankruptcy and the members of Kiss facing the prospect of getting day jobs and seeing their dreams die, a last-ditch effort came in the form of 1975’s Alive!, a double album that showcased what Kiss did best: play live.

“It broke incredible ground for us,” Stanley told Guitar World earlier this year. “We were building this rabid following, yet we weren’t selling albums that reflected that. Alive! was a sonic souvenir where people could go home and say, ‘That’s what I saw, and that’s what I heard!’”

Speaking to GW in his last-ever interview in 2025, Frehley echoed Stanley’s sentiments. “We felt that our studio albums were good, but they didn’t capture the essence of our concerts. I think Alive! did. A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon.”

Alive! was a multi-platinum smash hit, catapulting Kiss to the top of rock’s ranks. It turned Frehley into a Les Paul-wielding guitar hero overnight. It should have been good news, but it would be prove to be the beginning of the end. By 1976, he had developed a drinking habit.

Maybe it was his free-wheeling personality, maybe it was the stress of being in the spotlight, maybe the guy just liked to party. Whatever the reason, Frehley’s boozing led to him being late to studio sessions for 1976’s Destroyer. The album’s producer, Bob Ezrin, wasn’t having it.

“Sometimes I showed up late because I had a hangover from the night before,” Frehley told GW. “Everybody knows I was an alcoholic. Bob was a guy who liked to get things done quickly, probably because he had a mountain of cocaine and a bottle of Rémy Martin on the mixing desk with him. But, of course, Paul and Gene never mention that.”

Destroyer would ride the wave of success created by Alive!, though Ezrin did sub in session player Dick Wagner on Sweet Pain and the ballad Beth. This upset Frehley, not only because it happened, but because he didn’t know about it.

“I was told Bob did that because he felt my solos weren’t as great as they should have been, so he had Dick play them,” Frehley said.

“But it was more about punishing me for not being on time. I see it as partially my fault but also partly Bob’s fault. The thing that bothered me most was that I wasn’t told he had replaced my solos; I had to find out after I listened to the record at home on my turntable. That bothered me for a long time.”

That wasn’t all that was bothering Frehley, as he was electrocuted during a show in Lakeland, Florida, in 1976; the experience inspired his signature track, Shock Me, which appeared on Kiss’s 1977 album, Love Gun. The song, noted for its slick guitar solo, also became Frehley’s first-ever lead vocal.

Love Gun’s producer was Eddie Kramer, who had captured the likes of Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix on tape, so he knew a good guitarist when he heard one.

“Right from the beginning, I knew Ace would be a star – that’s for sure,” Kramer told GW in 2023. “Ace had intuitive talents; he could play blues and rock, and I loved that he could play all these cool blues licks but make them his own. He wasn’t scared of anything.”

As talented as Frehley was, Kramer had a hell of a time capturing his vocals for Shock Me. “I’d have him on the floor with a bottle of whatever to calm him,” the producer said. “And the more takes we did, the more confident he got. By the second or third take, he was up on his feet, and I said, ‘Alright, Ace, keep going. It’s cool.’”

Love Gun was another big hit for Kiss, but all was not well. Frehley’s drinking and drug use were escalating. Making matters worse – at least for Frehley’s bandmates – was that Shock Me had lit a fire under the guitarist, leading him to consider quitting the band even though Kiss was on top of the world in 1978.

This led to the group’s decision to record four individual solo records and release them on September 18 of that year. On the strength of songs like Rip It Out, Snowblind and the smash-hit cover of Hello’s New York Groove, Frehley’s self-titled solo record was the best – and most popular – of the bunch.

None of this made Frehley want to – or think he needed to – stay in Kiss. He often said he was “more creative out of Kiss” and that he was “held back” by Stanley and Simmons.

There’s merit to this, as Kiss’s next three albums, 1979’s Dynasty, 1980’s Unmasked and 1981’s Music from The Elder, featured more and more Frehley cuts. Those songs, including 2000 Man, Save Your Love, Talk to Me and Dark Light, were often the best tracks on the album.

Frehley’s new confidence collided with his off-the-rails addictions, and in 1982, before the sessions for Creatures of the Night began, he told his bandmates he was quitting Kiss.

According to Frehley, Stanley and Simmons begged him to stay. As Simmons told GW in 2022, "We had to find a workaround for the Ace [problem] – and that wasn't easy because, for all his issues, Ace was a unique player.”

Frehley’s solo career failed to take off, however. What followed was a whole lot of drinking, several near-death car crashes, failed rehab attempts and a separation from his wife, Jeanette. Through the chaos came very little music, but that changed when Frehley met veteran bassist John Regan in 1984, although he was out of sorts, let’s say, at the time.

“As I walked in, Ace was lying on the floor,” Regan says. “He looked up at me and said, ‘Oh, hey, how’s it going?’ He was so unassuming, and didn’t seem to think it was weird the way we were meeting [Laughs]. We hit it off straight away and got to talking. It didn’t take long for us to start chatting about getting together and playing some music.”

Their chemistry was immediate. The good news for Frehley was that his new partner had his shit together, so when Megaforce Records label head Jon Zazula, after some prodding from Vice President Eddie Trunk, threw up a Hail Mary and signed Frehley a few years later, there would be someone around to keep him on the straight and narrow.

For a time, Frehley kept it together, leading to the successful solo album, 1987’s Frehley’s Comet. The record almost went gold on the strength of Rock Soldiers, making it his most successful non-Kiss album. However, the wheels soon came off, leading to more drinking, though Frehley did manage two more solo albums – 1988’s Second Sighting and the mighty 1989 effort, Trouble Walkin’.

By the ’90s, Frehley was in his 40s and drinking heavily; he’d fallen entirely off the musical map thanks to the then-new grunge movement. Minus the drinking, Frehley’s predicament, albeit on a slightly grander scale, had also befallen his old pals in Kiss, inspiring a reunion in 1995 for an episode of MTV’s Unplugged.

Frehley, along with original drummer Peter Criss, joined the then-current Kiss lineup of Stanley, Simmons, Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick for a surprise run-through of classic songs, including 2000 Man, Beth, Hard Luck Woman and Rock and Roll All Night.

This led to Stanley and Simmons secretly shacking back up with Criss and Frehley, despite the fact that behind the scenes, the latter was still drinking heavily and using drugs. As for Kulick, he knew there was trouble in paradise.

“I knew something was up,” Kulick told GW last year. “A reunion was always in the back of my mind. I hoped it would never happen; I always knew it would – especially after Unplugged.”

Kiss’s Reunion Tour saw Frehley gallivanting around the world once again to great success. His future should have been great, but within a few years, and after 1998’s Psycho Circus, a reunion album gone wrong, the wheels came off once again. His drinking and drug use escalated once more, making the supposed Farewell Tour in 2000 and 2001 inevitable – even though the tour wasn’t so much a farewell for Kiss but a farewell to Frehley and Criss as members of Kiss.

When Frehley quit Kiss for the second time in 2002, he claimed once again that his bandmates had begged him to stay. It wasn’t to be. He assumed that he’d pick up his solo career where it left off, but that wasn’t to be, either – at least, not at first.

Frehley didn’t sober up until 2006, but once he did, starting with 2009’s Anomaly, he rattled off a series of triumphant solo records that matched the best of what he’d done in and out of Kiss in the ’70s and ’80s. His most recent record was 2024’s 10,000 Volts, crafted with the help of his co-producer, Trixter guitarist Steve Brown, and one which he felt was his best yet.

Be that as it may, while speaking with Guitarist in 2024, Frehley revealed that he was simply happy he’d survived.

“I got rid of my demons,” Frehley said. “I used to be a bad drunk and did a lot of drugs. I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now if I didn’t get sober 17 years ago. When I talk to young musicians, I always tell them, ‘Don’t fall into the pits that I did.’”

This, along with the fact that Frehley was said to be working on a new album in 2025, makes the news of his death all the more heartbreaking. In the years since quitting Kiss, he’d fallen out with his ex-bandmates, Stanley and Simmons. In particular, Stanley was in his crosshairs.

“A few months before the [final Kiss] concert,” Frehley told Guitarist, “Paul goes on Howard Stern’s show and says if me and Peter got up on stage, you might as well call the band Piss. I don’t know why he said it. Paul’s a good guy; he’s a very talented songwriter, singer and frontman. But he’s hot and cold. Sometimes he’ll say nice things, and sometimes he’ll say things that aren’t nice.”

These comments, along with Kiss’s refusal to meet his monetary demands, were probably why Frehley chose to forgo appearing as a guest during Kiss’s End of the Road Tour, which concluded at New York’s Madison Square Garden in December 2023. Note, however, that Frehley oscillated between saying that Stanley and Simmons wouldn’t pay him enough, and that they never asked him at all.

We’ll never know the truth. What we do know is that by the time GW spoke with Frehley for the last time this past August, he was open to reconciliation.

“I’m the kind of guy that never says ‘never,’” Frehley said. “I don’t hate Paul or Gene. We’re rock ’n’ roll brothers. Peter, too. So anything can happen, just not at this point. I’m having too much fun doing my own thing. Maybe I’ll get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist!”

After his death, Simmons and Stanley sent love to their fallen brother. The former said via X, “Our hearts are broken. Ace has passed on. No one can touch Ace’s legacy. I know he loved the fans. He told me many times. Sadder still, Ace didn’t live long enough to be honored at the Kennedy Center Honors event in December. Ace was the eternal rock soldier. Long may his legacy live on!”

Given the state of their relationship, unsurprisingly, Stanley was a bit less touchy-feely, posting under a picture in which he and Frehley were laughing: “I remember in 1974 being in my room at the Hyatt on Sunset in L.A., and I heard someone playing deep and fiery guitar in the room next door. I thought, ‘Boy, I wish that guy was in the band!’ I looked over the balcony… [There] he was. It was Ace. This is my favorite photo of us…”

Then there was the man who stabilized Kiss’s lead guitarist spot after Frehley’s departure, Bruce Kulick, who tells GW exclusively, “I knew Ace’s passing would rock the music world. I remember thinking, ‘This is like Eddie Van Halen’s death. He influenced so many, and he was one of a kind.’ What I’m seeing online proves me right. His legacy is monumental.”

And, of course, there’s Tommy Thayer, Kiss’s modern-day Spaceman – who, despite being Kiss’s longest-tenured lead guitarist, took a hell of a lot of flak for wearing Frehley’s iconic makeup. Frehley himself often jabbed at Thayer, but that didn’t stop the latter from taking the high road.

“A legend who will never be forgotten,” Thayer said of Frehley via social media. “He inspired generations of guitarists, myself included, to chase greatness. It’s been an honor to walk in his footsteps. His legacy will live forever. Rest in peace, Ace.”

If Frehley’s death feels sudden and unfair, that’s because it was. He had more to do, more shows to play, more music to make. It’s tough to fathom a world without him. As the meme says, “You can be a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot, but you can never be Ace Frehley.” What did the meme mean? That Frehley – while not the most technical player – had a vibe.

He influenced a vast number of guitarists, and he knew it, jokingly telling Guitar World in 2024, “If I’d known I was gonna influence thousands of players, I’d have practiced harder.” Maybe he should have. But what would the point have been? He had the thing that many players who are “better,” worked harder and were “respected” wished they had: the “it” factor. As Kulick puts it, “He defined what it means to be a rock star.”

As Frehley told GW in his final interview: “I’m probably gonna go until the wheels come off!” And while we didn’t expect it to be so soon, we can take solace in the fact that the guitar-playing Spaceman from Planet Jendell lived as he wanted, with no regrets – until the goddamned wheels came off.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer has said there is still a future for the band, despite the fact they've officially retired from touring – and that could include new music, additional live performances, and more.

The glam rock giants supposedly finished for good with a blockbuster show at Madison Square Garden in 2023, which brought their exhausting End of the Road tour – their second farewell tour – to a close.

Last month, however, they played two unmasked concerts at a Kiss fan event in Las Vegas. Their unplugged performance was preluded by a candlelit tribute to founding lead guitarist Ace Frehley in the wake of his tragic passing, and there was a reunion of their unmasked line-up as Bruce Kulick made a special appearance during their electric set.

Speaking to MusicRadar, Thayer believes they could still have quite a busy future.

“There’s a lot in the works for Kiss moving ahead,” he confirms. “We’re not touring anymore, of course, but there’s still a ton happening behind the scenes.”

More live shows, it seems, are on the menu, with the guitarist saying that “the Vegas event was fantastic, and it really exceeded our expectations.

“You could feel that everybody was having a great time. I know the fans absolutely loved it, and I can definitely see it happening again.”

He isn’t ruling out more activity beyond that. He’s already opened up about the avatar versions of the band are in the works, and while reuniting in the studio isn’t completely out of the question, he admits it isn’t a certainty.

“As for another Kiss record, I’m honestly not sure yet,” Thayer says. “It really depends on where things go and how everything evolves over the next year or two. But I do feel like we all still have a lot of great ideas and a desire to keep creating and doing all the things we love doing.”

If rock n’ roll has taught us anything, it’s that farewell tours are very rarely a last goodbye. Just look at Mötley Crüe, who have welcomed John 5 into the band and released new music, since their retirement party in 2015.

Elsewhere, Gene Simmons has apologised for his comments that Ace Frehley died from “bad decisions,” having previously also said that he wished he had shown him more tough love in their heyday.

When Bruce Kulick joined Kiss in 1984, it was clear his playing style was Hendrix-meets-Van Halen – but that doesn’t mean he wasn't impacted by Ace Frehley.

“Ace based his playing on blues and pentatonic riffs with some twists and turns, of course,” Kulick says.

“I admired his vocabulary of riffs. It blended with Kiss songs. Every solo became a song within the song. I always strive for that approach too.”

Like many around the world, he was struck by Frehley’s death in October 2025.

“I’m compiling a file of photos with him,” he reports. “And I’m thinking of all the times we performed together, from MTV Unplugged in 1995 to Creatures Fest in Nashville in 2022. All great memories.”

Few know better than Kulick what it means to follow Frehley, let alone replicate his licks. “He defined what it means to be a rock star in many ways. He was not easily definable – and like Ace once said, he was really a plumber!”

During his 12-year run with Kiss, Kulick had a mission in mind: “Ace influenced so many guitarists, and I wanted to learn what it was about his playing that connected with them. He made me think of a primal Jimmy Page style of playing.”

A Hendrix devotee, Kulick was drawn to the elements of Frehley’s swagger-laced tone which drew from Hendrix’s well. It was difficult to harness.

“He loved Hendrix and Page. But his tone, his pick technique, and choice of notes were uniquely Ace. For me, he was not easy to emulate.

“His solos and playing on 100,000 Years were difficult. It has wildly syncopated riffs with interval jumps that were so special – truly in my mind it defined Ace’s approach. In my Kiss era I wanted to perform it. I kept shaking my head in awe as I recreated the riffs!”

Kulick adds: “His picking technique was unique; fingers were large and wide. The way he held his pick was special to his playing as well. Tone, I always say, is in the player’s hands. Ace had his special tone that I’d never be able to copy.”

Regardless of the expectation laid upon him, Kulick understood the assignment went far beyond even that.

“The responsibility of being the lead guitarist in Kiss was enormous. My era of the band firmly had one foot in the past but one in the future.

“That meant I was to be competitive with the new styles of guitar playing of the ‘80s. There was freedom for me to be ‘me,’ and come up with flashy but memorable solos. The tools of playing also changed from the iconic ‘70s. I had a Floyd Rose tremolo and more gain and distortion, for example.”

From 1984 to 1996 he did far more than just keep Frehley’s seat warm until his return in the ‘90s. Which is why he understands the impact of the Spaceman’s death better than many.

“I knew it would rock the music world. I remember thinking, ‘This is like Eddie Van Halen’s death.’ He influenced so many, and he was one of a kind. His legacy is monumental.”

Gene Simmons has issued an official apology after suggesting that a series of “bad decisions” led to Ace Frehley's death in an interview with The New York Post.

“He refused [advice] from people that cared about him – including yours truly – to try to change his lifestyle,” Simmons said.

“In and out of bad decisions. Falling down the stairs – I’m not a doctor – doesn’t kill you. There may have been other issues, and it breaks my heart.

“Peter Criss, our founding drummer, Paul [Stanley] and myself went to the funeral, open casket,” he continued.

“It was just heartbreaking. Saddest of all perhaps is that Ace just couldn’t stay alive long enough to sit there proudly at the Kennedy Center and listen to – I can’t even tell you who’s going to come out… really impressive people, just to say how much Kiss meant to them.”

After his comment went viral – with many fans saying his take was insensitive considering Frehley has just passed away – Simmons took a step back and apologized in a social media statement.

“On reflection, I was wrong for using the words I used,” Simmons wrote on X (on December 10). “I humbly apologize. My hand to God, I didn’t intend to hurt Ace or his legacy, but upon rereading my words, I see how it hurt everyone. Again, I apologize. I’ve always loved Ace. Always.”

Frehley passed away on October 16, with an autopsy report revealing the 74-year-old died from blunt force injuries to the head he suffered in the fatal fall at his home studio in Morristown, New Jersey.

His death caused an outpouring of love from the guitar community, with his former Kiss bandmates, Tom Morello, Nuno Bettencourt, Steve Vai, and Slash (among many others) all paying their respects.

As I wrote in this space last year, we typically get an early start on our annual end-of-year issue. Therefore – out of necessity – a lot of this issue was put together in late October, including our annual “biggest guitar news of the year” feature.

But, to prove how alive, dynamic and inherently interesting “guitar land” is, I had to update our news feature – literally on the page – almost every day as our printer deadline approached. Whether it was the sale of Eddie Van Halen’s “Kramer Ad” guitar, the Stray Cats’ tour cancellation, Gibson/Epiphone’s Back to the Future ES-345s, Nigel Tufnel’s new Marshall amp or who knows what else, there was always something happening.

Of course, the biggest – and most tragic – piece of “late news” was the death of Kiss co-founder Ace Frehley, a down-to-earth and charismatic guy (not to mention a local boy) who graced our cover several times.

We happened to have an unpublished early-2025 Frehley interview in the can, so it made sense to include that as part of this issue’s 11-page Ace tribute. This "lost interview" conveys everything that made Ace fun to talk to and know – his honesty, his sense of humor and his wealth of detailed memories about the good-ish ol’ days.

This dashing, rectangular and bulbous issue includes...

* Our editors choose the guitarists of the year – 20-ish players who left their indelible mark on 2025, including Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E. Lee, the guys from Mirador, Marcus King, Nigel Tufnel, Noel Gallagher, Stephen Carpenter, Tim Henson and a ton more.

* A recap of the biggest guitar news of the year – including the deaths of Ace Frehley, Ozzy Osbourne and Brent Hinds, plus that massive Back to the Beginning event way back in July, the end of Megadeth, those Modified Marshalls and more.

* The GW gang chooses our favorite new gear of the year, including the EVH SA-126 Standard, the Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble, Taylor's new Gold Label acoustics and many, many more things that we'd love to own.

* A plethora of guitar stars – including Don Felder, Brad Gillis, Kiki Wong, Max Cavalera, Herman Li, Vernon Reid, Joe Perry, Keith Urban, Eric Gales, Richard Fortus, Melanie Faye, Steve Stevens and more – choose the year’s best albums, solos, riffs, songs, guitar moments, guitarists of the year and more.

* A tribute to Ace Frehley, including an interview conducted in early 2025 but not published till this issue.

Not so fast! We've got this stuff too

The Gear Hunter checks in with Paul Reed Smith over at PRS Guitars, a company that's celebrating its 40th anniversary.

We also chat with Nuno Bettencourt (one of our guitarists of the year) and transcribe – for the first time in our 45 years on the planet –Young Man Blues from Live at Leeds by the Who. Our other transcriptions are Shinedown's 2025 track Three Six Five and Buddy Holly's Blue Days, Black Nights, featuring the late, great Sonny Curtis on guitar.

Gear-wise, we explore the history and allure of the Gibson SG Standard, and we review all this lovely stuff:

• Ibanez Q54W
• Boss PX-1 Plugout FX
• Sterling by Music Man Kaizen 7
• Fender American Professional Classic Stratocaster
• Warm Audio Throne of Tone
• JHS Pedals 424 Gain Stage

Finally, we have new columns by Joe Bonamassa, Jared James Nichols and Cory Wong, and we introduce a new columnist, Blackberry Smoke guitarist Charlie Starr.

You can buy new issues of Guitar World at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Hudson News, Books a Million and other stores. But why not save on every issue by subscribing?

John 5 describes his recent tour with Richie Kotzen as “phenomenal” – which is good, because it helped distract him from the loss of his friend and influence, Ace Frehley.

The Kiss guitarist passed in October, aged 74.

“It’s still hard to talk about,” 5 says. “He was happy and healthy. He was excited about the Kennedy Center Honors (Kiss are set to be honored with a Kennedy Center Honor in December); he was excited about doing shows. He was in such a good place, and then he had an accident.

“It’s devastating – he was so important to music, and so important to the world. And it was just an accident.”

5’s Kiss connection doesn’t end with Frehley. The guitarist will be heard on co-founding drummer Peter Criss’ first solo album since 2007. Titled simply Peter Criss, it arrives on December 19 and sees the Catman return to his rock roots, which makes 5 all the more excited.

“I think it’s the best record Peter’s ever done,” he says. “It’s gonna blow minds because it’s so good. The fans are gonna be so happy about it – they’re rooting for their hero; they always want their hero to succeed.”

You’ve been on tour with Richie Kotzen. How did it go?

I love, love, love touring and this one has been so good, man. The shows have been great, the people have been great, and Richie’s been wonderful. His voice is incredible every night, and these songs he’s written are so good. I wouldn’t mind doing it again – he’s been a pleasure to be around.

You’ve played on a few songs from Peter Criss' new album.

He’s been working on this record for a really long time and I’ve been helping him since the beginning. He needed a good producer, and I recommended my guy, Barry Pointier.

I worked with Peter closely, and yeah, I knocked out a bunch of songs for him. So did [keyboardist] Paul Shaffer, [bassist] Billy Sheehan, and [bassist] Piggy D. And Peter worked really hard – he was playing drums every day and singing every day. I’m really proud of him.

