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.

Gene Simmons Band guitarist Jason Walker was born to play music – literally. “One of my first memories is actually me singing in my crib,” he tells Guitar World. “It woke my parents up – I found this thing I liked to do!” That “thing” soon became less of a habit and more of an aspiration, though it wasn’t the guitar that initially piqued his interest.

“My first instrument was a coffee and creamer tin drum kit I fashioned on the floor from various cans. I used welding rods for drumsticks. I even used a can opener on the bottom of an empty one to loosen a makeshift cymbal – my young ingenuity! Then I would play along to tapes.”

Like many rock-afflicted types, Walker grew up loving “Hendrix and a steady diet of ‘60s and ‘70s rock” which eventually led to guitar. “After my first concert, which was Crosby, Stills and Nash, I knew it was what I wanted to do.

“My father had this 12-string acoustic that he kept in their bedroom and I would get at it sometimes. I remember him picking it up occasionally and playing a thing he’d written here and there.”

From there, Walker learned to tune his guitar and started learning chords. “As far as deciding what type of player I wanted to be, I never made a conscious choice. I just wanted to do the best I could.”

By 14, he was being paid to play music, toting around a late ‘70s 50-watt Marshall JMP and a Les Paul Standard from 1990. “The Les Paul was always my first-choice guitar,” he says.

Around 2005, he met a man who had already changed and shaped many guitarists’ lives, Mike Varney. “I was at a guitar jam at a sports bar. Mike and I talked about Stephen Stills and Jimmy Page, then he donated a few choice CDs to me. It was very generous.”

This encounter stuck with Walker, so when he ran into Varney 10 years later at Guitar Center – of all places – he made sure it stuck.

“We’ve kept in touch since. He invited me to jams and it changed my course. His guidance and friendship have been crucial. He’s an amazing person and a genius. Many things improved in my life because of his friendship.”

One of those improvements is Walker’s membership of Kiss star Simmons’ solo band. “I was playing gigs at Count’s Vamp’d in Vegas. I’d opened for a band that [Simmons bandmates] Brian Tichy and Brent Wood were in. When they were trying to figure out who to get to sing the high harmony stuff for Gene’s band, Brian said, ‘What about the guy who opened for us?’”

Not long after, Walker auditioned and passed with flying colors. And it’s a prime gig: “I knew about some Kiss songs growing up, of course. A lot of my influences were also influences for members of Kiss, like Zeppelin and The Beatles. Gene knows his Beatles. There are a lot of parallels of influence with these guys and me. And I hear a lot of Page in Ace Frehley’s choices and feel, for sure.”

But Walker had to lay down his Les Paul. “I eventually settled into the Flying V,” he says. “It goes well aesthetically and sonically with Brent’s Les Paul on stage left. It’s a great blend. It doesn’t make any sense to have two Les Pauls up there.” Beyond that, it’s a typical array of Marshall 50- and 100-watt jobs, with a few boutique pedals by Interstellar Audio Machines and Mayasonic for taste.

Walker is excited about the future of guitar-driven music. “The guitar is more popular than ever right now,” he says. “It is not going anywhere. There are going to be some interesting players coming out in the next decade that will redefine the instrument. It’s already happening!”

As for what else is happening in Walker’s world, he has “a couple of lanes being paved at the moment” – his band, Gravity Amplifiers, will release their debut this November on Ripple Music.

“It’s called Disclosure Vol. 1. Half of the bass tracks feature Nick Oliveri. It’s a project with an underlying purpose that’s close to my heart. And I’m fronting a Soundgarden set from time to time, called Jason Walker’s Badmotorfinger. I love singing the Cornell stuff because it’s so demanding.”

But for now, his attention is on the task at hand. “The Gene Simmons Band have shows coming up in May and throughout this year, so that’s where my energies are focused – because this band is so great.”

• The Gene Simmons Band’s next tour kicks off on May 2.

Former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick has revealed he’s recovering from a “heart valve surgery.”