As a huge Kiss fan, it must be thrilling to be on what might be Peter’s final album.

It’s wonderful to be part of history! I played on Paul Stanley’s record, I played with Peter, and I’ve played on Ace’s records. It’s funny that I’m so close with Gene Simmons, but I’ve never recorded with him.

Did you approach Peter’s album from a classic Kiss or more of a modern rock perspective?

It was very primitive – I thought, “Back in the day, what would they have used?” and I went with that. It’s one pedal, a guitar, and an amp; and with Barry’s great production it came out wonderfully. Peter was very vocal; he’d say, “Do this,” or “Try that.” He’s very in tune with everything, what he wants and how he wants it. I liked that.

I wanted to keep that bluesy style, but I wanted a little freshness in there. It’s hard to explain; it depended on the song. But I just can’t wait for people to hear this record! Peter’s really excited, too. I loved his ’78 solo record – it’s one of my favorites because of his voice and his vibe. He was the tough one in Kiss; I thought he was so badass.

Did you use your usual Fender Tele and Boss pedals?

Yeah, I used my Ghost and my Phantom. And I used an EVH amp, a noise suppressor, and a Super Overdrive. That was it! It was just total rock ‘n’ roll, and so fun.

How are you feeling after Ace’s death?

Ace was the reason, you know; it was Hee-Haw and Ace that made me want to play guitar. Ace’s image made me go, “This is what I want to do with the rest of my life.” Inspiration is important – it stays with you for the rest of your life. I still love Kiss to this day to an extreme amount. It never goes away. That’s how important Ace is.

Did you get to talk with him in between his first and second accidents?

Yeah – I talked to him days before he had his first accident, and I talked with him after it. After the first one is when he went to the doctor and they said, “You’re good. You’re healthy.”

Ace always had trouble walking – he even had a record called Trouble Walkin’. He always had balance issues. You can see old videos of him onstage in the ‘70s, and it’s just how he was. It’s just so sad.

In August, Ace told us he was working on Origins Vol. 3. Did he ask you to play on that?

Yes, he did. It kills me, man. I was gonna do it with him. I don’t know what song I was gonna do, but he wanted me to play on the record because I did on his others. I’m so sad; I cherish those times.

Your Ghost Tele has been a big hit, and you’ve got the Phantom coming out. What’s the latest there?

I’ve had some signature guitars, and I love the Ghost so much. But this Phantom – I might love the Phantom a little bit more than the Ghost. It’s just so comfortable; it’s got this contour on the body, and this cutaway for the neck. It plays so good, looks so badass, and sounds so great. And it’s going to be available for everyone.

The Ghost isn’t available for everyone because they only made a very limited amount. But with the Phantom, I said, “I want everybody to get it and enjoy it.” And I have a song called Phantom to go along with the guitar that’ll come out with the guitar. But there’s no release date yet.

• John 5’s latest album, Ghost, is available now.

A typical show by Cali hardcore crew DRAIN plays out like a greatest hits of early ’90s metal music videos, with bodies flying off the stage into a circle pit churning with moshers and slam dancers.

But while the crushing tones coming from Cody Chavez’s stable of Jackson guitars may fit the time when hardcore punk and thrash first met, he isn’t stuck in a bygone era – or even the genre itself. In fact, the rhythmically-inclined riffer, who started out playing drums, was a hip-hop head before discovering Kiss.

“I remember seeing Ace Frehley bending backwards doing a solo, and I was just like, ‘Whoa!’” Chavez says. “That’s when it clicked with me. I was like, ‘I wanna be a rock guy now!’”

On DRAIN’s latest album, …IS YOUR FRIEND, his metronomic instincts shine – a rock-solid picking hand maintains a tightly wound, militaristic chug on songs such as Nights Like These, evoking comparisons to all-timers like James Hetfield, who he’s long respected.

“I watched videos of James playing during the …And Justice For All era and I just mimicked that,” Chavez recalls. “I feel like it kind of hindered me at first, because I’d downpick everything, and obviously you can only go so fast. But over the years I’ve found a balance between alternate picking and downpicking.”

He puts that into action on Darkest Days, which builds from a stomping groove into a full-on thrasher. “I was thinking, ‘What would 19, 20-year-old Cody mosh to?’ I’m sitting with my eyes closed, imagining myself in a VFW hall or something, and I just imagined that beat and riff.”

The squeals, screams and dive-bombing licks throughout the 10-song record channel his inner Ace, not to mention Dimebag Darrell. Armed with his white Jackson MJ Series Dinky – he used a Jackson Virtuoso on the riffs – plus Peavey Butcher and Diezel amps, Chavez has all his tricks on display.

The new album distills everything people love about DRAIN, but there’s progression in the songwriting and playing. What was the feeling as you were working on it?

We really threw all our personalities and influences into a melting pot. Not that we haven't been down for that before, but I feel like we really honed in on it this time. And I feel like we’re a lot more mature now.

When we wrote California Cursed [2020], me and Sammy Ciaramitaro were like 20 and Tim Flegal was a little older. Now we’ve been a band for a while – we’ve been on so many tours in vans and buses together. I view this as a more mature body of work.

Your riffs recall elements of crossover thrash and skate punk, but you’re pulling from a broader slate of influences. What else inspires you on guitar?

Life experiences in general, like seeing what Mike Shaw does in Mindforce and what Dennis Vichidvongsa does in Speed. I’ve been listening to a lot of Kiss since Ace passed, going down memory lane.

On DRAIN’s earlier songs you shied away from solos, but they've become more integrated now. Are you shaking off some hardcore purism?

I wouldn’t say that. When I was a kid I’d see guitarists soloing and think, “I could never do that – I’m just gonna stick to playing rhythm.” But in reality, if you practice hard enough you can play like that. I’ve surprised myself over the years by how much I’ve improved in that area. I’m pretty excited to get more of that in these new songs.

Who are your biggest lead inspirations? There’s Dime and Zakk in all the pinch harmonics.

I love Dime and I love Zakk Wylde, especially the stuff he did with Ozzy. And I love a lot of the early Black Label Society stuff. But my favorite guitarist of all time is Dimebag for sure. When I got into Pantera as a kid, he really stood out to me.

I love Regular People off Vulgar Display of Power. My favorite album is Cowboys From Hell – Heresy is undeniable. It starts off with the harmonics and as a kid I was like, “What even is that?” It was all the little stuff that was different from your average thrash or hardcore band. It had so much character.

And then obviously The Art of Shredding is such an incredible riff. But for my favorite solo I’d probably say Live in a Hole from Vulgar – the way it goes into the groove part first is so cool.

What goes into composing a solo for DRAIN?

For this album, we’d have the demos on our phones, then I’d come back home after practice and play them over a little JBL speaker and sit there with my guitar. I’d have an idea of what I want but then I’d think, “I could switch this part up.” It’s about sitting there and figuring out what works best and what sounds the best to my ears.

The solo on Who’s Having Fun matches the vocal melody; I like little stuff like that. My goal on Until Next Time was to sound like Dokken – a glam-metal sound, but something hardcore kids can still dance to.

So for the solo, I don’t wanna say I stole, but I was inspired by George Lynch on the Dokken song Into the Fire. You can hear there are some similar notes, but it’s more the way he plays. I took that energy for our song.

• …IS YOUR FRIEND is out now.

Gene Simmons has reflected on his early days with Kiss, and says he regrets not being tougher on Ace Frehley as the late guitarist immersed himself in the darker side of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.

Speaking with Classic Rock once (via Guitar Player), Frehley – who died earlier this year at the age of 74 – had said, “Alcohol and drugs were my constant companion, my best friend – and worst enemy.” Simmons, who is famously lifelong sober, saw how Frehley's predilections for excess were harming his “brother”.

“If I have any regrets, my hand to God, it’s that I sometimes wish we were smarter and better at trying to help Ace and Peter [Criss, original Kiss drummer] have better lives,” Simmons said at the recent Kiss Kruise event in Las Vegas (via People). “I wish I had practiced more tough love and been more in the face of people that we cared about.”

During the recent Kiss Kruise, the band played their first shows since their blockbuster The End of the Road tour concluded at Madison Square Garden in 2023. Their unplugged show was preluded by a candelit tribute to Frehley.

“All of us are guilty of it, and so am I,” Simmons confesses, saying how such harmful behaviours and issues were never tackled. “Because you want to get through [the tour] for selfish reasons. Because it’s working, and the chicks, and the money, and you don’t want to ruin anything.

“Meantime, somebody who might be your brother is ruining their life by making bad decisions.”

Just months before his death, Frehley was eager to set the record straight regarding his relationships with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, as well as his two departures from the band in 1982 and 2002.

Speaking to Guitar World' correspondent Andrew Daly – who penned a heartfelt eulogy to his friend in the wake of his death – Frehley was happy to admit he'd had his demons.

“I used to be a bad drunk and did a lot of drugs,” he said. “I lost it – a couple of times I overdosed, had several car accidents; just crazy shit. I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now if I didn’t get sober 17 years ago.

“Sometimes people come backstage and show me their Alcoholics Anonymous coin and ask me to rub it for good luck,” he added. “It’s unbelievable that today I’m having a positive influence on people, instead of being known as the maniac trying to outrun a police force in White Plains, New York!”

Meanwhile, Tom Morello has led the tributes to the guitarist, saying he owes Ace a “life debt”.

Ace was working on a new album, Origins Vol. 3, at the time of his passing, and John 5 has now confirmed that he was set to star on the record.

As Ace Frehley himself confirmed in one of his last Guitar World interviews, he was busy toiling away at the studio on what would have been his final studio album, Origins Vol. 3. – a covers album that, like its predecessors, would have featured a host of guitar stars.

Now, speaking to Guitar World, John 5 – who previously lent his chops to Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the series – has confirmed he was set to appear on the album.

“No one has asked me that yet, but yes, he did,” 5 replies, when asked by Guitar World whether he was due to appear on Volume 3.

“It kills me, man. It kills me because he did ask me, and I am so sad. So, yeah… I was gonna do it with him. I don’t know what song I was gonna do, but he wanted me to play on the record because I did his others. I cherish those times.”

5 wasn't just a musical collaborator to Frehley, he was one of his close friends, which made the Kiss icon’s passing – recently confirmed to have been caused by blunt force trauma after a fall – particularly hard to handle.

“It’s still hard to talk about,” says 5, of Frehley's passing in October. “He was happy and healthy. He was excited about the Kennedy Center [Honors]. He was excited about doing shows. He was in such a good place, and he literally had an accident.”

5 reveals that he talked to Frehley right before the first accident and also made it a point to check in on him in the days after.

“After the first one, that’s when he went to the doctor, and got checked out, and they said, ‘Yeah, you’re good. You’re healthy.

“And Ace always had trouble walking… he even had a record called Trouble Walkin’. So, he always had balance issues, and you can even see old videos of him onstage in the ‘70s, you know – it’s just how he was. It’s just so sad.”

John 5's latest interview with Guitar World will be published in the coming weeks.

The last time we spoke to the virtuoso, prior to Frehley’s death, John 5 explained what made him the perfect fit for Mötley Crüe and divulged what’s next for his signature Fender Telecaster.

One of the iconic 'Smoker' Les Pauls that were played by the late Ace Frehley on his final tours with Kiss is up for auction.

The Spaceman passed away aged 74 last month. His former bandmates paid tribute to him during an unplugged set over the weekend, and now the first piece of history-laced gear that is tied to Frehley is set to be sold.

The Gibson Les Paul, which was modified to house a smoke bomb in the neck pickup, was one of the final showman electric guitars that Frehley was famed for playing. There were a number of other "smoker" Les Pauls over the years, as well as one that fired rockets from its headstock, which was auctioned off in 2022.

Frehley's first smoky Les Paul was debuted in 1975, but this model was used on the road with Kiss between 1999 and 2001 on the Psycho Circus and (premature) Farewell tours, which proved to be the guitarist's final tours with the group.

As reported by Rolling Stone, the sale is being handled by Gotta Have Rock and Roll, and the auction is due to go live today (November 19) with a minimum price of $100,000 set. The same auction house shifted Randy Rhoads' Quiet Riot Les Paul in July. It will run until December 5.

“I first came up with the idea of doing the smoking guitar on our very first tour; I used to light it with a cigarette lighter, but it ended up screwing up all the volume and tone controls,” Frehley previously told Cassius Morris. “So I got together with an engineer, and he made a fake pickup, and we used asbestos so the heat of the bomb wouldn't harm the wood.”

As Kiss’s budget grew, the mod got more sophisticated. Early on, a phantom-powered light bulb was placed in the neck pickup cavity, which plugged into his pedalboard and could be operated by a tech backstage. Later, guitars would be fairly extensively hollowed out to make space for a battery-powered device, which Ace could control by using the controls for that pickup.

Visit Gotta Have Rock and Roll to find out more.

Tributes to Frehley have been wide-reaching, with Tom Morello saying he owes the guitarist a “life debt” for his influence, while Justin Hawkins remembered a musician with a wicked sense of humor.

Guitar World correspondent Andrew Daly, who grew close with his idol over the years of interviews, also looked reflected on the guitar icon and his legacy.

From the moment New York native Anthony Esposito picked up the bass, he knew he was a lifer. “I remember playing and getting calluses, and blood coming off my fingertips,” he says. “But I couldn’t get enough of it.”

That passion led to gigs with George Lynch, Ace Frehley and Jake E. Lee – but Esposito was never just a collaborator; he was a trusted friend, too. “Thank you for acknowledging that,” he says. “But I don’t know why!

“At the beginning of relationships, players like that will ask you questions. Your response will determine whether they can trust you and show if you’re the right fit for the right reasons.”

How did you end up joining Lynch Mob in 1989?

I auditioned for a band on Atlantic Records and lost the gig. But one of the publicists said, “I wanna help you out,” and she got me a bunch of auditions. One was in Arizona with Lynch Mob. I got audition cassettes of them trying out other bass players, so when I showed up they were like, “Do you want us to show you the songs?” I was like, “No, I’m good.”

The first song I played was Wicked Sensation – I knew all the changes and they were shocked! They thought I was this perfect fit, like this freak from another planet who just knew where George was gonna go next!

How did you you get on with George Lynch? He can be pretty quirky.

He’s got a sense of humor that offends a lot of people, but I got along with him great. We spent a lot of time together when we were on tour. I got along with everyone in the band. Mick Brown was dear to my heart.

What was the key to locking in with George?

I didn’t come from a rock background; I came from jazz, punk and upright bass. It was my first real gig and I didn’t really know who George Lynch was. But when I played with him, I understood why he’s so great.

I think not having access to that world showed in my playing. I didn’t sound like every other bass player coming off the Sunset Strip – I wasn’t just playing the straight eighth-note thing that was happening in Dokken. I didn’t look at that gig like I’m sure other guys looked at it.

Did George give a lot of input into your rig?

I’d been turned on to the Kubiki bass. Philip Kubiki, God rest his soul, was a genius. He made this incredible bass which looked a bit high-tech for a rock gig, but I it played so great. That was my cornerstone, and I had an old Fender P-Bass.

But George quickly taught me about endorsements! As soon as I got the gig, I must have called seven bass amp companies and had them send me stuff. I quickly found that Ampegs sat perfectly with what I was trying to do.

After we did Wicked Sensation I was like, “I need a touring rig.” I had them send out stuff for my wall of a backline – but when the tour was over, I sent all the gear back, which shows my ignorance at the time! They were like, “Nobody ever returns anything. You’re like the only guy!”

The original version of Lynch Mob quickly broke down. What happened?

We were on tour with guys like Jeff Tate from Queensrÿche and Tom Kiefer from Cinderella – consummate pros. They don’t miss a note ever, but Oni Logan would take a while to warm up onstage. I don’t think he warmed up before gigs so he struggled for the first couple of songs. George was like, “I’m not waiting until this guy learns how to sing,” and that was that.

You stuck around for another album before departing.

George and I did the lion’s share of interviews when we did press. We’d do like 10 or 12 a day to promote a record. The first question to George was always. “When are you going back to Dokken?” George would say, “No, this is a band. I love being in Lynch Mob.”

But when he fired Oni, and we got Robert Mason to sing on the second record, it was a totally different vibe. George found problems with Robert and wanted to get a third singer. I was like, “If you do a third record with a third singer, it’s gonna look like it’s your solo project until you go back to Dokken.”

I was like, “You have two choices in regards to me. One is to get Oni back, get him vocal lessons, and deal with that. The other is to keep Robert and address the issues that bother you.” I joined because it was a band and an equal split. It wasn’t a hired gun situation, but here he was changing singers like he was changing socks.

But you hooked back up with George in the late ’90s.

That was supposed to be a George Lynch solo album. I was visiting my friend in the A Room of a studio. My friend was like, “You know who is in the D room? George – it’s a solo record. You wanna play on it?” I agreed with it being a George Lynch solo album. Then Robert ends up singing on it and it’s a Lynch Mob album.

I still own a third of the Lynch Mob name because after the issues with Oni were resolved, it went back to a four-way ownership to this day. So I was like, “If you’re gonna call it a Lynch Mob album, I’m entitled to a cut. I’m not just gonna get an amount of dollars to play bass.” The whole thing was weird, but we toured until things fell apart with George, as usual.

When we did the second album he was re-editing the video and redoing the artwork, and I was like, “What the hell are you doing? You’re not an art director! Put your ideas in and have them run with it. We hire amazingly talented people to do this, George. Just play guitar. You gotta get out of your own way.”

I used to tell him that all the time – so it’s funny that, in an interview I just saw, he said something like, “I probably would be better off if I just played guitar!”

You started working with Ace Frehley in 2006. What was he like, having just gotten sober?

When I met Ace I was 11 years sober. We talked a lot about that, worked through that a lot, and started going to meetings. He was really going for it, and I was proud of him for how he handled it. I was introduced to him by a friend of mine, Frankie Gibson, who’s in the Hells Angels.

I went up to the house with a bass. He was in his studio and said, “Let’s play – just plug into that Marshall over there.” It was the red Tolex Marshall he used on the Destroyer tour. Another friend of his, a truck driver called Jeff, was there, too. Ace was like, “Jeff’s gonna play drums.”

I was like, “Great! The first time I’m playing with Ace Frehley, and I’m jamming with a truck driver and playing through a guitar amp!” But it turned out great and we became super-close friends. I was lucky to be brought into his immediate circle of friends – not just music, his real circle.

Many people don’t realize you were instrumental in Ace relaunching his solo career.

He was like, “I wanna do another solo record.” I was like, “I think you should – but I seriously think we should go out on a run before we try to record; get your live chops up and get fierce again.” We put a band together with Scot Coogan and Derek Hawkins, and that was the beginning of that run.

After that two or three-week run, we went in and started working on Anomaly. Ace was like, “I want you to co-write with me,” but I was like, “Honestly, I don’t wanna co-write. I don’t think your fans want to hear what I have to say. You haven’t made a solo album in years. They wanna hear where your head’s at.”

How did you put the music together for Anomaly?

He had all these dictaphones he’d used on the Kiss farewell tour for licks and stuff. We’d find a great verse and put it on a dry-erase board until we could pair it up with another verse. Once we had 10 or 12 pairs that we thought were really good, we brought Anton Fig in and started jamming.

Ace’s second act as a solo artist took off after that. You stayed with him until 2015. Why did you leave?

There’s so much stuff when you’re with Ace; and I was more than just the bass player. I was his friend. You get a target on your back because everybody wants to be that guy who Ace turns to.

I always told him, “The term ‘ex-Kiss guitarist’ opens up a lot of doors, but with that comes the burden of the greatest live rock show ever. You’ve gotta give your fans a show.” I came up with the blue plexiboard baffle boards on the amps, and the big backdrop with the lasers, and the walk-on voice saying, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…”

Ace was all about it. He loved it, was watching his weight. But a lot of the change had to do with when he started going with Rachel Gordon.

After you left Ace’s band in 2015, you joined Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel.

They’d done their first record, and Greg Chaisson had come down with throat cancer, so Jake needed a bass player. My son was the best man at Jake’s wedding. We were sitting on my porch when they were on the phone, and my son said, “Jake wants to know if you wanna play bass with him.”

I was like, “Totally. I’ll do it tomorrow – what do you want me to learn?” That’s just how it goes; I was blessed again to play with another gifted musician. Jake a total musical guy who just happens to be a phenomenal guitar player. I grabbed the gig as hard as I could.

Have you considered why you always seem to end up beside such great but enigmatic guitar players?

I am notoriously known for being brutally honest, even at the risk of losing my gig. Ace loved it because he was surrounded by people who’d say he could do no wrong – they’d just ‘yes’ him to death. I never did that. They want the truth because they wanna know if the direction is right.

I’ve always put my guitar players first, before my own personal gains. With Ace I’d say, “What’s the best thing for his career right now? What should he be doing?” It’s the same with Jake: I put him first. Every once in a while, he’ll ask me what I think, but it’s his band.

And Jake knows very well how he wants to represent himself, so I just wanna help him get his music out to the people in the manner that he’s hearing it. Anything that Jake wants to do, I’d love to be a part of. I’m honored to be his friend, and even more honored to be the guy that he wants to look over to on stage right.

What’s next for you?

Jake’s gone through so much physically and emotionally after losing Ozzy and getting shot. So, his world, I think, could go two ways – he’ll let the music fly out, or not. It’s up to him.

I’m kind of shaken up too. He got shot a year ago, almost to the day that Ace died. And I lost Ace, who was really dear to me. Heaven forbid anything happens to Jake. So, I’m going out there next week just to sit next to him at a bar and catch up.

Kiss have marked their first show in nearly two years by paying tribute to the late guitar hero Ace Frehley.

The Spaceman, who was absent from the band’s 2023 farewell tour, died aged 74 last month, with his death ruled to be accidental.

And while the American rock giants are enjoying a reunion of sorts at the latest – and now landlocked – iteration of their Kiss Kruise event, the band preluded an unplugged performance with a candelit two-minute silence for their founding member.

Electric candles, handed out to the crowd before the show, were held aloft as the band took to the stage. It was Paul Stanley, flanked by Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer, and Eric Singer, who spoke to the crowd.

“We certainly had differences, but that's what family is about,” he says. “Why don't we take a moment to think about him looking down on us, and let's have a moment for Ace.”

Indeed, Frehley, who left Kiss for the last time in 2002, was rumored to perform at their final show at Madison Square Garden in December 2023. However, he said that they later changed their mind.

Tributes to Frehley have come pouring in since the news of his death. Tom Morello said he owed Frehley a “life debt,” while Justin Hawkins reflected on his unusual run-in with the guitarist. Guitar World correspondent Andrew Daly, who spoke to Frehley a dozen times over the last few years of his life, also looked back on their friendship and reflected on the guitar great's legacy.

Ace Frehley, legendary rock guitarist and original member of Kiss, passed away on October 16, and an autopsy report has revealed the cause of his death.

According to the Morris County Medical Examiner's Office, the death was ruled an accident. The 74-year-old died from blunt force injuries to the head that he suffered in a fatal fall.

The report states that Frehley sustained facial fractures near the eyes and left ear, with further skull fractures at the back and side of the head. There was also additional bruising on his right hip and upper thigh, and left abdomen and thigh area.

The guitarist suffered the deadly fall on September 25 and was immediately hospitalized. According to TMZ, Frehley was placed on a ventilator due to a brain bleed. His health failed to improve, and it was reported that Frehley's family ultimately made the difficult decision to remove his life support.

The family announced his death in a statement shared exclusively with People on October 16.

“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," the statement read.

“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!”

News of Frehley's death was met with a flurry of tributes from the guitar world – including his former Kiss bandmates, Tom Morello, Nuno Bettencourt, Steve Vai, and Slash.

Guitar World contributor Andrew Daly, who spoke to Frehley a dozen times in the final years of his life, also looked back on the guitar great's legacy.

Ace Frehley strides purposefully into a sushi bar in North Hollywood, his bearing every inch the rock star.

Dark glasses hide the strange downward cast of his eyes – an inheritance from his Dutch mother – and he sports a black beard that gives him the look of an inscrutable warlord, conferring a gravity and a self-assurance that he never had before, not even in 1977, when Kiss were named the most popular band in America by no less an authority than the Gallup Poll.

“That gave me a sense of false confidence,” Frehley says of the honor. “For a while I believed that we were better than we were.”

At the time of our meeting, Frehley is just weeks from releasing Anomaly, his first solo album in more than 20 years, which will be issued in September on his own Bronx Born Records label. The new songs ripple with authority and radiate a sense of danger that recalls the wanton spirit and fire-breathing heat of his early years with Kiss.

The track Genghis Khan is a Kashmiri nightmare wrought in guitar exotica, while the instrumental Fractured Quantum picks up the frenetic thread Frehley began on his self-titled 1978 solo debut and continued with on his subsequent records. Then there’s his indulgent cover of Sweet’s Fox on the Run, which recalls some of a rock band’s racier exploits.

“Oh, I got my share,” Frehley says, when queried about Kiss’ body count.

As much as his fans have been waiting for Anomaly, they want to know why it took Frehley 20 years to follow up on his previous release, 1989’s Trouble Walkin’.

“I’m still shocked when people say, ‘You haven’t done a studio record in 20 years,’” he says. “I try to make excuses for it, but the truth is I just wasn’t with it.”

Frehley is referring to his past drug and alcohol use, which hindered both his creativity and his musical ambitions. Those impediments vanished three years ago when he got sober. He says, “All my creative powers were unleashed. I wasn’t sedated anymore.”

Undoubtedly, his problems had been exacerbated by his dismissal from the group he cofounded and whose success he helped create: after performing with Kiss in February 2002, at the close of the Winter Olympics closing ceremonies, Frehley was unceremoniously replaced by former Black ’n Blue guitarist Tommy Thayer. Seven years after Frehley was fired, the subject still rankles him.

For many Kiss fans, his departure was a major letdown. Ace Frehley humanized the monsters of rock, whether with his maniacal laugh or his failure to put on airs.

“I’m just a down-to-earth guy,” the man once known as “Space Ace” says without a touch of irony. But that lack of pretense is part of his appeal. Bill Aucoin, Kiss’ former manager, says, “Ace was always the one who would tell it like it is.”

Apparently, that quality endeared him to many. The preponderance of Kiss fans that use the Facebook application “What Kiss Member Are You?” chose Ace as their favorite of the foursome, as did 79 percent of the respondents to a 2007 poll at DemocraticUnderground.com. As one fan wrote, “He was the George Harrison of Kiss.”

Frehley appreciates those sentiments but finds them ironic. “If I’m so popular,” he asks rhetorically, “why did they replace me with Tommy Thayer?”

As the sushi arrives, Ace settles in for what turns out to be an in-depth and candid discussion about getting clean, cutting his new album, and putting Kiss behind him for good.

It’s been 20 years since your last solo album. How did you know it was time to record a new one?

“I almost felt like I didn’t have a choice. I realized it’d been way too long since the last album. It still took me over two years to finish the record. I had done a bunch of songs in 2007 and had them mixed. The mixes were okay, but I wasn’t going to settle for that. I had some of the songs remixed three different times but it still wasn’t right. It really only came together in April.

“But probably the most significant factor is that I got sober three years ago. My whole life I had been telling myself that I need this stuff to create, only to find out that I’m more creative without it. There’s that sick little voice in your head that tells you that you need alcohol to socialize, to do this or that, and none of it is true. It’s just your insecurities that make you think and feel that way.”

When you were drinking a lot, did you still pick up the guitar?

“No, but then I never practiced every day anyway. I don’t like to practice; I like spontaneity. When I don’t play guitar for a week and I pick it up again, I play better.”

What kept you from creating besides being fucked up?

“It was more than drugs that kept me from creating. Because of the drugs, I had created situations and problems that prevented me from doing anything. So things weren’t going right with business and things weren’t going right with family. That hinders your creativity big time.

“If you keep throwing a monkey wrench into the machine again and again, eventually the machine doesn’t work right no matter what you do. Everything becomes problematic.”

Did you always know you were going to do your own albums? Were there songs that you were writing that didn’t work for Kiss?

“Yeah, a lot of my songs would get turned down. There was always that competition between us. I knew I was destined to do a solo album, but when I did that first album in 1978, I had no idea it was going to be that well received.” [Frehley and his Kiss bandmates each released a solo album simultaneously in 1978. Frehley’s sold best and had the only hit, New York Groove.]

Do you think your talents were undervalued by Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons]?

“They would make decisions without consulting me, and it got really frustrating.

“Paul and Gene never wanted to give me the credit that was due. In a lot of instances they tried to bury the fact that I made certain contributions. For that matter, I can’t remember Paul or Gene ever saying, ‘Wow, that was a great solo.’ I know that, for a while, they weren’t saying good things about me, and that’s okay – what goes around comes around.”

But their criticisms are always about you being fucked up.

“Yeah, but I usually did my job.”

Well, you were in a band with some of rock’s hardest taskmasters. You were always closest to Peter [Criss], but you shared a room with Gene. How did that happen?

“I was closest to Peter, but Paul and Peter were close too. Nobody wanted to room with Gene, so I got stuck. I got the short straw.”

Kiss fans always have their favorite member of the group. Even today, most of the people who use the Facebook application “What Kiss Member Are You?” choose you.

“I don’t think Paul and Gene ever understood that. If they did, why would they have replaced me with Tommy Thayer? Sure, it was profitable for them in the beginning, but that was because nobody knew it was Tommy Thayer [because he was wearing Frehley’s “Spaceman” makeup and costume onstage]. And Paul and Gene were burying that fact.”

Do you think it’s worse for Tommy to have to be you, or for you to see Tommy be you? He didn’t even get his own persona.

“Well, he didn’t get his own makeup because of the merchandising machine that Gene has in place with Sony Signatures. To create a new face just for him would be a big problem. So it all comes down to dollars and cents rather than doing what’s right.”

Why did you call this new album Anomaly?

“I was originally going to call it ‘Pax Eternal’, which means ‘peace eternal’, but I started getting negative feedback about the name. I was sitting in the hotel room with my assistant, Frank Munoz, and we were kicking around ideas while surfing the internet. I said we should look for one-word names. All of a sudden I just said, ‘Anomaly,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah.’”

So what’s the anomaly?

“I’m an anomaly. I’ve always felt a little different and apart from the crowd. Everybody’s gonna read something deeper into it, and maybe there is. But, you know, maybe there’s not.”

Was there anything you were aiming for with this record?

“I actually listened a lot to my first solo album, which everybody cites as their favorite Ace Frehley record. I was dissecting what was special about that record. It had a lot of different elements, and I kind of tried to do the same thing with this album.”

In the years you weren’t making albums, did you think you’d lost what you had?

“I did lose it for a while. If I hadn’t made the decision to clean up my act, who knows what would have happened? I don’t even know if I’d be alive right now.

“In 2003, I had a really bad detox. I fell down a flight of stairs. I screwed up my shoulder and neck and couldn’t play guitar for a while. And I thought God had just taken it all away from me. All these crazy things ran through my head. I’ve always been great with computers, and after I fell I forgot how to use all of my programs. I had to learn how to do everything all over again.”

How did you relearn?

“I did it the same way I did it the first time – I taught myself. I never took a guitar lesson, I never took a computer lesson. But learning the second time was a lot easier because my mind was clear. Now I’ve relearned everything that I knew, and more – and I learned it better than before. I’m thinking clearer, and I’m writing songs that are as good as or better than anything I’ve written before.”

You’ve had other major mishaps over the years. Back in 1976, you were electrocuted during a show.

“I almost died. It was a pretty traumatic experience. I had burns on my fingers; I was knocked out. I woke up behind the amplifiers and said, ‘I can’t play.’ Then the fans started chanting my name, and I finished the show, but I had no feeling in my hands.

“I don’t know how I continued to perform that night. I guess it was all adrenaline. For a few days afterward I was very nervous, because I had read that a guy in some band got electrocuted and died two days later. So I was wondering if I was going to die.”

I think the most harrowing thing you ever did was get in an accident in your DeLorean, driving 110 mph against traffic on the Bronx River Parkway.

“You know the lyrics of my song Beneath the Angels? The second verse goes, ‘I’ve been told I got nine lives and maybe even 10.’ That explains it.

“I don’t dwell on the old stuff. I know I’m exactly where I should be right now, and I’m okay with it. I really don’t even want to hold grudges about the past; I let it roll off my back for my own personal sanity. If you hold onto negativity it’s just going to eat away at you. You’ve got to let all that stuff go. If you do that, somehow everything comes full circle.”

You’d been writing songs for years without releasing anything. What were the songs that made you feel inspired to make this album?

“It was probably Pain in the Neck and Genghis Khan. Those two were written within a week of each other, and I started writing those in 2004. There’s also a song on there called Sister that I recorded 15 years ago or more.”

Is the song Too Many Faces about Kiss?

“Yeah, I guess subconsciously I may have been thinking that. But it wasn’t a blatant statement about them; it’s just about how people change their faces and how faces look back at you. There’s a line about how I felt I had lost my identity. And that’s how I felt with Kiss after a long period of wearing makeup. I didn’t know who the hell I was anymore.”

Did you ever feel lost in your character?

“Yeah.”

Although in the beginning you were that character.

“Right. And that character is still a big part of me, because I created it. It’s just that at the height of our popularity we always had to be seen in that makeup, and so to be that character 24/7 got overbearing.”

Anomaly has some of the best playing of your career. What do you attribute that to?

“I don’t know. It’s like I said before, I don’t practice every day. And I hate doing things over and over.

“With Paul and Gene, we’d be doing, say, the Destroyer record and they were doing, like, 25, 30 takes. If I don’t get it in two or three takes I’ll take a break, because even if you get it right, it’s lost all spontaneity. It’s usually my first or second take that we keep, and if there’s a couple of wrong notes we just punch it in.”

Were you a guitar savant at a young age?

“No. I was good; I wasn’t great. I still don’t think I’m a great player. There are guys that play circles around me. But it’s a combination of my songwriting, my voice, my attitude, my persona... It’s the package. I know great guitar players that don’t have any image or personality. And you need it all.”

What has changed most about your playing over the years?

“I think I’m being driven by the fact that for a while I was pushed down, and so I feel like I have to prove to everybody that I’m back.

“After I left Kiss in 2001, they told everyone I couldn’t tour anymore, that I was fucked up. I felt like that wasn’t going to be my epitaph. So I decided to get strong and get sober and show everybody what I really can do and what I could have done if I had been more together. It’s weird that my time is coming this late in life. But better late than never.”

Looking back, how do you think people viewed Kiss?

“I think a lot of musicians, serious musicians, wrote us off as clowns. I understand it, you know? The other day I was listening to Alive IV and even Alive II, and I really wasn’t happy with the mix.”

What do you know now about life that you didn’t know when you started with Kiss?

“Well, I’m a lot smarter about business matters. I was pretty out of the loop back then. After you get screwed four or five times, you start reading the fine print. I have a much better overview of the business – I look at it as a producer, as a songwriter, and as a performing artist. And it’s nice to be able to do that.”

Could you be who you are now without having been in Kiss?

“Well, I knew I was destined to be a rock star. I just knew it. If I hadn’t been in Kiss I would have been someplace else. I remember when I was 15 or 16, I would go see the Who, Cream, and Hendrix. They were all great, but I said, ‘I know I can do that. I’m gonna do that.’”

Are you still in touch with Paul, Gene, or Peter?

“I haven’t spoken with Paul and Peter over the last couple of years. I haven’t spoken to Gene since I left the band.”

Do you still feel a loyalty to them, to Kiss as an entity?

“I don’t know if ‘loyalty’ is the right word. I feel a connection. The four of us did have a chemistry that was unique to us, but I think it might be gone at this point, or impossible to recapture.”

If the circumstances were right, could you do something with the same lineup again?

“I think that time has probably passed. It came and went. But that’s okay. I did the reunion tour; I feel I was there for them when they needed me.”

Paul recently said that Kiss could continue on without any of the original members. Do you agree with him?

“That’s not my idea of what Kiss is. Maybe that’s his idea. You know, they say things like that just to cover their asses, so that they can carry on and still say it’s Kiss. That’s all that is: smoke.”

• This interview originally appeared in Guitar World in 2009. Subscribe and save.

The loss of Ace Frehley has weighed heavily on the rock community, and Justin Hawkins is the latest to champion his maverick brilliance in a heartfelt tribute.

The larger-than-life Kiss guitarist passed away earlier this month aged 74, and the tributes to him have come pouring in. Tom Morello has even gone on to say he owes the Spaceman a “life debt” for his contributions to one of America’s most extraverted bands.

Now, Hawkins has followed suit, dedicating an episode of his Justin Hawkins Rides Again series to discuss why he felt Frehley was one of a kind.

“When I think of Ace Freely, I think about a couple of brilliant encounters that I had with him over the years,” he says, having toned down his usual louder-than-a-Marshall-stack attire for a more somber, yet still celebratory, episode.

He goes on to share a photo of himself and Frehley from the Monsters of Rock Cruise, saying, “If every picture tells a story, so does this.”

A feud between the Space Ace and Hawkins’ band, the Darkness, had erupted after the former’s set pushed the latter's back by around 40 minutes. When he did grace the stage, Hawkins took aim at Frehley, joking that “the most important thing about rock n’ roll is punctuality.”

There was also a joke about wig adhesive being on Frehley’s rider – “which is unreasonable when we’re in the middle of the Caribbean.” The crowd lapped up the frontman’s humor. Frehley’s camp not so much.

“A couple of Ace’s people were furious; I got cornered by a couple of Ace's people who were asking if I had a problem,” he reveals. “The way they asked me, I started to wonder if we did have a problem. I thought I was going to get thrown overboard just for having a bit of wig-based amusement.

“I think it's obvious from that footage that I was just pissing about,” he adds. “So they said, ‘Well, Ace is sitting in the corner if you want to go and talk to him.’ So I did. I went over and sat down with Ace Frehley, and I said to him, ‘I didn't realize it was such a touchy subject.’

“But he was laughing to me about the wig, saying it’s just easier to maintain. I had a lovely conversation with him. It was a good moment. But he didn’t remember me from when we performed at a corporate event together.”

Crucially, though, he was a rock star who could take a joke.

As the guitar world continues to pay tribute to the late Ace Frehley and the immense legacy he left behind, Tom Morello has honored the Spaceman by sharing how the late Kiss guitarist inspired his musical journey.

On the October 17 episode of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Morello discussed why Frehley was – and still is – his ultimate guitar hero, despite his own playing sounding “nothing like Ace.”

“Kiss was the band that made me love rock and roll, and he was the lead guitar player of that band,” he says matter-of-factly [transcribed by Blabbermouth]

“I mean, without him, I don't know whether I would've ever wanted to play guitar. It was totally formative. Kiss was the supernova that made me light up and think, ‘Oh, this is something I might wanna do for the rest of my life.’”

He continues, “And the lead guitarist of that band, a crucial part of that band, an indispensable part of that band's original chemistry, was Ace Frehley. So I owe not just an artistic debt to him, but just a life debt to him. Every riff that has ever come, every guitar solo that's ever been a part of my life has its origins, the DNA imprint of Ace Frehley.”

Morello has been vocal about the impact Frehley has had on him, taking to Instagram when the Kiss guitarist's death was announced. “The legendary Space Ace Frehley inspired generations to love rock ’n’ roll and love rock ’n’ roll guitar playing,” he wrote.

“His timeless riffs and solos, the billowing smoke coming from his Les Paul, the rockets shooting from his headstock, his cool spacey onstage wobble and his unforgettable crazy laugh will be missed but will never be forgotten. Thank you, Ace for a lifetime of great music and memories.”

Since Frehley's death, a plethora of guitarists have come out and paid their respects, including Nuno Bettencourt, Steve Vai, and Slash, to name a select few.

Guitar World scribe Andrew Daly, who spoke to Frehley on a number of occasions over the past few years, also looked back on why Ace was the true embodiment of rock ‘n’ roll spirit.

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.

You probably won’t believe this, but for the last week or so, I’ve had a creeping feeling that another amazing player whom I’d come to know personally was going to die.

Call it a journalist's intuition. Call it my anxious nature being egged on by the hot disaster the world has become. And sure, in this racket, which often includes interviewing elder musicians who didn’t always take great care of themselves, death goes hand-in-hand with the words.

This is fair to say. Still, I hoped I was wrong.

After John Lodge’s death on October 10, which came after Brent Hinds’ death on August 20 and Ozzy Osbourne’s on July 22, I allowed myself to subscribe to the “bad things come in threes” superstition.

But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, ‘Ozzy wasn’t a guitar player…’ Soon, I found out that my intuition-meets-anxiety wasn’t for nought. Ace Frehley – the Spaceman – was gone.

On Thursday, October 16, I spent my afternoon interviewing Joe Perry. I’m not afraid to admit that my aforementioned anxiety had me thinking, ‘God, I hope nothing happens to Joe…’ My anxiety did not subside once I got off that call, as a sudden flurry of text, Instagram, and Facebook messages greeted me.

These messages were all some version of, ‘Dude, is Ace really gone?’ He was. I was gutted. The man who gave me reason to play guitar, worship guitar heroes, and spend a great deal of time writing about it all was gone.

Thoughts of sadness, devastation, and bewilderment swirled through my brain. This led me to grab my iPhone and open up the many recordings of a dozen-plus interviews with Ace, all of which occurred between 2023 and 2025.

I first interviewed Ace on January 12, 2023. I was working on a print issue of Guitar World, celebrating Jeff Beck, who had died two days prior. The assignment was to collect quotes from notable players about their thoughts, feelings, and memories of Jeff. Ace was on the docket.

I’d connected with Ace’s manager, John Ostrosky, and within an hour, Ace called me. We spoke for just over 15 minutes. As a lifelong Kiss fan, whose first-ever concert was Kiss, and who had seen Ace live many times, this was a dream realized. He was everything I’d imagined he’d be: hilarious, slightly unhinged, and totally memorable.

Ace and I kept in touch after that. A few texts here and there. He’d remind me that a new album was coming. Soon, another player, Steve Brown, reached out, letting me know that he was co-producing Ace’s upcoming record, 10,000 Volts. Steve said that it was as good, if not better, than Ace’s vaunted ’78 solo record. He sent me files.

In this business, we hear things like this all the time. But in this instance, because it was Ace, I was hopeful. Steve sent me rough demos of 10,000 Volts around a year before the record came out. The first track I remember hearing was Cherry Medicine. He was right. This album was different, special, even.

Fast forward to September 18, 2023. I’m driving home, and I’ve just reached a red light. I checked my iPhone to see that I had a missed call from Ace and a voicemail. The gist was that his former bandmates in Kiss were doing a lot of talking, and that he wanted to have his say. I immediately emailed my editor at Guitar World, told him the deal, got the green light, and called Ace back.

Then and there, in my 2020 Kia Forte, Ace and I looked back on his career in Kiss for around 35 minutes. After that, we became pals.

I interviewed him for Guitar World, where I dropped by his home studio to talk about 10,000 Volts. We did stories for MusicRadar, Guitar Player, Guitarist, Goldmine, ClassicRockHistory, and even did an extensive career-spanning cover story for Rock Candy Magazine.

I could tell you stories about Ace stopping interviews midstream to discuss with me the perfect egg sandwich – and where to get one. Or the time that he gave me the elevation of his home in New Jersey and explained why it attracted geese. Or, while in the midst of a story about fighting bikers in a bar, Ace took me on a journey via speakerphone into a local New Jersey school to pick up a friend's daughter who had pinkeye.

Then there was the final time we spoke, which was on August 7, 2025. To my knowledge, this was his final interview. I’m haunted by the fact that had I not instigated it by texting Ace myself and pitching it to my editors with Guitar World, we might not have heard from Ace proper one last time.