Sharing the news on social media on April 22, Kulick wrote, “Heart valve surgery is a success! On the road to recovery. Taking it one step at a time. Grateful for [his wife] Lisa and all your love and support.”

Kulick went on to thank the “heart surgeon and their fantastic staff for looking after me like a rockstar.”

After a media outlet erroneously reported that Kulick had undergone an emergency surgery, the guitarist clarified that “this was NOT emergency surgery” but rather, “an aortic birth defect caused a valve to become a danger.”

Among the many fans and friends offering words of encouragement was Kiss’ very own Gene Simmons, who wrote, “Go Bruce, Go. With Lisa by your side, you can lick anything. You know we're all rooting for you. And can't wait for you and Lisa to cook up a new batch of pancakes for all of us.”

In an exclusive interview with Guitar World last year, Kulick looked back on his impressive career, and specifically, the moment he joined the Kiss circus.

“I really wanted to prove myself worthy of being Kiss’s new guitarist,” he asserted. “I’d toured for Animalize and was appreciated by Gene [Simmons], Paul [Stanley], and the fans, but could I co-write songs and contribute solos that were memorable?”

Elsewhere in the interview, Kulick revealed why Simmons and Stanley didn’t expect – or want – Ace Frehley throwback, and how his gear differed from the Spaceman’s.

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.

Former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent has released his new album, Guitarmageddon, and it’s priced at $2,000,000.

Vincent's short stint in the band, between 1982 and 1984, saw him play on two Kiss albums, Creatures of the Night and Lick It Up, and receive songwriting credits on Revenge. It seems he's using the might of his Kiss years, and a little of Gene Simmons' business acumen, to power this next era of his career.

In January, he raised eyebrows by launching CDs of Guitarmageddon's first single, Ride the Serpent, at up to $300 apiece, and threatened to shelve the album if fans didn’t, err, ride the serpent.

He compared the track, “a nearly 8-minute, intense guitar power drive,” to caviar and fine art, with Guitar World estimating it at around $40 per minute of electric guitar extravagance.

The announcement of Guitarmageddon's 10-track release at $2m, then, actually makes Ride the Serpent feel like a real bargain, because the album itself cooks up a value of $200,000 per track. That might not sweeten the deal for all. But there’s more…

“I am very proud of this very special album,” Vincent purrs. “The entire album will be offered in master format only for $2,000,000. This includes 10 songs mixed in master, final product format, all the master files of the artwork, related posters, and 10 separate vinyl and CD packaging art for each individual song, should the buyer choose to release the album on a per-song basis.

“The buyer can choose to release the entire album in any format they desire; vinyl, CD, or any other configuration, in whole or in part, at their discretion. All marketing plans and ideas require approval by Vinnie Vincent. The price does not include any right, title, or interest in the copyrights and/or trademarks related to Vinnie Vincent or the product itself.

“If the buyer wishes to purchase any associated rights in the compositions, a separate agreement can be arranged and negotiated,” he adds. “The price will also include a perpetual license to use the brand name, ‘Vinnie Vincent Invasion’ and ‘Vinnie Vincent’ for the life of the album.”

Individual tracks, meanwhile, can be bought for $200,000 a pop with the same benefits, with files shipped on a hard drive within two weeks of payment via PayPal.

Fans are advised to proceed with caution as there are no refunds, but surely that’s okay, because Vincent reckons it’s “one of the greatest rock albums of all time.”

Vincent's guitar talents were once described by Gene Simmons as “Yngwie Malmsteen on crack,” so maybe there's actually something in that. Maybe.

Still, considering how much some guitars sold for at the recent auction of Jim Irsay's staggering guitar collection, Vincent might yet find a few buyers. Its price puts it on a par with Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-one CD, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which sold for $2m in 2015 to become the world's most expensive album.

Punky Meadows earned his status as a quality player in the ‘70s. After bouncing from The Cherry People to Bux, then forming Angel, he was asked to join Aerosmith and Kiss – but passed, retreating into obscurity with a “sour taste” in his mouth regarding the music biz.