Conducting what I assume is Ace’s final interview was not on my 2025 bingo card. Ace was in great spirits. He was sharp, witty, and funny, kicking off the call as he always did, jokingly saying, “So, whatcha wanna talk about?”

We talked about travel, guitars, the legacy of Kiss’s Alive!, his openness to reconciling with Paul Stanley, and his hopes for being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.

The last thing he told me during that interview, which was fittingly conducted in my car, was, “I’m probably gonna go until the wheels come off!” I had no idea that around a month later, the wheels would come off.

Like the rest of the world, I heard about Ace’s “minor fall” in his studio via the Internet. I didn’t hesitate to reach out.

I texted him on September 26, “Hey Ace. Saw you had a fall. Are you okay?” Within minutes, he responded, for the last time, “All good! Needed a timeout from a minor fall on the carpet in my studio.” He followed that with his typical cavalcade of emojis, including a thumbs up, a rainbow, a thumbs up, and a star. I never heard from Ace again.

I found out from a friend that Ace had experienced a second fall soon after, the one that killed him. Like the rest of us, with his social media silent and his phone off, I feared for the worst but hoped for the best. Sadly, that intuition I mentioned earlier was correct. And my interview from August was his last (to my knowledge).

There’s no pride in either. I’m filled with so many emotions a day after finding out the worst. Ace always told me he had balance issues; it was why he never had pedals at his feet. He’d joke about it, and we laughed about it many times. Those jokes ring morbid now, as his faulty balance is what did him in.

Still, I am filled with pride that my interviews with Ace will live on. I only got to know him over the last three years, but my experience hearing him talk about life, music, and guitar will last me a lifetime. Some say he was sloppy, some say he was lazy, but those people have never heard him tell his story in person.

Those people have never witnessed – and understood – what it meant to watch the true embodiment of the rock ‘n’ roll spirit hoist his Les Paul over his shoulder, drop his snakeskin boot down on top of the stage monitor, and peel off the outro solo to Kiss’s Deuce like it was nothing.

Ace was everything you’ve imagined and more. His music, influence, and vibe will live on forever in my heart. Hopefully yours, too. They say you should never meet your heroes, and to be fair, I’ve come to learn that in some cases, that’s true. But in the case of Ace Frehley, I am forever grateful that I did.

Moreover, I am grateful that I got to tell Ace – in person – what he and his music meant to me.

Rest In Peace, Spaceman. You changed my life. See you on Planet Jendell.

Some of the biggest names in guitar have paid tribute to Ace Frehley, the former Kiss guitarist who died yesterday, aged 74.

His former bandmates, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, led the tributes to the Spaceman, describing him as an “essential and irreplaceable rock soldier” during Kiss’ formation and rise to the top.

“We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley,” reads a statement from the band. “He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part of Kiss’ legacy. Our thoughts are with Jeanette, Monique and all those who loved him, including our fans around the world.”

Social media is all pictures of Frehley with his warpaint on, the Spaceman in his pomp, with those huge armored shoulders, always a Gibson Les Paul in hand, and, on occasion, with fireworks shooting out of it, oftentimes with smoke billowing out of the pickups.

Frehley was not one to undercook a Kiss performance. Steve Vai posted a picture of Frehley to Instagram that made it look as though the Spaceman had harnessed the power of the sun in his neck pickup – an unearthly magic trick from an unearthly player.

“Ace Frehley was the embodiment of rock ’n’ roll attitude – unapologetic, loud, and irresistibly catchy. His riffs had swagger, his tone had bite, and his presence lit up stages like a supernova,” writes Vai. “During my teenage years, his playing inspired me not because it was polished, but because it was gloriously unfiltered and full of life.

“Ace reminded us all that rock should never apologize for being fun and that a little chaos can sound downright heavenly. My heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, and fans. The Spaceman has left the stage, but his orbit will shine forever.”

The tributes kept coming, from Yngwie Malmsteen, from Arve Isdal of Enslaved, from ex-Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Jason Hook, from Zakk Wylde, Municipal Waste’s Ryan Waste, Gary Holt of Exodus/Slayer, and Gibson’s Mark Agnesi and Cesar Gueikian.

They came from DiMarzio, too, the long-time electric guitar pickup brand of choice for Frehley.

The tributes came from fellow rock legends in their droves. “Hard to believe and process this devastating news today,” writes Slash. “Ace I will miss you. and millions more will too. RIP my friend. One of the true great rock ’n’ roll guitarists, the Spaceman has left the planet.”

Millions is the word that crops up time and time again. John 5 knows. He was one of those millions. The Mötley Crüe guitarist says he is “shocked and saddened” by Frehley’s passing. Frehley was first his hero, then a close friend whom he has known since 1988. “Ace changed the world,” he writes. “He influenced millions of people and changed my life. I will miss you my friend.”

Alice Cooper was close to Frehley, too. He describes Frehley as a one of the greats, and a “pioneer”.

“The worst part of being in rock ‘n’ roll at this point is the fact that some of our fraternity have just reached that age where they’ve… they leave the planet,” writers Cooper. “Some of the guys that started 30, 40, 50 years ago are starting to go, and of course Ace Frehley from Kiss, one of the pioneers – one of the great guitar players out there… Ace was an absolute guitar hero to so many people.

“I did more tours with him than anybody else, as far as opening for us, for quite a long time so… we became quite good friends. And you know he always brought it every night… He did it every night. And… it’s just hard to see somebody like that go. We know that right now that the Kiss fans are certainly in mourning and certainly his family and certainly everybody that knew him. Ace was an ACE”

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard reminds us that Frehley’s 1978 solo album remains essential listening, and is part of the official Kiss canon. The Spaceman made Hello’s New York Groove his own.

“Sad news about Ace, he was long gone when we got to know the Kiss guys but he left his mark on their music,” writes Elliott. “His first solo album made waves too, Fractured Mirror is a great instrumental and his New York Groove hit the spot more so than any other version of that song. RIP Spaceman.”

Alex Skolnick notes that not all guitar players shared his generation’s enthusiasm for Frehley. When Guitar Player put Frehley on the cover, people actually wrote in to complain, as though he didn’t pass the virtuosity test.

Posting a picture of Guitar Player’s January 1979 cover to Instagram, Skolnick says these “guitar snobs” were royally missing the point – Frehley was the one player who inspired kids his age to pick up the instrument in the first place.

“This Guitar Player cover brought a lot of pushback in the form of angry mail (long before online comment sections),” writes Skolnick. “A subsection of readers just had to make it known that they felt Ace Frehley was undeserving of this magazine’s cover, which they expressed in the form of’ ‘letters to the editor’ (some of which you can read in subsequent GP issues).

“What those disgruntled guitar snobs of the late ‘70s failed to grasp was an important point: A virtual army (a KISS Army, if you will) of too many kids to name – including many of us who’d go on to find our own voices with our six-strings – were picking up guitars around this time. The reason we got interested in electric guitar was this man: Ace Frehley.”

Skolnick, who enjoys a portfolio career playing thrash metal with Testament, jazz with his eponymous trio, and prog-jazz fusion with PAKT, says he would have never have acquired such adventurous tastes if it wasn’t for Frehley leading him down the path.

“Other cover artists that year included Larry Carlton, Howard Roberts and Lee Ritenour, great virtuosos highly deserving of the attention, no doubt,” he continues.

“But if you were 10 years old at the time, chances are their music was over your head (unless you were far hipper than I was) and the one who made you want to play was Ace. And many of us who’d later appreciate guitarists like those above, were able to do so thanks to Ace opening our guitar doors. If anyone deserved the cover in 1979 it was Ace Frehley.”

The opprobrium around that GP cover also tells us that Frehley was underrated as a musician. Skolnick likens him to Ringo Starr, under appreciated when held in context of some of the flashier technicians in the business.

That Frehley reserved his flash for the songwriting and the performances should not disguise his abilities as a player. Skolnick says that’s what gave him a sound that was uniquely his.

“Ace had a voice like no other. It’s easy to dismiss ‘playing for the song’ as opposed to ‘having chops’ but Ace’s solos are 100 per cent for the song and mini-compositions within themselves,” continues Skolnick.

“Even as the EVH revolution led to Rhoads, Vai, Yngwie, Satriani and our current crop of ‘super shredders,’ Ace’s playing held its own. To this day, it’s difficult to hear Deuce (especially the version from Kiss Alive!) and not play air guitar. Ace will continue to inspire future air guitarists – many of whom will convert their ‘air guitars’ into real ones – for many years to come.”

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame could relate. The Spaceman was his first guitar hero.

“The legendary Space Ace Frehley inspired generations to love rock ’n’ roll and love rock ’n’ roll guitar playing,” writes Morello on Instagram.

“His timeless riffs and solos, the billowing smoke coming from his Les Paul, the rockets shooting from his headstock, his cool spacey onstage wobble and his unforgettable crazy laugh will be missed but will never be forgotten. Thank you, Ace for a lifetime of great music and memories.”

Morello is right. Frehley’s playing lit up rock music for generations, and his pyrotechnic laugh lit up any room – as Nuno Bettencourt also notes.

“So long… Spaceman. First rock band I wanted to be like,” writes the Extreme guitarist, and proprietor of the recently formed Nuno Guitars. “Thank you Ace for the music and thank you for your kindness that made a little eight-year-old kid’s heart explode. And without a doubt … the greatest laugh in Rock History.”

Frehley belonged to a different star system. He was wired to a different gravity. Ours was too dull, too ordinary. Luckily for us, the Spaceman made first contact and lit it up. Earth will never be the same again.

Ace Frehley was forced to cancel his show at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster, California, after suffering a fall in his home studio.

The news was shared on September 25 on his social media platforms. “Dear Rock Soldiers, Ace had a minor fall in his studio, resulting in a trip to the hospital,” the statement reads.

“He is fine, but against his wishes, his doctor insists that he refrain from travel at this time. As a result, he is forced to cancel his performance at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster, California on Friday, September 26th.

“Please go to the fair to support his friends in Quiet Riot and Vixen, and Ace looks forward to continuing on his tour and finishing work on his next album, Origins Vol. 4.”

In a recent Guitar World interview, the former Kiss guitarist confirmed that Origins Vol. 3 – the covers album that follows Vol. 2 and Vol. 1, released in 2020 and 2016 respectively – was “coming along nicely.

“It stays with the theme that Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 had, which was to mostly record songs that influenced me in the late ’60s when I was an aspiring guitar player.”

As for what makes his covers stand out, Frehley observes, “I just have a knack for taking a song and making it my own, while still making it recognizable. But my approach depends on the song – for example, when I did a Paul Revere and the Raiders song, I added a guitar solo that wasn’t there. It was a harmony solo in three parts.

“It depends on how a song is built. If I can improve the arrangement, I do. But it’s funny – a lot of people still think I wrote New York Groove! But I never take credit for anything that I didn’t write.”

But don't expect Vol. 3 – or Vol. 4, for that matter – to be released anytime soon. “By the time it’s finished, mixed, mastered, and we have the artwork, it won’t be until next year," he explains. “A lot of people put out records right before Christmas, so there’s a lot of competition then. After [in the] new year is when we’ll do it – probably sometime in the spring.”

Elsewhere in the Guitar World interview, Frehley discusses the 50th anniversary of Kiss' Alive! album, and sets the record straight on why he's not joining Kiss Kiss for their Landlocked in Vegas event this November.

Reminded that Kiss’ iconic Alive! album was released 50 years ago now, Ace Frehley cackles. “Man, it seems like another lifetime – but I believe it!” It’s an influential record, but detractors over the years have made much of the less-live elements it contains.

The band and engineer Eddie Kramer hit the studio to add a series of overdubs – and Frehley doesn’t deny it. “My parts are mostly live,” he states. “I did the least amount of overdubs … I’ll let the fans decide on why that is!” He continues: “But I think we did the best we could, and thank God people responded in a positive way.”

Frehley, 74, has a number of irons in the fire – new music, a travel guitar and more touring are on the horizon. But he won’t be seen at Kiss’ Landlocked in Vegas event in November.

“There’s no way I’m doing that,” he insists, citing “multiple reasons.” He’s previously referred to negative comments by Paul Stanley; but he says he’s over those, and that he’s open to reconciliation. “Jealousy can make you say stupid things,” he shrugs, dismissing his former bandmate’s words.

What are you working on now?

“I’ve been touring and now I’m working on Origins Vol. 3. I have a secret project that I don’t want to reveal too much about… it’s a collapsible guitar that fits in a briefcase. Like a travel guitar; but when it’s put together you can use it on stage, and you wouldn’t know the difference.”

Are you designing it yourself or working with a company?

“I’m not sure how that’s gonna work at this juncture. I’ve tried other travel guitars on the road and I don’t find them satisfactory. So I’m designing a nice prototype. There will probably be a cheaper version overseas and a high-end version here in the US. That’s all I can say now.”

The first two Origins volumes did well. What can you tell us about the third?

“It’s coming along nicely. It stays with the theme that Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 had, which was to mostly recording songs that influenced me in the late ‘60s when I was an aspiring guitar player.”

Why do you think fans enjoy your cover songs?

“I just have a knack for taking a song and making it my own, while still making it recognizable. But my approach depends on the song – for example, when I did a Paul Revere and the Raiders song, I added a guitar solo that wasn’t there. It was a harmony solo in three parts.

“It depends on how a song is built. If I can improve the arrangement, I do. But it’s funny – a lot of people still think I wrote New York Groove! But I never take credit for anything that I didn’t write.”

Is there a release date for Origins Vol. 3?

“By the time it’s finished, mixed, mastered and we have the artwork, it won’t be until next year. A lot of people put out records right before Christmas, so there’s a lot of competition then. After new year is when we’ll do it – probably sometime in the spring.”

Elsewhere, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Alive! album. In 1975 did you have an idea that you were onto something special?

“Well, we felt that our studio albums were good, but they didn’t capture the essence of our concerts. I think Alive! did. And a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon.”

It seems that after Alive! everyone was releasing live records.

“Yeah, they were. But that seems to have fizzled out because of YouTube. Every time I do a concert it’s on YouTube the next day. When I was gearing up to start Origins Vol. 3 my co-producer, Steve Brown, wanted me to do a live album. He was trying to talk my record company into it.

“I held my ground and said, ‘You know, live albums aren’t what they used to be.’ In recent times, I can’t think of anybody that’s done a live album that’s really been a big hit like Alive! was.”

The matter of studio overdubs in Alive! always comes up.

“Well, not so much for me and my playing – let’s put it that way!”

Does it bother you when people say it isn’t a true live album because of those overdubs?

“Let them try and go make a record as successful as that, you know? It’s what – triple or quadruple platinum? [It’s quadruple.] Everybody likes to criticize when someone’s successful. It never bothers me.”

In all fairness, despite the studio cleanups, Alive! does a good job of capturing Kiss at the time, which was the point.

“Yeah, and it was not only the music; it was the whole package. Alive! was a complete package that captured the essence of Kiss as a live band. Prior to that, a lot of people who hadn’t seen us live weren’t aware of the fact that we were such a good live band.”

Have you considered its impact on guitar music?

“A lot of players have told me it was the record that made them want to pick up the guitar. Years ago I was in Texas and I saw Mr. Big. When Paul Gilbert did a solo, he pretty much did a complete copy of a solo from Alive!. He’s a very accomplished musician, but instead of coming up with his own solo, he copied mine. It was a form of flattery!”

Your solos on Rock and Roll All Nite, Black Diamond and Deuce, to name a few, are quintessential.

“I learned by copying guys like Page, Beck, Clapton, Townshend, The Beatles and The Stones. My style is just a conglomeration of all those great players. There were so many great guitar players in the ’60s who had their own style and technique. There will never be another Jimi Hendrix.”

The studio version of Rock and Roll All Nite had no guitar solo, but the live version did.

“I think the band pushed me in that direction because they thought it needed one when we played live. When we were recording it we thought of it as a single. Back then you tried to keep it short – for radio, the shorter the song, the more DJs would play it.

“So in the studio I kept it to the bare minimum. But live, yeah, I ended up adding the solo. Things change; you do things for certain reasons. With that song and the solo, everything just kind of worked out in the end.”

Fans have been wondering if you’ll be joining Kiss for their Landlocked in Vegas event this fall.

“They asked me and I declined. There’s no way I’m gonna be involved with that, you know? Their biggest mistake is that they should have done that at Madison Square Garden – not in Las Vegas in a 5,000-seater, or whatever it is.”

You’ve done Kiss Kruises before, so why not do this?

“There’s multiple reasons. About nine months before Kiss was going to play Madison Square Garden, both Paul and Gene were saying, ‘We’re going to bring everybody out on stage.’

“Then a few months before the concert, they both changed their tune and said, ‘Ace and Peter aren’t going to do it.’ In fact, Paul went on to say, ‘If Ace and Peter got on stage with us, the band could be called Piss.’ So, I kind of got into an argument with him.

“Ed Trunk let me use his show as a platform. But it was just… I got upset, and then I just kind of let it go. Paul says things off the top of his head without thinking sometimes.”

Is your relationship with Paul salvageable to where you’d consider participating in future Kiss-related events?

“Yeah; I’m the kind of guy that never says ‘never.’ I don’t hate Paul or Gene, you know? We’re rock and roll brothers. And Peter, too. So, anything can happen, just not at this point. I’m having too much fun doing my own thing. Maybe I’ll get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist!”

Do you see yourself stopping at some point, or will you rock until you drop?

“I’m probably gonna go until the wheels come off! But I’m contracted to do another studio record after Origins Vol. 3, so that’ll be next. After that, my contract runs out, but the sky’s the limit. Maybe I’ll start my own record label. Who knows?”

Tommy Denander’s musical experience includes work on over 3,500 albums, of which over 100 are gold or platinum, and credits on eight Number 1 Billboard LPs.

“The list of who I’ve worked with looks like a guy who couldn’t hold down a gig to save his life!” he happily admits. “Michael Jackson, Anastacia, Steve Perry, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stephen Pearcy, Bernie Marsden, Eric Singer, Bruce Kulick, blah-blah-blah!”

His A-list collaborations span from the late ’80s to the present day, and also includes Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley. “Those guys were on posters on my wall when I was a kid in Sweden,” Denander laughs. “So we really are talking about a dream coming true!”

He’s most proud of a quote from producer Mutt Lange – who rarely speaks in public. “Tommy has always been the consummate live player,” the rock icon said. “I recently found out that he’s the consummate studio guitarist as well. Excellent and so egoless to work with – great feel and a perfectionist, too.”

Denander, who signed his first record deal at the age of 15 and always knew he wanted to be “a studio musician, songwriter and producer instead of a rock star,” is also proud of his VGS signature guitar, which he states never goes out of tune thanks to the use of Evertune bridge and True Temperament frets.

“I’d been endorsed by Hamer, Steinberger, Yamaha, PRS and more, so when VGS asked, I said only if we could create my actual dream guitar. I’m close friends with Evertune, who asked me at NAMM one year if I’d like to be the first to have it on a real model.

“On the flight home to Sweden it just struck me that we should use the True Temperament invention, with the bent frets. It’s the first guitar to stay in tune and maintain 100 percent intonation.”

Denander’s guitar made it to a second model about 14 years ago, but then business issues got in the way. “The main company had the money – they just didn’t see a future in the products. What a miss!”

What’s the session industry like these days?

“Real music is coming back. Kids love great music played by top-level musicians again, so bigger studios are coming back as well. You need a collection of rare skills, gigantic determination and a strong sense of brand building – you need to find the balance of how and where to promote yourself, and when not to.

“Always answer people fast, deliver fast ,and leave your ego out of it, because no matter how sure you are of something, it’s always the client’s wish that matters. I like to suggest things and maybe give them too much, so they can pick the parts they like best.

“There are opportunities to become a solid touring musician too. It’s rare that the people you see on tour also play on the albums. It takes equal skill and time to do both, but in the studio no one can see you, so looks don’t matter. Live, they do!”

What’s the worst aspect of session work?

“Something that’s more important these days than in the ‘good old days’ – it’s when credits are missing. It happens more often now and it pisses me off big time. It happened with Paul Stanley, and he was pissed because I’d been in the album press release, that he put together himself. He said an idiot messed it up for the product.

“Then Ace Frehley ‘forgot’ that I wrote the music to a song on his latest album. I missed credit on, like, 25 variations of vinyl and all the CD and digital versions. It’s corrected now, but I lost a lot of media and PR was lost.

“Once, Ricky Martin decided he wanted big photos of himself all over the CD booklet of an album we did with Desmond Child, and put all credits on his website. I don’t even know what to say!

“I often work for much less money than than I should, because of the names involved. Getting those credits adds to my value which leads to income. When people are sloppy and miss it, we get screwed twice. So sloppiness bugs me!”

Regardless of the downsides, how was it to work on Paul Stanley’s 2006 solo album Live to Win?

“I saw a Kiss poster in a record store when I was 7 years old. That poster was why I started to play guitar, and to this day I’m a huge fan. Ace Frehley was my first guitar idol – I co-wrote Up In The Sky on his latest album 10,000 Volts.

“When I was asked to play on Paul’s Live To Win it was a surreal and beautiful moment. I ended up playing on the title track and Wake Up Screaming. First time I heard Paul’s voice through the big monitors in the studio, I just sat there smiling – I couldn’t even play!”

Working with Alice Cooper was another dream come true, wasn’t it?

“Yeah! In the mid ’80s I started writing songs with Alice in mind. I told my friends that I’d be perfect to write for him. My dear friend Desmond Child introduced me to Bob Ezrin around 2010, and that’s how I ended up playing on I Am Made of You on Alice’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare album.

“Then Bob and Alice asking me to work on Paranormal. I ended up co-producing it with Bob and I co-wrote half the songs. I play guitar on all the songs – including the ones with the whole original Alice Cooper Band.

“The song Fallen In Love started when Bob asked if I could write a take on Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. I thought I’d done it quite well until Alice said, ‘Well, it has a ZZ Top feel to it.’ Then he asked Billy Gibbons to play on it. Cool!”

What about your rather minimal appearance on Deep Purple’s Infinite (2017)?

“When Bob Ezrin invited me to help with Infinite it meant I’d completed a triple of posters from my wall in the ’70s! They were almost done with the album, but Ian Gillan wanted to re-record his vocals and Don Airey wanted to add a keyboard part.

“They were in Stockholm and I worked at the biggest studio in Sweden, so it was perfect. Roger Glover and I recorded Ian’s vocals; it was stunning how professional these guys were. Don came over and nailed his part in one take, too.

“Then Roger said, ‘We’re missing one chord on the guitar.’ I said, ‘Can we get Steve Morse over from the hotel?’ Roger said, ‘No – Bob says you’re a great guitarist, so you can do it.’ I was like, ‘Did Roger Glover just ask me to play on a Deep Purple album?’

“I grabbed my Kemper and my VGS guitar. I knew that Steve used ENGL amps, so I found a profile that matched the recording perfectly. Roger was impressed! He showed me the missing chord – a missing D on a breakdown – and I recorded three takes: two mono for left-right panning and a stereo one with a small chorus.

“It hit me that I’d just had my Spinal Tap moment. I’d been playing guitar full-time for 25 years at that point, and when I got to play on a Deep Purple album it was just one chord!”

Your connection with Alice Cooper led to your work with the Hollywood Vampires, right?

“Right. I’ve done five or six albums with Alice. When we were doing Paranomal he invited me to play with the Vampires at a charity concert in Phoenix. Hanging for 12 hours with Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, Sammy Hagar, Korn and others, jamming and having way too many laughs, was a super-fun day.

“For their second album Rise (2019) the Vampires decided to recorded a song I wrote for Paranormal that hadn’t been used. Johnny wrote a cool lyric about a true event – it’s called Welcome to Bushwackers.

“Alice and Jeff Beck had talked for years about doing something together. To my big luck it ended up being my song! So it’s me, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry on rhythm guitars, and the stunning Jeff Beck on solos.”

You’ve also done solo work, usually under the banner of Radioactive. The first album, 2001’s Ceremony of Innocence, featured members of Toto. How did you swing that?

“I was living in Los Angeles and I’d become friends with all the Toto guys. I asked them if I got a solo deal would they play on it? I got an instant ‘Yes!’

“Luckily a friend at Sony Records was there too, and I got signed in a few days. Recording my first album, aged 23, with Jeff, Mike and Steve Porcaro and David Paich as my backing band was amazing.

“I was very close friends with Jeff and Mike Porcaro during those years. I miss them a lot. I’ve released six albums as Radioactive, and the list of legends on them all is pretty astonishing.”

Do you have any missing dream collaborations left?

“It sometimes feels like I have worked with them all! But Peter Gabriel has always been a major wish. I absolutely love his music, but also I feel deeply connected to it, and his way of writing. I think I’d be able to contribute something worthy. Then Sting, John Mayer, Stevie Wonder… the list is still long!”

And is there one who got away?

“The song Grace, from my first Radioactive album, was totally written with Richard Page from Mr Mister in mind. I managed to send him the song and he really loved it. But he said: ‘I’m aware of the value of my voice. I’d love to do but my price is …… dollars.

“He was and is worth every cent, but it was way out of my reach at the time, despite serious discussions about making it happen.”

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It's safe to say that the Kiss universe is never short of drama between the behemoth outfit's various members.

The latest? Many fans have been left wondering why Ace Frehley wasn't invited – or seemingly declined the opportunity – to join his former bandmates at the Kiss Kruise: Land-locked in Vegas event at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas this November, which will also include Bruce Kulick, Kiss’ guitarist between 1984 and 1996.

“They asked me and I declined,” he tells Guitar World matter-of-factly. “There’s no way I’m gonna be involved with that, you know? Their biggest mistake is that they should have done that at Madison Square Garden, not in Las Vegas in a 5000-seater, or whatever it is.”

When GW points out that Frehley has participated in Kiss Kruises – the long-running Kiss-themed cruise excursions – before, he replies, “There are multiple reasons. You know, Paul [Stanley], towards the end [of the End of the Road World Tour], about nine months before Kiss was going to play Madison Square Garden [for its final shows], both Paul and Gene [Simmons] were saying, ‘We’re going to bring everybody out on stage.’

“And then, a few months before the concert, they both changed their tune and said, ‘Ace and Peter [Criss] aren’t going to do it.’ In fact, Paul went on to say, ‘If Ace and Peter got on stage with us, the band could be called Piss.’ So, I kind of got into an argument with him.”

Despite their arguments throughout the years, Frehley isn't ruling out the possibility of reuniting with Stanley, despite their complex relationship.

“I’m the kind of guy that never says never,” he adds. “I don’t hate Paul or Gene, you know? We’re rock and roll brothers, and Peter, too. So, anything can happen.”

However, Frehley admits that, at this point, he's “having too much fun doing my own thing.”

“And maybe, I’ll eventually get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist,” he quips.

Guitar World’s full interview with Ace Frehley will be published in the coming weeks.

Gene Simmons has told the story of a guitar solo merry-go-round, after revealing that Pearl Jam’s iconic Alive lead effort closely followed in the footsteps of a Kiss solo – which Ace Frehley had previously lifted “note-for-note” from another classic rock heavyweight.

Guesting on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, the Kiss bassist pointed out Frehley’s plagiarism.

The track in question is Kiss' 1975 cut She, which found Frehley apparently so enamored with Robby Krieger's lead playing on The Doors' Five to One, from 1968's Waiting for the Sun, that he lovingly copied and pasted it onto the Kiss song.

Unaware of this, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready then followed a similar tact when piecing together the solo for Alive, only for Simmons to drop a truth bomb later down the line.

“I said, ‘Mike, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that’s a note-for-note guitar solo from the Doors,” Simmons tells Corgan. “Ace liked it so much, he just reproduced it. He goes, ‘No!’”

Discussing the genesis of some of his biggest hits with Guitar World, McCready now doesn't hide from this fact. All he has to say of the song is, “I copied Ace Frehley’s solo from Kiss’ She, which was copied from Robby Krieger’s solo in the Doors’ Five to One.”

Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2014, McCready waxed lyrical about Kiss and the impact they had on him during his formative years.

“I remember being on a school bus in sixth grade in 1976, with my friend Rick Friel, who eventually played in my high school band, Shadow,” he said. “He had a lunchbox that had Kiss on it. ‘What is that?’

“Then he played me some music and I was hooked immediately.” So it's no surprise there's more than a little Kiss style sprinkled across Pearl Jam's discography.

Going off his comments on the podcast, Simmons seemingly picked up on She’s likeness to Five to One at the time. But he doesn’t see the solo-swapping saga as much of an issue.

“My point is, it’s always very appreciated when somebody says, ‘Loved your stuff,’” Simmons says. “Everybody’s got bits and pieces of stuff. Listen to Zeppelin songs, you’ll hear lots of blues, very recognizable, blues songs.”

McCready has also downplayed the drama to be drawn from their similarities, telling Chris Shiflett’s Shred With Shifty podcast, “I don't do the solo the same live all the time.”

Ace Frehley might not be your usual kind of shredder, but for John 5, the former Kiss guitarist stands out in a wholly different way – and when it comes to one particular aspect of his guitar solos, Mötley Crüe’s newest recruit says he’s entirely unmatched.

Despite his Kiss audition in a rat-infested loft in New York nearly ending with Gene Simmons punching his lights out, Frehley's playing has always impacted his listeners. Simmons was ready to throw fists that day, but after Frehley plugged in, all was forgotten.

For John 5, whose packed resume includes stints with Rob Zombie and David Lee Roth, a solo you can sing along to is more moving than one that solely relies on deadly virtuosity. Frehley, he says, has mastered that practice, and it turned him onto learning the instrument.

“It’s just when you’re little and you see something, it could be a sports figure, it could be a race car driver or a hockey player, baseball or basketball. But mine was Kiss, and that’s what inspired me to do what I’m doing today,” he tells Ultimate Guitar.

“And I’m glad because I think inspiration is one of the most important things in the world. Because it stays with you forever, and it can change your life forever, as well.”

He acknowledges that his playing style is a world away from Frehley’s melody-first approach. In a way, that only heightens his appreciation for the guitarist.

“I always liked things 'to the limit,'” he explains. “To the pinnacle, to the absolute most. Like, the fastest race car driver, the best this, the best that. And with guitar, I wanted to take it to the absolute top, top, top. And that’s why I like all the crazy shredding.

“But I love Ace and I love all that stuff with the melodic solos. No one does it better than him. I’m just so happy I got to be inspired by all these great players.”

There’s an interesting parallel with Wolfgang Van Halen here. His father, Eddie Van Halen, was a shredder like no other, but he taught him one crucial lesson when it came to soloing.

“A solo should be melodically memorable,” Wolfgang said. “You can play a solo that's one note that can be way more impressive than a solo that's 2000 notes. It's not really the speed at which you play.”

John 5 may have decided to shred where Frehley took a more humble approach, but that didn't stop him from listing the guitarist as one of the most important players in shaping his sound.

Expanding on his love for the Space Ace with Guitar World back in 2023, he said: “He was like my Superman or Spider-Man. The whole vibe of Ace was something really special to me. I was so small, and Ace was just like this larger-than-life figure… I didn't even think he was a real person.”

Ace, meanwhile, has hit out at his former bandmates, claiming Kiss lied about him being fired from the band, and insists his side of the story is the only one that should be believed.

He may have his fans, but he has confessed to being “a sloppy guitarist” as his age catches up with him. Nevertheless, as he tells Guitar World, he’s been making a concerted effort to regain his form as he prepares to tour in support of his latest solo album.

When Ace Frehley dropped the title track of his 2024 album 10,000 Volts, his former Kiss bandmates Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were preparing to wrap up their End of the Road Tour in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

Though Frehley has said otherwise, the timing probably wasn’t by mistake. He also said 10,000 Volts was his best record since his vaunted 1978 self-titled solo debut. While excellent, it isn’t better than that first album – nor is it better than 1987’s Frehley’s Comet or 1989’s Trouble Walkin’.

On the strength of songs like Walkin’ on the Moon, Cherry Medicine, and Blinded, it’s definitely the Les Paul-slinging Bronx boy’s finest studio record since leaving Kiss for the second and final time in 2002.

Sober since 2008, he’s spent years delivering album after album and selling out decent-sized clubs and halls along the way. And now, with the success of 10,000 Volts, he’s starting to sell out arenas again. Regardless of those who call him sloppy, lazy, or derivative, Frehley has a pedigree, and you better believe he knows it.

Which is why he’s not yet thinking of hanging up his guitar.

“I’m good for another four, or five years – easy,” he states. “I’m excited about the things I haven’t done. I’ve always wanted to score a sci-fi movie. And I’d love to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, not with Kiss. I’m the most successful solo artist of the four original members and I’d like to be acknowledged as that.”

He adds: “I’d also like to produce some young bands that need guidance. I’ve got a great studio here; I’ve invested about $200,000, and I had so much fun designing it. Maybe I’ll start painting again, doing graphic arts and theater animation. I did all of the computer animation for Kiss’ Psycho Circus (1998).

“God has given me so many talents; I almost feel guilty that I don’t use them. I’m looking forward to doing more while I still have time left.”

The reception for 10,000 Volts has been resounding. Did that catch you by surprise?

“It was a pleasant surprise. But my gut told me when I listened to the master copy that we had something. But I had no idea it was gonna be number one on a lot of charts, even if it was only for a few days. That’s never happened with one of my solo records.”

You’ve been more active on social media too.

“The record company hired a specialist who got me on all these different platforms like TikTok and Instagram. I have a guy putting videos out all the time of me shopping with my fiancee, and people say we should do a reality show. I’m not jumping at that anytime soon!”

You’ve got such a great personality, you’d be perfect for that sort of thing.

“I’ve always been a funny guy, so it’s something I could do – but do I want to do it? It’s an invasion of privacy to one extent. I’d have to think about that. Right now I’m focusing on the album. I just hired a new agent who’s booking me at a lot of festivals in America, and I just got a beautiful casino date at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where I'm headlining a 9,000-seat arena.”

Making the move back toward arenas must be very gratifying.

“I think this was the right record at the right time. Timing is so important in this business. When was the last time you heard a great, young hard rock or heavy metal band come out? When I was a kid you had Led Zeppelin, Cream, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

“Those three alone completely blow anything out of the water that you've got today. A lot of kids say they're starting to listen to classic rock from years ago – that’s amazing.”

When they hear Ace Frehley, they’ll know right away.

“I learned from the greats! My style is a conglomeration of all the great British guitar players. Plus, I’m good friends with Jim McCarty, the guitarist who used to be with Mitch Ryder and Detroit Wheels. I hang out pretty much exclusively with musicians, so I’ve got a lot of different influences.”

You’ve shown on social media that you’re making a conscious effort to practice and become a better player.

“I gotta be honest – I can’t play some of the stuff I played in my 20s. I had an accident a couple of years ago; I damaged my shoulder, and I’ve fallen a couple of times. I’m about 85 or 90 percent there. But it’s that 10 percent that pisses me off. I can’t knock out those old solos as smooth as I used to. But I’m pretty good at faking stuff! Plus, there’s different ways of playing things.

“I can still play the solo for Shock Me note for note; I can still play the solo for Deuce note for note. Some of the more complicated solos, I struggle with them a little. But give me a fucking break – I'm 72 years old!

“Nobody in their 70s can still play like they were in their 20s. It’s physically impossible. But one thing I did that was really smart was I lost a lot of weight. I’m down to 173 pounds; I work out with light weights and do calisthenics. My fiancee is a personal trainer, and she helps me out. I eat right and I haven’t had a drink in 17 years. All that has made a world of difference.”

Your songwriting is still sharp, too. Did you feel undermined by people saying you didn’t write most of 10,0000 Volts, and Steve Brown did it instead?

“I saw the interview with Steve on the Three Sides of the Coin podcast, and they were pressuring him to say how much he wrote and how much I wrote, and he came up with this formula. He goes, ‘I wrote like 97 percent.’

“Steve may have come up with a song with average lyrics and not the proper arrangement for a couple of songs. I’d write the bridge, and there were songs I had to arrange. And I did the majority of the solos. I think Steve did one or two solos, not because I couldn’t do them, but because I liked the solos he did when he copied my style. So I just said, ‘That’s a good solo – we'll keep it; people will relate to it.’

“Steve goes, ‘I don’t want any credit.’ But I said, ‘No, I’m gonna give you credit. I give credit where it’s due. And I’m going to talk about you doing those solos.’ I did the majority of the solos, but we make a good team. Look at guys like Frank Sinatra – he hardly wrote a song in his life. I’ve proved myself as a songwriter again and again and again over the years.”

Have you hashed it out with Steve?

“I spoke to him after; he apologized and said, ‘I really wasn’t thinking. I just came out with a number, and it really wasn't what I wanted to say.’ They were kind of pressuring him. One guy from Three Sides of the Coin – I don’t think he’s a huge fan of mine – just kept saying, ‘Tell me exactly how many songs Ace brought to the table and you brought to the table.’

“But it really doesn’t matter. Together, Steve and I work well. It’s unfortunate when people say things, and people take it the wrong way. Steve’s a good songwriter and singer, and a top-rate guitar player and engineer. I’m not taking anything away from him – he did a great job.”

It should also be noted that there’s a difference between bringing in song ideas, which Steve surely did, and writing entire songs.

“Yeah. For example, he brought me the idea for Walkin’ on the Moon, and I didn’t even know what the fuck the lyrics were about! But it had the line ‘walking on the Moon.’

“I said, ‘Trust me, it needs a bridge.’ And once I wrote it, Steve goes, ‘Yeah, that makes the song better.’ Steve was very open to my ideas, and I was very open to his. I did what an old producer told me I do: I ‘Aceified’ it. When someone brings me an idea, I can mold it and put my stamp on it.”

Another thing that’s often forgotten about you is that you were hot-rodding guitars and doing all sorts of mods long before it became commonplace.

“I’ve always kind of thought outside the box. My father was an electrical engineer, and he helped build the electrical system in West Point. He was an incredible pianist too. He had his own business where he worked with elevators and designed his own transformers.

“He was subcontracted by NASA, and some of his transformers are part of the rover they left on the Moon. My dad’s transformers are on the Moon – there’s an interesting tidbit of trivia!

“But yeah, I always used to take everything apart. I’d take every guitar apart; I’d take the amps apart to see what made them tick, and then forget! I bought an Ampeg Reverberocket, and on the bottom it had this metal panel, and if you opened it up, there were springs. I’d pull the springs and listen to them reverberate like thunder.

“I was so fascinated by all these gadgets people came up with over the years. But now everything’s digital – they’ve developed algorithms that sound like a Marshall stack or a Fender Tweed. I’d rather have the real deal; I’ve got tons of great amps at my home studio.”

When you look back on your 50 years in the business, what sticks out most?

“The fact that I’m still here! I got rid of my demons. I used to be a bad drunk and did a lot of drugs. I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now if I didn’t get sober 17 years ago. When I talk to young musicians I always tell them, ‘Don’t fall into the pits I did.’

“I lost it – a couple of times I overdosed, had several car accidents; just crazy shit. I’ve got a guardian angel watching over me. I think God wants me to stick around for a while because, number one, I influence a lot of people; and number two, I make a lot of people happy.

“Sometimes people come backstage and show me their Alcoholics Anonymous coin and ask me to rub it for good luck. It’s unbelievable that today I’m having a positive influence on people, instead of being known as the maniac trying to outrun a police force in White Plains, New York!”

What’s the biggest misconception about you?

“A lot of the misconceptions were created by Paul and Gene. They still say in interviews that they fired me, but I was never fired from Kiss. I hate when I hear that. I quit both times [in 1982 and 2002]. They didn’t want me to leave – the first time I quit, Paul showed up on my doorstep, took me out to lunch and tried to change my mind. But I had already made up my mind.

“The success of my first solo album made me realize that I was more creative away from Paul, Gene, and Peter [Criss] than I was around them. They’ve said shit like I’m late and I’m lazy. Well, maybe not as bad as they’ve said it, but it’s true.

“When I’m working, and I’ve got an idea I’m excited about, I get tunnel vision. I follow it from beginning to end and finish it. It makes me feel good inside. For as long as I can do it, I'm gonna do it.”

There’s really only four people in the world who know the real deal about what’s gone down in Kiss.

“I don’t have a problem with Gene – he actually recently said nice things about me in an interview. I used to room with him back when we didn’t have a lot of money, so me and Gene were always close.

“We kind of understood each other. We always got the hottest girls, and I think he respected me as a macho guy. I’d have bar fights and knock guys out; I didn't care. Once I got drunk, I wasn’t afraid of anybody. We’d call it beer muscles.

“I learned when I was 13 or 14, growing up in the Bronx. These older, tougher guys used to say, ‘If you're in a bar fight, whoever gets the first good shot in wins.’ The last guy I knocked out was actually a Hell’s Angel – but that was like 20 years ago!”

So that’s Gene. How about Paul?

“Deep inside, me and Paul love each other and respect each other. But it was really unfortunate: with this last tour they did, it was obvious to me that they were using me and Peter, and maybe Bruce Kulick. They were setting up the fans by preaching, ‘We’ve invited Ace, Peter, and Bruce. When we play the Garden it’s going to be a big family reunion.’”

Then what happened?

“A few months before the concert, Paul goes on Howard Stern’s show and says if me and Peter got up on stage, you might as well call the band Piss. I don’t know why he said it. Paul’s a good guy; he’s a very talented songwriter, singer, and frontman. But he’s hot and cold. Sometimes he’ll say nice things, and sometimes he’ll say things that aren’t nice.

“Steve told me he toured with Trixter as Kiss’ opening act, and one day he spent 10 minutes with Paul talking about guitars. Two days later, Paul walked right past him and acted like he didn’t know him. You know, that’s not cool.”

It’s a real shame – you guys created a lot of special music together.

“Paul’s getting old and his memory isn’t what it used to be. He’s had a lot of operations; you know, his body is pretty beat up. Mine’s pretty beat up, too! I’ve been in six car accidents, bar fights, falls, and what have you.

“But I’m still alive and kicking, and I try to be the best I can every day. I don’t really project too much into the future, but I know I’m gonna be okay. I know people love me and respect me. Anybody can say anything to the contrary, but most people don’t really pay any attention to the negative comments anyway.”

The decades-spanning beef in the Kiss universe is well-documented. With insulting remarks, jabs, and dirt being traded freely in the media, one thing is for sure – Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and their various successors, always keep things interesting.

Now, the former Kiss guitarist is setting the record straight on his (multiple) departures from the legendary band – and how his truth differs greatly from what has been propagated over the years.

“Well, a lot of the misconceptions were created by Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons],” Frehley says matter-of-factly in a new Guitarist interview.

“They still say in interviews that they fired me, but I was never fired from Kiss. I hate when I hear that. And they say that both times I was fired; I quit both times [in 1982 and 2002].

“They didn't want me to leave; the first time I quit, Paul showed up on my doorstep, took me out to lunch, and was trying to change my mind, but I had already made up my mind.”

When asked whether it was better for him to go at it alone, Frehley responds with a resounding yes. “The success of my [1978] solo album [Ace Frehley] made me realize that I was more creative away from Paul, Gene, and Peter than I was around them,” he explains.

"And so, time marches on, but yeah, they've said shit, like, I'm late, and I'm lazy, and yeah, maybe not as much as they've said it, but it's true. As far as when I'm working, and I've got an idea, and I'm excited about it – I have tunnel vision.”

As for his former bandmates, Gene Simmons – ever the entrepreneur – is offering fans the unique opportunity to be his roadie and personal assistant for the day. The catch? It'll cost $12,495 for the privilege.

Tommy Thayer remains the longest-serving Spaceman in Kiss, but his relationship with the glam rock giants extends way before the time he officially donned the iconic outfit for the first time in the early 2000s.

Speaking about how he made the transition in a new interview with Guitar World, Thayer admits there was little discussion before he first stepped out on stage in his new role... save for a crucial request from Gene Simmons.

Thayer made a name for himself with a lyrical, melody-first approach to guitar playing and songwriting during the 1980s, a decade dominated by incendiary fretboard bothering. But Thayer wasn't going to abandon his influences in favor of such a trend.