Now he’s back, enjoying his second act with Angel; and he’s certain that if he could do it over again, he wouldn’t change a thing.

“It doesn’t do any good to regret anything,” he says. “But before social media I figured I was forgotten, and people didn’t care about me anymore.”

Now that Meadows knows he was wrong, his focus has shifted toward expanding his profile beyond licks.

“I’m gonna go down as a rock guitar player,” he says. “But I wanna be known as a songwriter too. And I hate when people try to put me in the heavy metal category.

“I’ve never been a heavy metal guy. I’m a rock and blues player, with some R&B and country. I can write heavy stuff. I never liked Black Sabbath. The heaviest I ever got was Zeppelin. But I never wanted to be in a box where you can’t expand.”

Angel are planning a two-year farewell tour, a documentary, and a studio album. While all that is underway, Meadows will keep “woodshedding.” He explains: “The Beatles taught me about melody and different chord progressions. The beauty of guitar is in the chords. That’s real. It’s not just flashy riffs and high-powered stuff.”

What are your earliest memories of music?

The first song that affected me as a kid was Big John by Jimmy Dean. It was about this coal miner who gets killed when a beam that holds up the mine crashes down. It affected me so much. That’s where my love for storytelling comes from.

Who inspired you to pick up the guitar?

Elvis Presley turned me on to rock ‘n’ roll, and then The Beatles came out, and the guitar playing from George Harrison and John Lennon inspired me. But it was mainly the British blues guys like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Gary Moore, David Gilmour, and Jimi Hendrix. I put it all in a pot.

Early on, you were in The Cherry People and Bux. Would you say you were pretty polished by the time you formed Angel?

Before Angel I was always in bands with two guitar players, and I played rhythm and lead. When we formed Angel I had my sound down. The first song we wrote was Tower – I had this little riff and we just started writing. Angel kind of became Led Zeppelin meets Yes!

Put us in the studio while you were laying down Tower.

We knew we had something powerful and cool. I had an SVT amp that I’d shipped from DC to California. I had my Strat that I put together from two different ones – it was a ’57 body and a ’60 neck. I had a friend who worked at a body shop paint it white.

Back then we’d do any many takes as we needed. It coulda been 12 or 13 takes before you finally got it right. And I had very few effects; if you listen to the first album it’s just overdrive, some reverb, and sounds straight from the amp.

It seems you were making your own Super Strats before it became commonplace in the ‘80s.

I don’t know if it influenced anyone, or if anyone even knew I put my guitars together. But I started because there were things on guitars I liked that weren’t there. Like the guitar I have now – the only thing that’s actually a Strat is the body.

It’s got a Carvin neck, a Sophia tremolo, a Jeff Beck humbucker in the back and single coils in the middle. I’ve always loved single coils, especially for chords and stuff. The tone of a Strat just cuts through and has that twang.

Is it true that before Angel broke up, you were asked to join Aerosmith?

David Krebs, who managed them, became a good friend when I was with Bux, and Jack Douglas, who produced Aerosmith, produced that Bux album. I also met Steven Tyler, who came to the studio.

I’d seen those guys in Boston playing around. Tyler was kind of a fan of mine. He’d always say, “You’re hot shit!”

When he came to the studio he brought the tapes of Train Kept a Rollin’. When I heard it I said, “Fuck, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford have gotten really good!” The guitars in that song were really incredible.

After Tyler left, Jack Douglas said, “Don’t say anything, but that’s not Brad and Joe – it’s Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner.” I said, “That explains it!” because I knew Joe couldn’t play like that.

Brad and I were friends. We lived in the same apartment building in Framingham, Massachusetts. We used to get together in my apartment, smoke joints, and play guitar. So they were friends of mine.

So Joe and Brad quit Aerosmith, and David Krebs – who wanted to manage Angel when we first started – called me and said, “We know you’d be a great fit.” But Angel were still kind of together at the time, so I said, “Let me get back to you.” I never did. They ended up getting Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, and that was that.