His chops and style eventually put him in touch with Gene Simmons, who would go on to produce Thayer’s previous band, Black ’n Blue. In 1989, Thayer was working with Simmons again, this time demoing material for Kiss’ album Hot in the Shade.

“Gene had been producing Black ’n Blue and eventually asked if I’d be interested in writing for their next album,” Thayer tells Guitar World. “I went over to his place, and we sat down with a couple of guitars and wrote two songs. I remember recording demos for The Street Giveth [and The Street Taketh] and Betrayed at Cherokee Sound in Hollywood.”

Thayer’s creativity shone through and both songs made the cut, with much of the demo recording – including vocal and acoustic guitar parts – making it on to the studio version proper.

Then, from 1994, Thayer was drafted in to work on the book Kisstory and later helped Ace Frehley relearn parts from the band’s 1970s discography. Thayer was proving indispensable, and as uncertainty around Frehley’s future in the band grew, it felt like a matter of time until Thayer made the step up.

First, he lay in the wings as an emergency guitarist, but it quickly evolved into a full-time gig – and the change came naturally.

“There wasn’t much discussion,” Thayer goes on. “It was more about stepping in and filling the spot. I remember sitting with Gene and him saying, 'You need to start growing your hair again...' That was the discussion! [laughs] They needed to do something because it was becoming impossible for the band to move forward at that point.”

Thayer, a Kiss expert, felt tailor-made for the role. But that didn’t make joining any less daunting.

“I jumped in and did the best I could,” he responds when asked if the size of the task made him nervous.

“To be honest, it was tough at first, and I had a lot of anxiety. The playing part came easily, but stepping into that role and meeting the expectations that came with it was what made it challenging.”

Guitarist Karl Cochran, who has toured and collaborated with Ace Frehley, Eric Singer, Joe Lynn Turner, and Bob Daisley, among many others, died on February 19 in Bridgewater, New Jersey, at the age of 61.

The guitarist was a passenger in a car that was being driven by his 90-year-old mother. The car crashed into a tree, and Cochran was ejected from the vehicle. He was immediately flown by helicopter to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where he passed away due to severe injuries.

Upon hearing the news, former Rainbow and Deep Purple singer Joe Lynn Turner paid tribute on social media: “The passing of Karl Cochran is an unbelievable loss not only to me but to the music world in general. Karl was an extremely talented guitar player and writer. He collaborated with some of the biggest names in rock.”

He continued, “Karl's passing is our misfortune because he brought technical skill mixed with soulful artistic delivery through his music. Everyone who knew him personally and to anyone who heard his passionate performances, live or on record, can easily recognize greatness and expertise in his playing.”

Cochran's career took off in 1992 when he met Turner and joined his band, contributing to several of his solo albums. Two years later, Cochran auditioned to play in Ace Frehley's band, and after landing the gig, toured extensively with the Kiss lead guitarist between 1994 and 1996.

The Kiss association didn't stop there, however. When the original Kiss lineup reunited in 1996, he wrote Into the Void alongside Frehley, which appeared on 1998's Psycho Circus – and in the late ’90s, he toured with the Eric Singer Project alongside former Mötley Crüe vocalist John Corabi and former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick. This also included flexing his guitar chops on their 1998 classic rock covers record Lost and Spaced.

Following his close association with Kiss, Cochran revived his own band, Voodooland, dropping an EP in 2000 and a debut album in 2004, titled Give Me Air.

In 2014, Cochran suffered a stroke that left him in a coma and with limited mobility and verbal skills. Eventually, he managed to recover and resumed his music production and engineering work, as well as playing and teaching guitar and bass.

Reflecting on Cochran’s contribution to the Kiss legacy, the band paid their respects on social media, posting a photo of the guitarist alongside Paul Stanley. “Our dear friend Karl Cochran was killed in a car accident on Feb. 19th,” they wrote.

“Karl was a vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire who suffered a massive stroke but never stopped fighting to make his way back. He was loved by our fans worldwide through his appearances worldwide and was a constant inspiration as our guest on our KISS Kruises.”

It would be fair to assume that, if a guitarist is successful in their audition to join a band, things must have gone rather well – but although Ace Frehley ultimately passed his try-out for Kiss in 1973, his relationship with Gene Simmons got off to a rather rocky start.

The blood-gargling bass player recently relayed the tale of Frehley’s fiery audition during an appearance on Billy Corgan’s new YouTube series, The Magnificent Others.

Naturally, throughout the chat, much ground is covered. But it’s Simmons’ words on Frehley’s playing – and what it meant for the success of the band – that especially stands out, along with the story of an audition that almost became a physical altercation.

“He immediately tore open the doors of what could be, and what should be,” Simmons says of Frehley’s impact on the band. “We were in a rat-infested loft with egg crates on the wall that still had cracked eggs inside. At night, huge dinosaur cockroaches came out, but we didn’t care. We were doing this thing and we auditioned players.”

Simmons, Paul Stanley, and drummer Peter Criss had already formed an allegiance by this point. A second guitarist was to be the last piece of their face-paint-wearing puzzle.

“This guy comes in, plugs in, and starts playing, while we’re talking to another guy,” Simmons exclaims. “I walked up to him and said, ‘Buddy, you better sit down before I knock you out! What are you doing?’ He was oblivious that there was another meeting going on, and that he would have to sit there and wait for his turn.”

The tension in the room soon cooled off. When it was Frehley’s turn, they quickly ran him through Deuce, and the auditionee was teed up for a guitar solo in the mid-section.

Before Frehley played a note, Simmons looked the guitarist up and down: “He’s a weird guy,” he remembers. “He’s got one orange sneaker, one red, pigeon-toed, and then he dug in [on the guitar]. Paul and I looked at each other like, ‘Wow.’

“You don’t know what you’re looking for, then you hear it, and see it.”

After the audition, Frehley’s dedication to his craft continued to impress his new bandmate.

“Ace was so serious about his guitar playing that he would go home and work out the guitar solos so he would play them note-for-note, with the right vibrato,” he tells Corgan. “Live, that’s something fans kept pointing to: ‘Wow, it sounds just like the record.’”

Frehley would leave the band in the early 1980s, only to rejoin for a second stint between 1996 and 2002. Since then, their relationship has soured.

As Frehley readied the release of his latest solo album, 10,000 Volts, in late 2023, he said: “Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have tried to destroy my reputation over the years. 10,000 Volts is going to make them look like imbeciles.”

Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was never shy about his love of Kiss, and how Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley in particular inspired him to pick up the instrument.

Dimebag even went as far as getting a tattoo of Frehley, in his “Spaceman” makeup, on his chest, and was buried, after his tragic murder in 2004, in a “Kiss Kasket,” donated to his family by Gene Simmons.

Though not quiite as devoted a fan as Dimebag Darrell, Skid Row axeman Snake Sabo was also hugely influenced by Frehley, incorporating the latter's showmanship and swaggering riffing and soloing style into his fretwork with the band.

Both guitarists were recruited by Guitar World in 1993 for a roundtable of sorts with Frehley – before which Dimebag and Sabo even went to the trouble of donning Spaceman makeup themselves.

During the subsequent discussion, Sabo and Dimebag eagerly questioned Frehley about his time with Kiss, his favorite guitar, and his soloing philosophy, while also discussing their own relationships with his playing.

Sabo, echoing many guitarists of his generation, cited Kiss as his “first rock experience.”

“They made me want to play guitar,” he told Guitar World at the roundtable. “In fact, I used to get into fights with kids at school who thought Ace wasn’t as good as Jimmy Page. I’d fight for his honor.”

Dimebag, meanwhile, told Frehley with a laugh, “I used to take the Double Platinum album and trace the embossed pictures inside to see what you guys might look like without makeup.”

On a more serious note, though, just months earlier, Dimebag revealed to Guitar World in a different interview why Frehley's lead break on Shock Me was one of his all-time favorites, and which of its elements he did his best to apply to his own playing.

“Ace is god, and the Shock Me solo is killer,” he said. “The studio version has so much production just in the lead section. I also love the effects on it, especially the phaser on the last note.

“Man, I get all wound up just talking about Kiss! Ace's vibrato is what really grabbed me, and I always try to apply that to my playing. He could squeeze so much out of a single note that one note could take the place of 12.”

Despite their own respective rises to stardom in the '80s and '90s, both Dimebag and Sabo recalled well many years later the permanent imprint Frehley left on them.

“Life happens,” Sabo told Guitar World in 2022, “but there's still that 16-year-old kid within you who wants to stand in front of a mirror with your guitar, pretending to be Ace Frehley.”

In 1980 Kathy Valentine was a 21-year-old punk guitarist from Austin, Texas, who’d never have guessed she’d wind up joining LA power-poppers the Go-Go’s. But when she got together with Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey and Gina Schock, Valentine changed her game and switched to bass.

Their first two albums, Beauty and the Beat (1981) and Vacation (1982), were massive hits with the assistance of singles We Got the Beat, Our Lips Are Sealed and Vacation. Even before then, though, Valentine knew the band was onto something.

“Making my way through the demo tape, one thing became clear through the distortion of the cassette player: the Go-Go’s had some really good songs,” she says. “Each tune had a distinct personality and sound, and all of them were powered by great drumming and melodies.

“They blended punk, pop, surf and rock like no one else. For the rest of the day and through the night, I played those 19 songs. The next day, I did the same. I had never sustained such an undiluted, deep focus.”

As part of the zeitgeist in the early ‘80s, providing a sugary-sweet alternative to some of LA’s grittier groups, they were welcomed to the scene. “The Go-Go’s came out of the LA punk scene,” she says. “And the punk scene absolutely embraced women. Newcomer amateurs, gays, non-whites – without punk rock, there’s a massive wealth of music and talent the world would have never known.”

The band’s downfall came as fast as their success: a year after their third album, 1984’s Talk Show – which featured Valentine on bass and guitar – they dissolved. She describes the following years as “a bit lost, musically,” adding: “The Go-Go’s had kind of taken over my musical identity. I was so into being a Go-Go that once it was over, I wasn’t sure who I was anymore.”

She eventually figured it out, forming The Delphines and The BlueBonnets, before the Go-Go’s reformed in ’99. Two years later they released God Bless the Go-Go’s, which featured the Valentine-penned The Whole World Lost Its Head – their biggest UK hit.

That album was their last, but tours followed, as did their 2022 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As of 2024, all is quiet; and that’s not about to change. “The band is individually in very different places,” UK-based Valentine reports.

Suzi Quatro inspired you early on. How did she impact you?

“I saw Suzi [UK chart show] on Top of the Pops while visiting family in the UK in 1973. I was 14. All my favorite bands were men, and even though I’d been playing guitar it never occurred to me I could be in a band like the guys were, until I saw Suzi.

“The ground I walked on was the Stones, Hendrix, the Faces, the Who and the Beatles. Bowie, T Rex, Deep Purple, Cream, ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin added layers to the terrain I knew. Suzi Quatro split that ground wide open – she was an earthquake.

“I knew women existed in music. They sang in bands, they played acoustic guitars or sat at pianos. Years later I would learn that women had even played electric guitars in rock’n’roll, but I’d never seen or heard of any of those women. Seeing Suzi Quatro answered all the questions. ‘Where do I go? What do I do? who am I?’ Every question had an answer.”

What was your local music scene like growing up in Austin, Texas?

“Austin was a fantastic place to become a musician. I saw John Lee Hooker, Muddy, Freddie King, BB King, Albert King, Ray Charles and Little Richard as a young teenager. It was incredibly diverse; you might see Willie Nelson or Ray Wylie Hubbard or Jerry Jeff Walker one night, Maceo Parker or Bobby Blue Bland the next, the Kinks or the Ramones the next night.

“The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Doug Sahm were my favorite bands who played weekly gigs.”

You played with your band the Violators at Austin’s first punk club, Raul’s. What was that like?

“I had a Sunn Concert Lead cabinet and head. I played my friend's Rickenbacker or my Strat. We started Raul’s, which had been a Tejano club before booking us. We did mainly covers – Iggy Pop, Sex Pistols, a speedy punky version of [the Rolling Stones’] Let’s Spend the Night Together and a Mott the Hoople song. There were just a handful of originals. The audience hadn’t seen cute girls playing guitars before and didn’t know what to think.”

Then you moved out to LA and formed the Textones.

“The LA music scene had it all going on. Great bands of every genre played: smart, artsy, tongue-in-cheek punk bands, hardcore punk bands, power pop, new wave, rootsy pre-Americana bands and rockabilly bands. Every band had its own character, its own story.

“Anyone paying attention could figure out the big lesson: good music can find an audience. I couldn't wait to figure out where our band would fit in the LA scene.”

What led to you joining the Go-Go's and switching to bass?

“I met Charlotte Caffey at the Whisky on December 25, 1980, at an X show. I’d seen the Go-Go’s recently; they were happening. We had shared a bill at the Whisky once – Lydia Lunch, the Go-Gos and the Textones. Girls who played in bands took notice of each other, a silent affirmation of sorority.

“She asked if I could play bass. ‘Sure,’ I said. I had never been the bass player in a band, but I figured with five years of guitar playing under my belt, how hard could it be? Charlotte said they had a four-night gig, two shows a night, starting New Year's Eve – a week later – and their bassist couldn’t play. ’I can do it,’ I said. The next morning I woke up early and called Charlotte to get a cassette of the Go-Go’s.”

What was the first bass you used?

“One of my friends loaned me a bass – the perfect bass: a small-bodied Fender Mustang with a slim, scaled-down neck. I used a pick, like I would with a guitar, and played a little like it was a guitar.

“Charlotte had given me a rehearsal tape, probably recorded on a machine as primitive as the one I used. Deciphering the recording was not so easy! Before I could get a handle on what to do on the bass, I needed to work out the chord changes and learn the melodies.”

Did the way you look at bass differently than most players?

“Feel is an indefinable thing – two musicians can play the exact same notes but they’re going to do it differently. The difference in the band after I joined was my feel, the way I played.

“Having no experience on the bass didn’t matter with the Go-Go’s. What mattered was that I understood exactly what the Go-Go’s should sound like. I knew when to swing; I knew when to drive; I knew what to listen for and I had good timing.”

You played bass on the first two records, but for Talk Show, you played a lot of lead guitar. What led to that change?

“Charlotte was struggling – she had writers block and carpal tunnel and personal issues. Rather than improvised, she writes her parts and sticks with them, but she hadn’t done that on some of the new songs. But the clock was running.

“I was thrilled to be able to add to the record, and I spent a lot of time trying to come up with parts she’d also enjoy playing once we were doing shows again.

“The songs on the first record were written when I joined. The guitar parts were intrinsic to the songs and perfect; I wouldn’t have changed a thing. The second record could have used more of my ideas on guitar, but the dynamics of the band were sort of rigid – ‘You play bass, stay in your lane’ sort of deal.

“By the time the third rolled around, things were still rigid and weird, but something needed to be played for solos. I made sure I had something ready to go, just in case. The one thing I wish more than anything about the Go-Go’s is that we'd been more flexible and open to using all our talents.”

By the end of the Go-Go’s’ first run, did you identify more as a guitarist or bassist?

“I just identify as a musician primarily. When I’m composing and recording in my home studio, I just hear musical ideas. It’s a matter of judgment and style on how to utilize them. ‘Is this a bass part or is it a recurring hook line on guitar? Maybe it’s a backup vocal part – maybe it doesn’t belong at all.’”

Did playing bass alter your approach to guitar?

“It might have just made me think more about what the bass might be doing. On my own, I put a scratch rhythm guitar to mess about with bass lines. If the bass starts doing something cool that doesn’t go with the guitar, I mute the guitar, go with the cooler bass part and redo the guitar.”

What led you to want to move in a bluesier direction in the ‘90s with the Bluebonnets and The Delphines?

“I had an epiphany one day – I remembered that I’d grown up in Austin, Texas and that I’d been a musician and rock’n’roll gal since day one. I thought, ‘Maybe I should go back to my roots.’ So many cool bands I loved came out of blues and roots music. I thought, ‘Start from there and see. Today, learn some blues; tomorrow, be the Yardbirds.’

“As it turns out, all the other stuff I loved along the way found its place in my musicality too. I write with influences from pop to punk to blues to country to soul and funk. I might even toss a jazz chord in here and there.”

After reuniting, you wrote the Go-Go’s’ highest-charting UK single, The Whole World Lost Its Head. Did you know you had a winner out of the gate?

“All I knew was that I had the music and the melody, and both had stuck with me for years – usually a good sign that you’ve come up with something catchy. I pulled it out in a writing session with Jane, and we had a blast writing the lyrics. The words got a bit dated, so we’d often put it into the set with updated lyrics, which is fun.”

What was it like working with Gilby Clarke and Ace Frehley on your solo album, Light Years?

“Gilby is a friend from my early days in LA, and he’s just a sweetheart. I adore him and his family. It felt safe to work with him – mutual respect and genuine friendship. Ace was gentle and kind. I met him at a birthday party of mine; he offered to play on my solo record and I thought, ‘Sure… He’ll never show up.’ But he did, and he was amazing.

“We recorded at Gilby’s studio. He came in and noodled some solo takes on Bad Choice. After a few, Gilby and I looked at each other slack-jawed and said, ‘That's it.’ He wanted to do more but I said, ‘No, this is the one. Thank you!’”

Considering the success of God Bless the Go-Go’s, why hasn’t the band put together another record?

“Writing is a bit of a chore now, as it’s very hard to agree on something we all like. We were all on the same page in our early 20s. It’s inevitable that people will evolve and change. One thing we still agree on is how much we like most of our back catalogue – it has stood the test of time.”

• Keep up with Valentine and her work with The Bluebonnets.

Joel Hoekstra says he understood Ace Frehley was a “larger than life rock star” after he was complimented by the KISS icon, even though he’d turned off his electric guitar.

The strange anecdote was detailed by the Whitesnake and Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist during an appearance on the Jay Jay French Connection podcast.

Speaking to the Twisted Sister guitarist, Hoekstra said it happened during a high-end and high-profile jam session at a Rock N’ Roll Memorabilia Museum during his time in Night Ranger.

“We had a situation where they wanted us [Night Ranger] to be the band, but have guests up,” he explains (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “One of them was Bun E. Carlos, one of them was George Lynch, and one of them was Ace.

“Ace came up there, and we were in this high-priced, small room. Everybody had to pay a lot of money to be there. It was all wood; [it was a] really loud room, and we had our amps really quiet.”

Hoekstra and company were conscious of the room’s unforgiving acoustics. Ace Frehley, being Ace Frehley, was not.

"Ace comes in and dimes it,” Hoekstra continues. “Everything's just on 10, and then he wouldn't start until they jacked him up in the monitor. Like, the only thing you could hear was Ace. I mean, it was unbelievable, the rock star attitude of it all.”

At this point, the room was getting crowded. The last thing anyone’s ear drums needed was more volume.

“I remember there were four of us up there, because Lynch stayed up, and Brad Gillis, of course,” he adds. “And those guys were over there trading, and you couldn't hear anything. It was like a mosquito in a construction site.

"I thought, 'Why is anybody bothering right now?' So, I just turned my guitar off, because I thought, ‘All I'm doing is contributing to the noise’”.

Frehley’s cranked amp allowed Hoekstra to appreciate his talents at least, as he says: “Ace sounded great, actually. He played great, he had an amazing tone. But I just thought, 'I'm going to do the right thing here and just turn my guitar off.'

“And what was amazing about that, Ace came over to me after, and he complimented me on my playing. He came over and he said, 'Oh yeah, you did a really good job up there.' And I thought, 'Man, my guitar was off, but, you know, thank you.'

“But, yeah, I get it. That's when I really understood Ace Frehley. He's just a rock star. He's larger than life, you know?"

Frehley recently called selling a 1959 Gibson Les Paul to fund a gambling trip his biggest regret. In the same interview with Guitarist, he also claimed that any guitar he owns triples in value.

While The Go-Go's Kathy Valentine didn't mention at what volume he played at, she was quick to champion the glam rock legend's abilities as he and Gilby Clarke served solos on her new solo album.

Kathy Valentine is best known as the Go-Go's bassist, but her 2005 solo release, Light Years, showcased her versatility as a multi-instrumentalist with a strong songwriting-first mindset.

That album was bolstered by appearances from esteemed musicians like KISS guitarist Ace Frehley and Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke – and in a new interview with Guitar World, Valentine has revealed how they got involved.

“Gilby is a friend since my early days in LA and is just a sweetheart. I adore him and his family. It felt safe to work with him, mutual respect and genuine friendship,” Valentine says.

“Ace was gentle and kind. I met him at a birthday party of mine he came to. He offered to play on my solo record, and I thought, ‘Sure, he'll never show up.’

“But he did, and he was amazing. We recorded at Gilby's studio. He came in and noodled some solo takes on Bad Choice, and after a few, Gilby and I looked at each other slack-jawed and said, ‘That's it.’ He wanted to do more, so I said, ‘No, this is the one. Thank you.’”

In a 2005 interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Valentine spoke at length about her experience working with these two high-profile collaborators.

“I was friends with Gilby when he was in a band called Candy. We go back for years and years. We live in the same neighborhood and we have always been in touch,” she said.

“In 1990, we did a tour together with a bunch of people called The Wild Bunch. We stayed in touch and he was actually the first person I asked to help me. I trusted him to be supportive.

“I really like that Ace is playing on a track that is not anything like a KISS song. It is more like a Blondie song. He really did a great solo that is in a really different context than people are used to.”

The Go-Go's were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, just a year after Kathy Valentine released her memoir, All I Ever Wanted, which chronicles the band's wild journey.

Guitar World's full interview with Kathy Valentine will be published later this month.

We've heard a lot from the resurgent Ace Frehley, whether he's shooting down Kiss myths, sharing his solo philosophy, or admitting he should have practiced more as he promotes raucous new album 10,000 Volts.

But there's a reason we keep Frehley on speed-dial: the guy has truly seen and done it all.

So when we quizzed him on his greatest gear hits and misses, we knew there would be gold buried in them there conversations. And gold Frehley most certainly delivered…

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?

“My dad got me a piece of crap, and then I got a Hagstrom, which had much better action, but I didn’t like the pickup; it didn’t have the power of a humbucker because it had single-coil pickups. After that, I got a Telecaster, but that didn’t last too long.

“Then I got a Mustang that I modified and put a humbucker in. I got a Marshall, and that was the sound I’d been looking for. Once we [Kiss signed our record deal with Casablanca Records, I got a Honeyburst Les Paul and a Marshall stack – and we were off to the races.”

What was the last guitar you bought, and why?

“It was a Gibson Les Paul. It’s a very slight blue metallic, almost like my nail polish [laughs]. I picked up that guitar on Reverb and it sounds fabulous. I recorded with that on my new record, [10,000 Volts]. When you get something good – I mean, like a good Les Paul – all set up correctly, and into a Marshall amp, it’s a no-brainer. You don’t have to use any special effects if you have the technique, so I rarely use special effects.”

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve had when buying a guitar?

“I bought a 1952 Telecaster in the original case, which was like cardboard with the tags. It was in completely mint condition. I remember talking to the guy I got it from, and he said he got it from a woman whose son went off to war.

“Unfortunately, he never came back, so she had it under his bed and didn’t know what it was worth. Today, that guitar… Well, I sold it for a lot of money, but it today would probably be worth anywhere from $350,000 or more.”

Have you ever sold a guitar that you intensely regret letting go?

“Supposedly, the ’59 Les Paul I bought before recording my [1978] solo album is now up to $350,000 or more. That was the biggest regret.

“It was after I quit Kiss; I was still getting fucked up and I wanted to go to Atlantic City because I love to gamble. So I booked the helicopter on the West Side [of New York City], where they have those helipads, and I stopped at Richie Friedman’s We Buy [Guitars] and sold it. But I had got it from his brother across the street, who had a small store and had it in the window.

“A lot of the varnish had faded; I played it and instantly fell in love with it. He charged me four grand for it. It’s amazing how guitars appreciate.

“You know, when I sign any guitar I buy, it doubles or triples in price. So I can always make money on any guitar I’ve bought that I want to sell. Just because I got too many, I have more than 120 guitars here and I just want to get rid of some of them. When I was on the Alice Cooper tour [in 2022], I was going crazy hitting pawn shops; I must have bought 35 guitars!”

To that end, what’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve ever had when buying a guitar?

“Right now, all my guitar cases are in my attic. I have an 8,000sqft house with a huge attic, and all my cases are up there. I keep the boxes for the important outboard gear, speakers and stuff that I have in my recording studio. I’ve got my guitars all over the house: in my office, down in my studio, up in my bedroom, hanging on the walls. I don’t regret any of them and can always make money on them if I sign one.”

When was the last time you stopped to look in a guitar shop or browsed online, and what were you looking at?

“I’m really not looking at buying anything. I probably have 20 acoustics, and eight of those 20 are 12-strings. I’ve got Les Pauls, Strats and Telecasters; they just decorate the walls of my studio. I walk into pawn shops and, depending on where you are, the best ones tend to be down south. A lot of people there don’t know what they’re worth.

“I bought a Keith Richards model, you know, with the humbucker, for like 300 bucks. It’s probably worth at least a grand. And then, if I sign that, I could sell it for two thousand. But I really liked the guitar, so I’m probably going to keep that one. I also bought a Danelectro guitar inside the case with the amp, like the ones they had at Sears. I found one of those. It’s always the coolest guitars you look out for when you’re a collector.”

Would you rather have a great guitar and a cheap amp or a great amp and a cheap guitar?

“The guitar is what makes the sound, so you can take a cheap amp, use overdrive and make it sound decent. You can also use a fuzz box or a sustaining pedal, so you can always make a shitty amp sound halfway decent. But you gotta have the guitar; that’s the nucleus.”

If you could only use humbuckers or single coils for the rest of your career, which would you choose and why?

“Humbuckers give you more output. If you put them on a voltmeter, they definitely put out more voltage, which, when amplified, will give you a louder, more powerful, more distorted sound. In conjunction with the preamp on a Marshall or any other amp that has a preamp, that will also give you distortion and sustain. It’s just about getting the right amp. And if you tweak it properly, it can get you where you want to go. 

“My sound isn’t very complicated. But I do like single coils. I’ve learned over the years that if you record a rhythm track with a Les Paul, you can make it nice and thick, then double it with a Fender Strat or a Telecaster. You end up with an even thicker track because the harmonic range of a single coil is a lot different than a humbucker.”

Ace’s go-to rig

“You know, my rig hasn’t changed much since the ’70s with Kiss. I don’t really use pedals; I never really did, save for a few times here and there. But really, you know, my sound has always been, and kinda really still is, my Les Paul plugged into a cranked Marshall.

“I have a Fender Tweed and guitars all over my studio, and I’ll use different guitars on my records for layering, but live, I’m all about my Les Paul. I plug that into my Marshall with no effects; I’d trip over them if I had them on stage [laughs].”

In an affluent New Jersey suburb about an hour’s drive from Manhattan, a maze of tree-lined side streets creates a grid that keeps out the heavy traffic, leaving a peaceful, bucolic neighborhood lined with spacious homes and lush, manicured lawns undisturbed by the noise. At the end of a short block that resembles most of the other streets is a Colonial-style home that’s a bit larger than the surrounding residences.

The biggest clue that there’s something different here is the long, curved driveway that runs past rows of privacy trees and seems to disappear. At the end of the driveway there’s a parking area big enough for a dozen cars; on the other side is the front of the stately yet inviting home of Ace Frehley.

 The guitar hero and co-founder of Kiss warmly greets Guitar World at the door and invites us into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a brief chat about world events before leading us on a guided tour of the home and basement studio, where he wrote and recorded much of his new album, 10,000 Volts. When asked why he’s living in upper-class suburbia instead of a major rock mecca, Frehley shrugs. 

“We got this place for a great price, and I really like it out here,” he says, adjusting his large, rounded sunglasses with his blue nail-polished fingers. “People around here are all successful, and they’re not really into the whole world of rock ’n’ roll. I can go out to dinner and eat in peace without being bothered.”

Chez Frehley may not be located in a rock haven, but the inside is designed to appeal to the rock star aesthetic Frehley has followed ever since his dad gave him his first guitar at age 13; Frehley’s early obsession with rock ’n’ roll – and his fascination with science fiction – led to his entry into Kiss in 1973, and his band character, Space Ace. 

To wit, old science-fiction movie posters line the walls of his home, and every creature (feature) comfort is present: an antique pool table, a spaceship portal painted on a wall behind a velvety blue couch, even a fan-crafted poster of Ace replacing Jack Nicholson in the famous final scene black-and-white wall photo in The Shining. 

There’s also the more cozy, homey stuff, including a giant-screen TV with high-end speakers, a living room with comfy modern furniture and framed pictures of family and friends. 

Of course, there’s no shortage of Kiss and Ace memorabilia, and in a room behind the kitchen is a display of unique guitars Ace loves but doesn’t play, including a goldtop Gibson ES-335, a glittery flame-colored Strat and an oddity that Frehley can’t identify. It’s a brown Telecaster-shaped “NDEA Magnetic” with two P90 pickups and four tone knobs inlaid with marble blue-green stones. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Ace says, “So I had to have it. Maybe one of your readers can tell me what it is.”

A little more shop talk follows before Ace heads over to the picture windows overlooking his backyard and points to the spacious jacuzzi, where he relaxes in the spring and summer. 

Not only is it meditative, but the warm water and pressurized jets help soothe his back and neck, which he injured in multiple car accidents in the Seventies and Eighties. But that was a lifetime ago, when he seemed to be living on borrowed time and was partying so hard he could no longer function in the band he helped form.

Now, 17 years clean and sober, Ace is in fine shape, making new music, touring with his band – featuring guitarist Jeremy Asbrock, bassist Ryan Cook and drummer Scott Coogan – and recording cover albums of his favorite old songs. 

Inspired, creatively motivated and energized, he enjoys spending his leisure time with his fiancée Lara Cove, playing with his giant poodle Chewie and taking frequent trips to Las Vegas to gamble. 

Despite the decades of aches and pains, Ace gets around pretty well for a guy who’ll turn 73 on April 27. And he’s convinced he’s got many years of songwriting and recording ahead of him.

“I’ve got really good genes in my family,” he says. “My aunt was 99 when she died. My dad lived to be 96 and my mother lived to be 86. She would’ve lived a lot longer if my father didn’t pass away; she died of a broken heart not long after. 

“It was Super Bowl weekend. I spent a couple days with her in the hospital and I said to her, ‘It’s okay, you can let go now. You can go up to heaven and be with Pop.’ She died 12 hours later.” 

While he’s convinced he has many productive years left to rock the house, he doesn’t want to settle into old age without kicking, screaming and ripping on guitar. That’s one reason he spent a considerable amount of time and money to renovate his basement into the fully functioning Ace in the Hole studios, which includes a fully furnished rehearsal stage. 

Across the hall from the practice area is a door with a metal sign that reads: “AREA 51: WARNING – RESTRICTED AREA – Use of deadly force authorized – NO TRESPASSING.” 

Inside is the nerve center of the compound, the high-tech studio and vocal room where Frehley wrote and recorded much of 10,000 Volts with engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Steve Brown of ’80s hair metal band Trixter. The duo also recorded at Brown’s New Jersey studio, Mojo Vegas 6160.

Many of the guitars Ace used on 10,000 Volts, as well as some of his most prized acquisitions (including a white Les Paul decorated with tiny lightbulbs that make patterns in the dark) hang on the wall within easy reach. 

“I’ve always loved collecting guitars,” he says. “In Kiss, when we pulled into a new city, instead of checking into the hotel, me and my guitar tech would drive around to all the local pawn shops. We got some great stuff that way.”

Ace still sometimes combs pawn shops, but he also buys from modern retailers, including Reverb.com. He holds up a gorgeous blue Les Paul. 

“I got it about six months ago on Reverb for $2,000,” he says. “I don’t know who made it; I don’t even know who painted it because that’s not a stock Gibson. But it’s one of the best-playing Les Pauls I own, and I’m probably going to take it on tour with me when we go out again in 2024.”

Though the title track for 10,000 Volts wasn’t the last song Frehley recorded, it was the first single he released, and the scribbly, original handwritten lyrics rest on a music stand near the chair of his control desk. 

Since he released the video for the title track on November 28, 2023, 10,000 Volts has received close to a million streams on YouTube. The bluesy, rib-kicking anthem is quintessential Ace, combining the visceral clout of Mission to Mars and the classic melodicism of Ace’s Shock Me, from the 1977 Kiss album Love Gun.

“It’s funny because I wrote both songs, Shock Me and 10,000 Volts about being electrocuted onstage during a Kiss show in Lakeland, Florida,” Ace says, “I still love Shock Me, but I might like 10,000 Volts even better. It’s just this kick-ass rock ’n’ roll song that’s really fun to play.”

 In addition to being a master of choice pentatonic leads, Frehley remains a theatrical performer, as evidenced by the lightning bolt and pyro-enhanced performance video for 10,000 Volts. Just don’t expect future Ace shows to feature the kind of fireworks-blasting headstocks he played in Kiss. 

“I don’t have any of those guitars around anymore,” he says. “People kept offering me ridiculous amounts of money for them, so I sold them. But I still have the blueprints.” 

Speaking of Kiss, it would be remiss not to mention the recent kerfuffle that went down right before the band’s (possibly) final tour. When Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley announced that Kiss would play their last-ever concert at Madison Square Garden, they talked about inviting Ace and drummer Peter Criss to take the stage with them. 

Word got out, and Frehley started looking forward to the opportunity to perform with his old bandmates for the first time since February 24, 2002, during the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics. Then he heard Stanley talking smack about him and insulting his playing.

“The thing is, when they first talked about us playing with them, they never really meant it, they just wanted to sell more tickets,” Frehley says with a hint of annoyance. 

“And it all fell apart when they went on the Howard Stern Show and said that if they played with me and Peter, then they might as well change the band’s name to Piss. But that’s the way they are. 

“And as far as I’m concerned, they did what they did, and I’m happy doing what I’m doing. I’m still going strong, and I’ve just done one of the best albums of my career.” 

Frehley started writing songs for 10,000 Volts back in 2022 with his childhood friend, Peppy Castro, who played guitar in the Sixties psychedelic garage band Blues Magoos, and guitarist Derrek Hawkins, who toured with Ace in 2007. But Frehley wasn’t excited with anything they wrote. 

When he shared his frustrations with his fiancée, she suggested Ace do some writing with her friend Steve Brown, who has worked with Def Leppard, Dennis DeYoung, Danger Danger and the Broadway musical Rock of Ages.

“I knew him on a casual level back in the day,” Ace says. “Steve was a big fan, and, like a lot of guitarists, he said seeing me in Kiss was one of the things that inspired him to play, which is really flattering. 

“Fast-forward a bunch of years, and now he’s a really talented songwriter and engineer who has worked with all these great people on all kinds of music. I figured, why not give it a shot? So I gave him a call.”

Brown sent Frehley a professional demo of a swaggering, mid-paced, blues-based anthem full of sustained, electrified chords. Impressed, and noting that the song contained a line about “walking on the moon” – an excellent move when writing for a Spaceman – Ace called Brown and told him he liked the track but wanted to rework the lyrics and change the title to Walking on the Moon. And there was one other change he wanted to make.

“I said, ‘Steve, this needs a bridge.’ He goes, ‘What do you mean it needs a bridge?’ I go, ‘It’s great – but it needs a bridge.’ He came over, we rewrote the lyrics, I put the bridge in, and the song was finished. No drama. We did the whole thing in a day. And the chemistry was so good, we just kept going.”

Over most of 2023, whenever Frehley and Brown could line up their schedules, they got together at one of their home studios to work on new songs (about 25 times in total), and the chemistry was always kinetic. During one six-day session, the two wrote five songs. 

By October, 13 months after Frehley began the project, the two were tweaking the final mixes of 10,000 Volts. Catchier and more cohesive than 2018’s Spaceman, the album includes the heartrending piano-enhanced ballad “Life of a Stranger,” the chuggy, propulsive Cosmic Heart, the scorching title track and the infectious pop-metal riff-fests of Cherry Medicine and Blinded.

Depending on the vibe of the track he worked on, Ace chose from a variety of Gibsons and sometimes a couple of Fender Stratocasters, plugged them into a Marshall JCM800 and let fly, using only his bridge pickup (he’s disconnected the others). 

Buoyed by enthusiasm for the new songs and some real-life family and career drama he’d rather not talk about, Frehley injected both joy and frustration into his playing. And he recorded the solos impulsively and spontaneously, playing from the heart instead of planning out the progressions. 

In addition to being excited to share his first batch of originals since Spaceman, he’s eager to turn the tables on anyone who thought he wasn’t good enough to play onstage with Kiss and demonstrate that he’s as capable of releasing great songs as he was in 1978 and is firmly back in the groove.

Your last two records were covers albums. Why did you want to release a record of originals?

“I looked at my contract and it said there was still a record I owed them, so I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want them knocking on my door or canceling my contract. [Laughs] No, I was slated to do a studio record with original songs, and the timing was good. I figured I’d do another Origins [covers album] after that. The only cover on this one is Life of a Stranger, which is by Nadia and was used over the credits of the first Transporter movie with Jason Statham.”

Why did you want to cover a Latin-tinged electro-pop song that was released in 2002?

“I just liked the song. She does it, like, real sparse pop techno. I wanted to do it with heavy drums, rippin’ guitars and a really big chorus. It’s something different for me. I always try to think out of the box. It’s just a matter of brainstorming and coming up with new ideas.”

How did you want 10,000 Volts to be an evolution from Spaceman?

“I wanted it to be a little more current. It was great working with Steve because he’s in his fifties, so he’s got a different perspective than I do, and he’s been using ProTools for 30 years. I’m really happy with everything about the record, and the production is way better that a lot of my other stuff.”

Did you and Steve write most of the songs over the past year?

“We worked really quickly. The only old song is Back in My Arms Again, which I wrote 40 years ago with Arthur Stead [keyboardist for Frehley’s Comet in 1984 and 1985].” 

A lot of tried-and-true Ace Frehley fans have heard your old demos and have wondered why you didn’t release that song earlier. The mid-tempo mood and yearning vocals have ‘80s rock radio hit’ written all over it.

“I don’t know why I didn’t do something with it. I really love it. But I’ve got so many songs I’ve written but haven’t recorded, so it’s not that strange. Plus, I was caught up with lots of other things. It just seemed like the song would work really well on 10,000 Volts, and Steve agreed.”

Once you had the songs written, did you and Steve record them together with other musicians?

“The thing about the studio is, when you find the right path with the right team, there’s a very relaxed feel. And part of that comes from having as few people in there with you as possible. I don’t like having a lot of people in the control room when I’m recording. I learned that when I was doing my ’78 solo album. 

“There was me, Eddie Kramer, Anton Fig and that was it. I get distracted when there are three or four other people in there and everybody has an opinion, just like everybody has an asshole. It’s just too much.”

Do you feel less confident?

“It’s not that. See, I know what I want, right? I know what I’m looking for. And if we’re not on the same page, shut your mouth. ‘Hey, fuck you. It’s my record.’ Steve totally got that, and he understood it. We agreed on stuff 95 percent of the time, anyway, so there really wasn’t any arguing. And he was always open to changing things to make them better. We both did whatever we could to make the songs as good as they could be.”

When you write and record solo material, do you try to play differently than you did in Kiss?

“I don’t even think about Kiss when I write. It’s my solo record and I just write the way I write and don’t try to emulate anything. When I’m writing a song, I never think, ‘Oh, how would Kiss fans relate to this?’ There are Ace fans, and, of course, a lot of Kiss fans enjoy my music, which is nice. But what Kiss has done in the past doesn’t affect me at all.” 

Regardless of the vibe of the song, your guitar sound is instantly identifiable.

“You plug a Les Paul into a Marshall and turn it up to 10 and you’ve got the perfect marriage, and I’ve been using that combination for 40-plus years. It has never let me down. So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There’s one song I tried to do a little bit of a country feel on, and then I listened back to it and said, ‘No, it should be an Ace solo. I shouldn’t be trying to copy country artists.’ And I think the new solo worked out better.”

How important are Gibsons to your guitar sound? 

“Those are the meat and potatoes, but sometimes you need another flavor. A lot of times, when I lay down a rhythm track, I’ll lay it down with a Les Paul, and then I’ll double it with a Fender because a Fender has a completely different harmonic range than a Les Paul. And when you blend them together, you get a much thicker sound. That’s a trick I learned from Pete Townshend, and I’ve been doing it forever.”

Steve played rhythm guitar and bass on almost every song. He also played solos on Walkin’ on the Moon and Fightin’ for Life. Isn’t that your turf?

“When Steve would write the music, a lot of the time he’d play a solo and say, ‘Ace, this is the kind of thing I think would work on this song.’ I’d record most of the solos, but a lot of his solos were really good. 

“So, a couple times I said to him, 'Steve, this solo you did is so good, let’s just use it,' because I don’t know if I could have improved upon it. And if he did a great solo he deserved credit. I give credit where credit is due.”

You’ve spoken before about being completely self-taught and learning by feeling around for what works. But that’s not exactly true. You seem to have learned a lot from carefully listening to the players you’ve admired and incorporating some of what they do into your style.

“That’s true. I’ve learned from a lot of guys who sound like no one else. When you hear Eric Clapton play, you know it’s Clapton. Jimi Hendrix had his own style as well, and it was very distinctive; Townshend is the same way. He’s the master of chord work. Townshend could play the same chord in a dozen different positions. 

“I learned a lot from studying Pete Townshend. A lot of people don’t know that he buried an acoustic guitar under the electric guitar to create a fuller sound. I use that now on some songs. You don’t really hear it that much, but if you pull it out, you miss it because it helps support the song. And he’s the one that really inspired me to mess around with the toggle switch.”

Kiss were a quintessential American band, yet you cut your chops on a lot of great British players, which is kind of ironic since the British Invasion bands rooted their sound in older American blues.

“I studied Clapton, Jeff Beck, Hendrix, Townshend, George Harrison, Keith Richards – the whole British Invasion – from the time I was 13 and my dad bought me my first electric guitar. There were a couple of American guitar players that influenced me, including Jim McCarty in the Detroit Wheels and Joe Walsh when he was in the James Gang. And I listened to B.B. King, Albert King and Freddie King. 

“A lot of those Black blues guitarists had a way of playing that was just so unorthodox and simple, but great at the same time. Chuck Berry never played complicated solos. It was all about picking the note; it was the attitude and personality. And playing with attitude has so much to do with the way your guitar work comes out.”

Did you pre-write your solos for the new album?

“No, never. I just said, ‘Steve, hit the record button. What key is this in?’ And then, boom, I’d go off and play it in four or five passes. We’d listen back to ’em and piece the best parts together in ProTools. A few mouse clicks later, you’ve got a guitar solo.”

Do you tend to stay mostly within the pentatonic scale?

“Yeah, because that’s my style. It works. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But at the same time, so much of what you do has to do with the way you pick the notes. You can play pinch harmonics, and bend the note, you can apply a lot of pressure with your pick or just a little. You can scrape the strings. There are all kinds of things you can do that have nothing to do with your fretting hand.”

10,000 Volts stands alone as a solid album, which keeps you sounding more relevant than a lot of artists who continue to tour off past hits and live off former glory – no names mentioned.

“It’s very rewarding to still be able to make records and have people want to listen to them. Just the reaction from the single 10,000 Volts is really heartwarming and that keeps me excited. I’m excited to see how the other singles do, and I’m looking forward to touring. I see only positive stuff in the future. 

“Thank God, I have a beautiful woman that I’m engaged to and a wonderful family. Thank God everybody’s well. You can have a hundred million dollars in the bank, but if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. 

“And with all that going for me, I can concentrate on music and continue to challenge myself and do different things. I want people to know it’s me when they hear me, but I don’t want to be doing the same old thing album after album.”