Legend has it you were also offered a gig with Kiss by Paul and Gene personally after Ace Frehley left.

Angel were broken up, and Gregg Giuffria and I had a band called Legend. Barry Levine, the photographer who did all the Casablanca stuff and the Kiss and Angel photos, called and said, “Kiss are looking for a guitar player. I’m at The Record Plant right now with Gene and Paul. I mentioned your name and Gene said, ‘That’s a great idea!’” I said, “Well, have Gene call me.”

Gene calls me up and goes, “Hey, we’d like you to come down and sit in with us. Learn one side of Alive! – we don’t care which.” I probably learned the first side, went down to their rehearsal space and Gene, Paul, and Eric Carr were there, playing Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown.

I walked in, plugged up, played, and it sounded really great. Everybody was really happy. I sat down on the drum riser with Gene, and he said, “You got the gig. Let’s talk.” I go, “Well, Gregg and I are shopping a deal. I have to talk to Gregg – I gotta let him know.”

As soon as I said that, Gene got up and said, “Come on, Paul, let’s go.” They stormed outta there, and left me sitting on the drum riser, talking to Eric for about a half hour or so. When I got home Barry called and said, “Punky, what did you do? Gene and Paul came back to the studio with their jaws on the floor. Gene said, ‘No one has ever turned down Kiss.’”

I said, “Barry, I didn’t turn them down. I just said I had to let Gregg know.” But I guess I insulted Gene so much by not just saying yes right away. Barry said, “They were going to offer you $200,000 a year plus points.” And at the time, I was broke! Gene and I never talked about it.

But [Angel guitarist] Danny Farrow and Gene talked about it not that long ago. Danny told me that Gene said, “I remember that. Yeah, Punky had the best hair in rock!” Gene would say something like that!

Not long after that, you left the music business. But guitarists throughout the ‘80s cited you as an influence. Were you aware?

I didn’t know or care, to tell you the truth. It wasn’t until later on, after I left LA and moved to North Carolina to start my own business, then retired and got on Facebook, when I saw that. I figured nobody really remembered much about Angel or me. But then I saw all these pages about how much people loved Angel.

Was that hard to process, given that you’d left it behind?

I had sour grapes. I wasn’t very happy with the whole Angel thing. That’s why I left music. It just left a sour taste in my mouth. But I started seeing pictures of us, and all of a sudden I started digging it again. I kind of became a fan of Angel!

It was apparent that people had never stopped talking about us, even though we were never a household name. Andy Timmons said, “Thank you for being a part of my musical DNA.” And Paul Gilbert from Mr. Big, was a big fan – there’s pictures of him dressed in white, holding up two Angel albums.

Marty Friedman was a fan too. When we played in Japan he was backstage, and we talked about how he’d had Angel posters on the wall. He asked me how to play certain things, like, “How do you do that little thing with your fingers there?” It was just really cool.

Since your return in 2016, you’ve released a solo album and two more Angel albums. The band are working on another album and then a final tour. Why stop now?

It’s gonna be a two-year thing through this year and next. But it’s not like Angel are gonna break up – we’re still gonna record, and we’ll play some one-off shows, that sort of thing. We’ll have the chance to do some other things.

We have a documentary that we’re filming, and hopefully it’ll come out soon. But I really didn’t want to do that “final tour” thing, to tell you the truth. The other guys thought it would be a good idea and business move. But me, I’m the kind of guy who wants to die with his boots on.

• Catch Angel on tour throughout the year.

In 1982, Kiss found themselves at a crossroads when founding member Ace Frehley decided to leave the band. In search of their next lead guitarist, the band made several calls – including to Slash and Richie Sambora – before settling on Vinnie Vincent.

Punky Meadows, the guitarist of glam-rock band Angel, was also in the mix, although, as legend has it, he was the one who actually rejected Kiss. Now, Meadows is setting the story straight on what actually happened during the auditions and why he never ended up joining Kiss.

“Angel was broken up, and Gregg [Giuffria, keyboardist] and I had a band called Legend,” he tells Guitar World. “And then, Barry Levine, a photographer who did all the Casablanca stuff and did the Kiss and Angel photos back in the day, called me up. He said, ‘Listen, Punky, Kiss is looking for a guitar player. Ace is gone.’

“I said, ‘Yeah, I kind of heard something about that, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.’ He said, ‘Well, they’re looking for a guitar player. I’m at The Record Plant right now with Gene and Paul. I mentioned your name, and Gene said, ‘That’s a great idea!’’ I said, ‘Okay, well, have Gene call me.’”

Turns out, Simmons did indeed follow through, as Punk Meadows recalls: “He goes, ‘Hey, we’d like you to come down and sit in with us. Learn one side of Alive! We don’t care which, just learn one side and come down.’

“I probably learned the first side, went down to their rehearsal space, walked in, and Gene, Paul, and Eric Carr were there, playing Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown.

“I just walked in, plugged up, played, and it sounded really great. Everybody was really happy, and so I sat down on the drum riser with Gene, and he said, ‘You got the gig. Let’s talk.’ I go, ‘Well, Gregg and I are shopping a deal. I have to talk to Gregg… I gotta let him know.’”

However, Meadows' reluctance to accept the gig on the spot ultimately cost him the spot as Frehley’s successor.

“As soon as I said that, Gene got up and said, ‘Come on, Paul. Let’s go.’ They stormed outta there, and just left me sitting on the drum riser, talking to Eric for about a half hour, or so. Anyway, I got home, and Barry called me up, saying, ‘Punky… what’d you do?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’”

He continued, “He said, ‘Gene and Paul came back to the studio with their jaws on the floor. Gene said, ‘No one has ever turned down Kiss.’ I said, ‘Barry, I didn’t turn them down. I just said I had to let Gregg know.’ But I guess I insulted Gene so much by not just taking it and saying ‘yes’ right away.

“Barry then said, ‘Well, they were going to offer you $200,000 a year plus points…’ And at the time, I was broke, you know?” he concludes with a laugh.

And, speaking of Kiss near-hires, Marty Friedman also revealed that he once nearly auditioned for Kiss but was turned down before that even happened because of his height.

Guitar World's full interview with Punky Meadows will be published in the coming weeks.

Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons are part of a newer crop of musicians continuing their parents’ legacy through their own music. And if their surnames sound eerily familiar to those of legendary guitar and bass slingers Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, it’s because, well, they’re their sons.

The two youngins have known each other all their lives, but making music together didn't happen until a chance hangout in December 2024, followed by an Instagram cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence.

“We were always homies but had our own things going,” Stanley tells Guitar World. “Then, since I moved back to L.A., we’ve hung out way more and were always kicking it. One day in December, we were hanging out. I thought, ‘I saw what he was doing, and I liked it.’ He saw what I was doing and said nice things, and we were like, ‘We should jam.’”

“It wasn’t a big idea,” Simmons relates. “It was just, ‘We should film a reel or something… people do that, right?’ We got together and figured, ‘Let’s do something we both love.’” And, just like that, Stanley Simmons was born.

Hailing from such a lineage comes with certain privileges that the two are quick to admit to, but Simmons also says that, “It's a double-edged sword. Doors are immediately opened for us because of our family relationships, like with any business. So, in entertainment and music, we get to meet these people. But once you're in the room, they don't necessarily give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“What’s working well for us is that at the end of the day, people will decide what works,” he continues. “It’s not the executives. They’re either gonna like the songs or not.

“If they connect with it and it moves them, it’s just a matter of time before people in the industry catch on,” adds Stanley. “For us, the whole thing has been about having fun.”

For more about the new dynamic duo, and new interviews with fast-rising band Geese and pop-star-sideman-turned-solo-artist Mateus Asato, pick up issue 601 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

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.

Vinnie Vincent has defended his decision to sell CDs of his new single for as much as $300 apiece, threatening to shelve his new Guitarmageddon record if fans don’t buy them.