• 10,000 Volts is out now via Mnrk Heavy.

Ace Frehley has opened up about his biggest gear regret: parting ways with a highly valuable ‘59 Gibson Les Paul Burst that he sold to fund a gambling trip.

Speaking to Guitarist, the former Kiss electric guitar was asked whether there were any guitars from his past collection he intensely regrets letting go of. 

Frehley highlighted his ‘59 LP – widely seen as one of the most collectible instruments of them all – which he used to raise money for a jaunt to Atlantic City.

As the story goes, Frehley chartered a helicopter for the trip, and had it stop off at Richie Friedman’s well-known high-end vintage gear retailer, We Buy Guitars, to help him get some quick cash for his visit to New Jersey.

“Supposedly, the ’59 Les Paul I bought before recording my [1978] solo album is now up to $350,000 or more,” he says. “That was the biggest regret. It was after I quit KISS; I was still getting fucked up and I wanted to go to Atlantic City because I love to gamble. 

“So I booked the helicopter on the West Side [of New York City], where they have those helipads, and I stopped at Richie Friedman’s We Buy [Guitars] and sold it.”

Frehley purchased the guitar for $4,000, and – as he has previously explained to Guitar Player – managed to recoup $18,000 when he later sold it. A fairly sizable mark-up, but one that absolutely pales in comparison to the guitar’s current value.

Frehley isn't too worried about the losses he incurred while selling his vintage Les Paul, mind. As he goes on to explain, any guitar he buys – and he’s bought a fair few in his time – goes up in value just because of its association with him.

“You know, when I sign any guitar I buy, it doubles or triples in price,” he concludes. “So I can always make money on any guitar I’ve bought that I want to sell. Just because I got too many, I have more than 120 guitars here and I just want to get rid of some of them. 

“When I was on the Alice Cooper tour [in 2022], I was going crazy hitting pawn shops; I must have bought 35 guitars!”

He may miss his original ’Burst Les Paul, but he’s got the next best thing: a near-identical recreation from Gibson that was built using high-resolution pics of the original.

“Gibson got a hold of that guitar from the guy who bought it, and they took high-resolution photographs,” he told Guitar Player. “So when I came out with my ’59 Les Paul, it was pretty much a duplicate of that guitar.

“I went to the Gibson showroom in Las Vegas at the time, and they had all 75 of the aged models they’d made, and they wanted me to pick the best one.”

With no musical training and a restless personality, there are a lot of assumptions thrown around when it comes to “Space” Ace Frehley. Some are true, but most, if not all, are unfounded. 

His detractors would declare Frehley unreliable and rudimentary. But if we look back, he never missed a single Kiss show. And as far as his playing goes, Frehley is considered a pillar of rock and metal, especially within the guitar community. How’s that for rudimentary?

Through his patented use of “dinosaur bends” and a torrential fury of frenetic notes, aka total fretboard domination, Frehley created an individualistic sound that’s impossible to duplicate. But that’s not all; he’s authentic as they come as a personality, making him a lovable character that shredders and slow-burners alike aspire to.

But back in the ’70s, when Frehley was a young gun with a beer in one hand and Les Paul in another, he couldn’t have imagined it.

“I’m always flattered when people tell me I influenced them,” he says. “If I knew I was gonna influence thousands of guitar players, I woulda practiced more. [Laughs] I laugh, but that’s the truth. I didn’t know I would become this iconic guitar player that so many people would listen to. I’ve had so many players come up to me and say, ‘You are the reason I play guitar,’ and I’m always like, ‘Wow…’”

Stunning as it is to the 72-year-old Bronx native, it rings true. On the strength of classics like Strutter, Deuce, Strange Ways and Shock Me, Frehley unknowingly developed integral style elements that would define the across-the-board progression of rock guitar. 

But to do that, first, he had to couple up alongside Paul Stanley. When asked what the secret sauce was, he says, “More than anything, it was chemistry. But it’s hard to say; it’s always that way with those things. I do know that the little things about my style fit alongside Paul’s well.

“Paul is a great rhythm player, and I am, too,” Frehley says. “When we did chord work together, I’d play an octave up, so I wasn’t doubling him. That came naturally, like during Strutter, it’s there. Paul is playing the low parts, and I’m doing the octaves. I liked to thicken up the song, which Paul agreed with. It just made sense.”

Frehley left Kiss for the second and final time in 2002, but his imprint is scrawled in indelible ink across the band. Some deny it, others ignore it, but the fact remains.

Still, Frehley can’t be bothered with any of that these days. And with five solo records in the bank since leaving Kiss, and another, 10,000 Volts, which Frehley calls “the best thing he’s done since the ’78 solo record,” due in February, it’s easy to see why.

Looking back on it all, true to form, Frehley doesn’t get too deep: “It’s a nice sentiment, but I don’t look at myself as some brilliant guitar player,” he says. “I’ve never taken a lesson, and my sense of melody came from singing in the church choir. So, whatever I have, it can’t be taught. You’ve gotta have it in you. Either you’ve got it, or you’ve got nothing at all.”

Did you have a guitar-related vision when you joined Kiss?

“My guitar sound hasn’t changed after all these years, so the template has stayed the same. If you follow what I do now, you’ll get it. But I was always old school, played through a Marshall turned up to 10, and played a Les Paul for the most part. That’s my sound, you know? The exception would be when I played one of my smoking guitars; I’d have repetitive delay when I did that.”

I assume effect pedals didn’t factor in much, as I’ve never seen them at your feet.

“I use them a little, but I’m mostly a guitar-into-an-amp type of player. But when I have used effects, like fuzz, wah and drive, my roadies would run that stuff because I can’t have pedals on the floor; I’d trip over them. [Laughs] You’d be hard pressed to find a photo of me playing with pedals on the floor; I’d be shocked if you could find one. It’s rock ’n’ roll, so I don’t need ‘em much anyway.”

Paul Stanley has often spoken about creating “one big guitar” sound in Kiss’s early years. Was that your viewpoint, too? 

“If you read what many people have written over the years – especially about the early days – most say I was the sound of Kiss. And the thing with that is I never really worked hard on it. I just took a Les Paul, plugged it into a Marshall, and away I went.

“I get what Paul means when he says that, but there’s more to it regarding how I get harmonics. But to me, it was pretty much a no-brainer to do that.”

One thing that’s not often mentioned is your use of octaves in Kiss’s early music.

“Oh, yeah, Paul would play barre chords and introduce the song, and I’d try to play the octave of his part. That would make the whole song thicker, rather than me doubling Paul’s parts. Paul and I were cognizant of that, did the octave thing, and it worked well. It’s cool that you picked that out; it doesn’t get called out too often when people ask me about early Kiss music.”

Regarding solos, did you have an approach?

“All my solos, well, 90 percent of my solos were off the cuff. As long as I’ve been doing this, I empty my head, ask someone to tell me what key it’s in and go for it. It might take me three, four, five or even six passes, but that’s the way I do my best work.

“If I’m relaxed, and nothin’ is botherin’ me, and I can empty my head, the solos usually come out great. That’s how it was in the ’70s, and it’s the same today. If I’m not worried about stuff happening around me, I’m usually fine when doing a solo.”

Your solos are thematic to the point that they’re songs within the song.  

“That’s a good point. If you listen to how my solos come out, meaning if you listen to how I play closely, you’ll hear that I’m a blues-based player. And for me, that goes back to being a huge fan of guys like [Eric] Clapton and [Jimmy] Page; those guys played solos that you’d be humming for days while you’re walking around, you know?”

So there’s an element of intent to what you’re doing, then.

“Those guys I mentioned had solos you could hum, but they also had these moments where I’d go, ‘Wait… what was that?’ I learned that if I could make thousands of people turn their heads when I played a solo by being able to hum it but also by having speed and agility, that I was doing something right. 

“But that doesn’t mean it’s always about playing fast, either. I was good friends with Eddie Van Halen but knew I could never play like that. So having a lot of melodic sense was important, too. I’d play fast in the right spots, let it rip in others and slow down when needed.”

You mentioned using a Les Paul, but it’s said that you used an Ovation Breadwinner on the first Kiss record. Why was that?

“I don’t know what people are talking about when they say that. I’ve seen that for so long, and I don’t know who first said I used the white Ovation guitar on the first Kiss record [Kiss]. I played that guitar during Kiss’s early shows, and it was the guitar I used when Bill Aucoin came to see Kiss before he signed us, but I didn’t use it on the first Kiss record.”

You’ve just debunked a longstanding narrative about the recording of Kiss’s first record. What guitar did you use, then?

“I had been playing the Ovation, put humbuckers in it, and grew to like that sound. I thought it was cool, which is probably part of what drew me to Les Paul guitars, with the other being that a Les Paul has a 6 percent neck angle in reference to the body. You can’t lay a Les Paul flat on the table because of that arch, and when you tighten the strings, there’s tension and body resonance – especially if it’s made of good wood.

“That aside, I probably played my red Epiphone double-cutaway, the same one Steve Marriott played [Coronet].”

I’ve seen that you didn’t come upon the Tobacco Sunburst Les Paul until after Kiss was recorded. But you’re saying you bought it before and that you used it during the recording, then?

“I’m sure I used my Tobacco Les Paul on the first Kiss record, along with the red Epiphone, and maybe even a Strat. I liked the Ovation because it had a neat shape and how it sounded with the humbuckers. But I wanted something cooler like the guitars Clapton and Page played. 

“So, the minute Kiss signed the contract with Casablanca [Records], I went to Manny’s Music in New York City and bought the tobacco sunburst Les Paul. And then, later, I converted that to my first smoking guitar before I turned it into a double-cut.”

What’s the definitive guitar moment from Kiss’s early ’70s era?

“It’s hard to say; honestly, I rarely think about things in those terms. Most people would say my solo from Alive! was great. But it’s a tricky question; I’ve recorded hundreds of solos, but from the first three albums, I’d have to go with Deuce. That was the first song I played with Kiss during my audition.

“I came in with a Gibson reverse Firebird with banjo tuning pegs and a 50-watt Marshall. I remember ripping through Deuce with them and thinking it was great, but they told me, ‘We’ll get back to you in two weeks.’ But Paul later told me, ‘We knew you were the guy; we just didn’t want to tell you right away.’ [Laughs]

Were you comfortable making a regimented record like Destroyer as an off-the-cuff player?

“People don’t always say as much, but me and [producer] Bob Ezrin got along most of the time. But sometimes, I showed up late because I had a hangover from the night before. Everybody knows I was an alcoholic, and luckily, I just celebrated 17 years of sobriety, but back then, it was different. 

“Bob was a guy who liked to get things done quickly, probably because he had a mountain of cocaine and a bottle of Remy Martin on the mixing desk with him. But, of course, Paul and Gene [Simmons] never mention that.”

I take it you weren’t informed that Dick Wagner would be subbing for you on Sweet Pain.

“No, I wasn’t. Later, I was told Bob did that because he felt my solos weren’t as great as they should have been, so he had Dick play them. But it was more about punishing me for not being on time. I see it as partially my fault but also partly Bob’s fault. But the thing that bothered me most was that I wasn’t told he had replaced my solos; I had to find out after I listened to the record at home on my turntable. That bothered me for a long time.”

Bob did have a hand in releasing the Destroyer Resurrected version of Sweet Pain with your solo in 2012. I found your solo to be better than Dick’s. 

“I’d have to listen to it, hang on [Ace pauses to listen to his version of Sweet Pain]. You like my solo better than Dick’s, huh? Well, Dick was a great player, and he did a great solo, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with mine. [Laughs] But I’ll be honest – I don’t remember recording it. [Laughs] 

“I think they took my solo out to punish me for being late. It was a political move that Bob Ezrin made when he said, ‘Ace has got to be taught a lesson,’ and Gene and Paul followed him like puppets. They were always control freaks, and I was always the dude who drank too much and was late too many times. But even with all the nonsense, we were still friends and did get along to that point.”

I wanted to touch on your late-’70s live sound. I’ve read that while you had Marshall guitar cabinets on stage, you had Fender amps beneath the stage. Any truth to that?

“That is true. [Laughs] I liked the hot sound of Fender amps, and I had an old Fender Champ that I had souped up with an even older Jensen C12 speaker. And I had a Linear Power Boost [LPB-1] by Electro-Harmonix that I loved. I used that, along with the Champ, because I liked the sustain I got. 

“I’d have that mic’d up while I had these big Marshall cabinets behind me. If you listen to Alive II, you can hear the enormous sound I got from this little Fender amp running through the PA. Whatever works, right?”

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Shock Me. Can you recall recording the solo?

“Oh yeah, sure, I do. I played all the guitars and bass on Shock Me. But as far as doing that song… it just happened. I’m the kind of guy who likes to fly by the seat of his pants, and I’d be lying if I said Shock Me wasn’t like that. I don’t like to think too hard or ponder about stuff. 

“That’s what drove me crazy about Destroyer; we’d sometimes do 25 takes of a song, and they’d get worse and worse each time. I would tell the guys, ‘Look, let’s call it a day because this song has lost all its spontaneity.’ And I was right because we’d come back the next day and nail it. So, when I was doing Shock Me, I did that thing where I emptied my mind, and there it was.”

Did you have any idea you’d recorded a solo that would be considered iconic?

“No. [Laughs] I was just happy I got it done, and I moved on to the next song. Like I said, I don’t like to overthink solos beforehand, and I don’t look back on them when I finish. I get one done, and I’m on to the next song.”

Do you have a favorite solo from Kiss’s ’70s era?

“One solo that always sticks out is Strange Ways from Hotter Than Hell. I had been recording all day and was frustrated. I remember saying, ‘I’m just gonna stand in front of the Marshall and let it fucking go.’ And this crazy solo with a massive dinosaur bend came out.

“But like I said before, there’s Deuce because it was the first time I played with the guys, and then, there’s Shock Me. I consider those the bookends between the early and late-’70s Kiss. As far as my playing goes, those are the definitive ones.”

• 10,000 Volts is out now via Mnrk Heavy.

As the lead guitarist in the original line-up of Kiss, Ace Frehley is a hugely influential figure in American rock ’n’ roll – an inspiration to countless guitar players that emerged in the ’80s and ’90s, including Dimebag Darrell, Tom Morello, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, and Stone Gossard and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam.

Frehley’s guitar wizardry is most powerfully illustrated in the songs he wrote and recorded with Kiss in the ’70s – Cold Gin, Shock Me, and Rocket Ride among them. In 1978, when solo albums from the four members of Kiss were released on the same day, it was Ace’s record that rocked the hardest – and sold the most. 

And, between his two tenures with Kiss – the first from 1973 to 1982, the second from 1996 to 2002 – Frehley’s made some fine albums with his band Frehley’s Comet, and recently as a solo artist.

His new album, 10,000 Volts, treads no new ground. But then again, an album by Ace Frehley – a dyed-in-the-wool ’70s rocker – isn’t meant for anyone expecting anything beyond his brand of guitar authenticity. The music on 10,000 Volts is raucous; a throwback to his glory days with Kiss, when his pyrotechnic on-stage solo showcase featured a rocket-firing guitar.

“Everyone who’s heard the whole album seems to love it,” Frehley tells TG. “It’s good to hear that people like what I’m doing. I’m getting positive feedback from almost everybody, so we’ll see what happens.”

As a player, his tone is unique, his technique unorthodox. As he says with a laugh: “I could never teach someone to play like me!” But there is still much we can learn from the man who has influenced so many famous players…

There’s a great energy to this new album – you’ve still got it, Ace!

“Well, thank you. I can’t believe it; 10,000 Volts was only out for two days, and it had 250,000 views on YouTube. I’m thrilled.”

Your fans online are raving about Back Into My Arms Again, a song that dates to the ’80s.

“I was surprised because I didn’t think anyone would remember it, but they did! I wrote that back in ’84 or somewhere close to that. I always thought it was a good song, but for some reason I never decided to put it on any of my records. I might have used it for Kiss back in the ’90s if they had let me, but that’s another story. It was just the right time… 40 years later!”

Your songwriting process, like your guitar playing, seems off-the-cuff and in the moment.

“You know, it’s funny because I have an IQ of 163, which is genius-level. But there’s a part of my day when I first wake up, and I’m still half asleep but also half awake, and that’s when my most creative ideas pop up. It’s like when I’m lucid, I get these ideas. When that happens, I need to pounce on them. But my process has always been to write things that are memorable.”

Your tone is unmistakable. Where does that come from?

“It’s been the same since I was a teenager. I listened to all my favorite guitar players, who tended to be British Invasion guys like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck… the list goes on. But as far as my tone, and the way I write my solos, I don’t fucking know! People tell me I’m so unique, but it’s just a matter of me clearing my fucking head and letting it rip!”

So, there’s no tried-and-true method to your madness?

“If there was, I don’t think I’d remember it! When you hear my solos, you know it’s me, and you’ll hear little bits and pieces of those guys I mentioned, but I could never teach someone to play like me. I don’t think I’d want to! I’m a blues-based guitarist, like Jimmy Page, and that’s how I look at my solos. 

“I want them to be memorable. So, that was the approach – if there was one – on 10,000 Volts. I want you to be able to sing along and have them get stuck in your head! The best guitar solo is a song within a song. I’ve been doing that my whole career. I couldn’t stop or change even if I wanted to.”

And with that, there is an element of devil-may-care sloppiness. That’s not for everyone, but it works for you. 

“I’m a sloppy fucking guitar player! I’ll be the first to admit that. I make mistakes, and shit happens – especially live. I play the songs how they’re meant to be played. I deliver the classic Kiss songs and my solo songs how you remember them.”

How do you feel about Tommy Thayer, the guitarist who replaced you in Kiss?

“A guy like Tommy Thayer – who I like and is a great player – will play perfectly with no mistakes. But is that what you want? Tommy will never be me, and no one can play like me. I take pride in that. That’s rock ’n’ roll.”

Is your prescription for that sort of rock ’n’ roll still a heaping dose of Gibson Les Pauls paired with Marshall amps?

“My sound is as simple as that. I’ve got a ton of guitars, like Stratocasters, Telecasters, and all sorts of weird shit. I’ve got some great acoustic ones, too. I used a Strat on the new record for rhythm tracks and layering, but when it comes down to it, I’m most comfortable with a Les Paul. My sound is simple: a Gibson Les Paul dimed to ten, plugged into a vintage Marshall tube amp, also cranked to fucking ten. But even if you do that, don’t expect to sound like me!”

What does it mean to make a record of this caliber at this stage in your career?

“It’s funny – if you play one of my songs to a random stranger who isn’t a Kiss fan and ask them, ‘What do you think?’, I bet you they’ll say, ‘Who is that guy? That’s some cool shit!’ But look, I’m 72 years old and still sound like I did in the ’70s. I get a kick out of the fact that I can do this like I did then. 

“Some will say the fact that my playing hasn’t evolved is a problem, but I’d say that’s bullshit. Ace Frehley fans seem to get it. I can go out there without bombs, makeup and costumes. I’m in jeans and a t-shirt, playing like I did when I was 25. What do you think would happen if Kiss tried that? They’d get booed off the stage!”

So many great guitarists have cited you as an influence – Tom Morello, Dimebag, and pretty much everyone from the grunge era. What does this mean to you?

“I can’t believe how many players I’ve influenced. People come up to me saying, ‘If it wasn’t for you…’ That makes me feel great.”

And is there one lesson you could pass on to TG readers?

“In retrospect, I should have practiced more. There are times I don’t know what the fuck I’m playing, but it just comes out alright anyway! I do my best work when I’m not thinking, when I just empty my head. I’ll be fine if I know the key and have a few takes. What can I say? I know how to make a good song. There’s no explaining it beyond that.”

• 10,000 Volts is out now via Mnrk Heavy.

Two-hand tapping is a technique that is wholly synonymous with the name Eddie Van Halen, but as the late electric guitar great himself acknowledged on numerous occasions, it wasn’t something he invented from the ground up.

Rather, Van Halen’s own interpretation of tapping derived from various sources of inspiration, which were refined and channeled into the trademark technical weapon that he used on some of his greatest feats of fretboard majesty.

While some of these inspirations are well-accounted for – Jimmy Page and Brian May immediately spring to mind – others are seldom included in the conversation.

That pool of players apparently includes Ace Frehley, who recently theorized that his own displays of tapping prowess “probably” helped EVH on his way to making the technique as it is known today.

The former Kiss guitarist said as much in a recent appearance on Chris Shiflett’s Shred With Shifty podcast, during which the Foo Fighter asked his guest about the true origins of the two-hand tapping technique.

“Before Van Halen became famous, Gene discovered them,” Frehley recalled (as spotted by Ultimate Guitar). “But all I can tell you is, when I was doing my guitar solo at Madison Square Garden before they became famous, Eddie was down in the pit watching every fucking move I made.”

But, as Frehley was quick to note, tapping as he used it was different to how Eddie Van Halen himself ended up utilizing the skill, not least because of the physical technicalities of the technique.

“I did it with the pick, I didn’t do it with my finger,” he went on. “Eddie probably got some ideas from me, just like I got ideas from other guitar players. But he perfected it. There’s no way I could play some of the solos that he pulled off.”

As for who inspired Frehley to tap in the first place? “As far as I can remember, I think I just came up with it,” the guitarist said.

As mentioned above, some of Van Halen’s tapping influences are well-documented. Last summer, Brian May said the solo he contributed to Queen’s 1977 cut It’s Late – which arrived six months prior to Eruption – proved to be pivotal to Van Halen.

Another key force behind Van Halen’s tapping, as the late guitarist once detailed in depth, was the playing of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. In a video from 2015, Van Halen explained how witnessing Page play proved to be an equally informative experience. 

“I think I got the idea of tapping watching Jimmy Page do his Heartbreaker solo back in 1971,” Van Halen explained. 

“He was doing a pull-off to an open string, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, open string … pull off. I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around?’ I just kind of took it and ran with it.”

From these sources of inspiration, Van Halen developed his own two-hand tapping style, which features a notable technical quirk – a quirk he passed on to his son, Wolfgang Van Halen.