The former Kiss guitarist made headlines recently when he started the promotional phase for his upcoming album, which has been preceded by an, erm, unconventional rollout strategy that involves Vincent selling CDs of the lead single for $200.

For US fans willing to spend $200 on a physical CD that has only one song on it, there’s an additional $25 shipping fee. For international fans, the shipping fee is $100. That means the song, titled Ride the Serpent, could set fans back as much as $300.

However, Vincent has given it the hard sell. He compared the song to “caviar or fine art”, and described Ride the Serpent as “a nearly 8 minute, intense guitar powerdrive”. That’s just under $40 per minute. Bargain.

The decision to sell his single in such a manner has drawn the ire of his fans, but Vincent has hit back, now going one step further in the defence of his strategy. If his fans don’t fork out for his single CDs, he won’t release the album.

He has said he wants to sell 1,000 CDs of each single, and will only ship them when (read: if) they all go.

In Vincent’s opinion, he’s apparently created a classic, one that can rival some of the greatest guitar albums of all time, and so he wants to be fairly compensated.

That, paired with his observations that there’s no money in the modern album release methods – and the fact he supposedly wants to undercut those who will “bootleg” the album – and Vincent stresses his decisions are justified.

“Guitarmageddon is one of the greatest rock albums of all time,” he writes on Facebook in response to a fan questioning his CD pricing strategy. “I lived thru MEET THE BEATLES, ZEPPELIN II, HENDRIX ARE YOU EXPERIENCED, JEFF BECK TRUTH, CREAM WHEELS OF FIRE, PINK FLOYD etc [sic].

“The only difference is these albums are generation tested and have the benefit of fermentation of time. But as for impact and perfection from the first song to last, Guitarmageddon is a classic. The number one contender.”

He continues, “Unless I get compensated for my work, the album stays unheard. The praise from a fan base is pointless unless I'm compensated FIRST… I am the manufacturer. I produce high end product. I set the price accordingly. It's that simple. There's no argument here. There's no discussion. I've created an elite product for elite taste.

“So for the smash and grab EBT card group of self entitled complainers bitching about price... fuck off. The fatigue is now exhaustion. They are the side effect of what the internet produced. Gimme gimme gimme.”

Strong words, but Vincent doesn’t stop there. The former Kiss guitarist also hits out at entitled “deadbeats” for expecting artists to hand over their work, and further justifies Guitarmageddon’s rollout by taking aim at the players currently occupying the scene today.

“Eventually the artist will get sick of being fucked over and handing over all of their hard work to these deadbeats for nothing,” he continues. “At some point unless artists form a coalition to stop this free goods giveaway and pandering to disrespectful rude and stupid people, there will be nothing.

“At this point there's an overload of guitar players, guitar lessons, singer-songwriters, etc... and it's tiresome and dreary. It's the same shit on a daily basis in heavy rotation. People are beginning to tune out guitar players because they're a penny a dozen.

“They generally sound the same, play the same with essentially the same style... the result is producing a tuneout drone effect. At least in my opinion. The magic of VINNIE VINCENT INVASION is escapism. Guitarmageddon is escapism on steroids.”

“So it comes down to this; if the fan support is not there which it does not appear to be, this record will not be released,” Vincent concludes.

“Am I fine with that? Absolutely. 100%. It will be the greatest album of all time, never to be heard, never to be released. If people want my music, and think they're punishing me by not buying it because of the price, it matters not to me. They're the ones who will lose out.”

If you fancy spending $300 on eight minutes' worth of music, visit Vinnie Vincent's website.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gene Simmons is recovering at home after a car crash in Malibu, California, with reports saying the Kiss bassist/vocalist passed out at the wheel, swerving across several lanes of traffic on Pacific Coast Highway before plowing his SUV into a parked vehicle.

NB4 Investigates reports that Simmons crashed his car at 1pm on Tuesday, October 7. A witness made the 911 call, police and firefighters responded, and Simmons was rushed to hospital.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department told NBC4 Investigates that Simmons said he “passed out or fainted” at the wheel. Simmons’ wife, Shannon Tweed, says the 76-year-old had just been prescribed new medication and he had been told to drink more fluids.

Simmons was driving a Lincoln Navigator at the time, which is just as well: the luxury SUV has a five-star safety rating.

But it would take more than that to stop the God of Thunder. In a somewhat sheepish message posted to X/Twitter, Simmons thanked well wishers and suggested that a career as an Uber driver now Kiss has played their last show might not be the best idea.

“Thanks, everybody, for the kind wishes,” wrote Simmons. “I’m completely fine. I had a slight fender bender. It happens. Especially to those of us [who are] horrible drivers. And that’s me. All is well.”

Kiss might have called it a day, at least in the traditional sense of their physical forms putting on the stagewear, makeup and playing the music.

But Simmons has been keeping his chops up in 2025 playing with his solo band, with his May shows drawing heavily on the Kiss catalog as you would expect, but also including covers of Motörhead’s Ace of Spades, Van Halen’s House of Pain, Thin Lizzy’s Bad Reputation and the Beatles’ And Your Bird Can Sing.

And this string of dates made one Kiss superfan’s day (make that life), when he paid $12,495 to be Simmons’ roadie for a day. Dwayne Rosado said it was worth every cent.

“You only live once, and I want to experience life. I’m not going to die with a lot of money. I’m going to die happy,” he told the New York Times. “Nothing can beat tonight. It’s cemented in Kisstory now because it’s going to be on YouTube and everything else. So I’ll get to look back and see that moment forever.”

Twelve-and-a-half grand? Nice work if you can get it. It might make Simmons losing his no-claims discount on the Lincoln a little less painful.

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?”

Kiss have never been a band to follow trends. When they looked to capture the extravagance of their live shows after their first three studio releases failed to capture the band at their best, the chaos of their performances meant a little in-studio doctoring was needed to get the tracks sparkling.

Its title is a not-so-subtle nod to Peter Frampton’s mega-selling live record, Frampton Comes Alive!, and the man behind the album has revealed it wasn’t just its name the band lifted. Frampton’s gear was on the menu, too.

“Kiss was a new band and the effort they put out in those shows was monumental, so we did a bunch of guitar and vocal overdubs at [Jimi Hendrix’s] Electric Lady Studios,” Kramer tells Guitar Player in a new interview.

Both live records were being worked on simultaneously within Electric Lady’s walls, and Kiss looked at Frampton’s collection of electric guitars, amps, and beyond to sweeten their fumbles and foils.

“They kept on coming to us and asking if we had guitars, amps, or basses, as they were doing some fixing on their live record,” Frampton told GP in 2005.

“They just kept on coming in and borrowing all sorts of different stuff. So my equipment is on that album – but not me!”

The Kiss gang mainly had eyes for Frampton’s mid-1950s Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty.” It features on the cover of his iconic live album, and before that was used on Humble Pie’s 1971 live record, Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore.

Five years later, it was renamed “Phenix” after it survived a plane crash. He’s lost and recovered 44 guitars across his storied career, but the Les Paul’s survival is widely considered the most remarkable.

Kramer, meanwhile, says, “I remember Peter’s amps in Studio A other than the Marshall stacks that Ace and Paul had,” with more of Frampton’s rig borrowed.

The fact Alive! was treated to quite extensive post-production magic – owing to audio being marred by “bombs going off, Gene spitting fire, rockets from Ace’s guitar”, as Kramer has explained – was controversial upon its release. However, fans didn't seem to mind as it became the band's biggest success to date, and has since gone multi-platinum. Half a century on, Paul Stanley believes the band made the right call.

“We never claimed to be virtuosos, we were virtu-no-sos, he told Guitar World. Call them overdubs or call them replacing things that weren’t up to snuff. I make no apologies.”

He adds that the band had felt “unstoppable” during the tour, as well as revealing that Frampton’s work in Humble Pie was a big reason he played Gibson guitars during that era.

Meanwhile, Frampton continues to defy his health issues by playing guitar. He recently joined Pearl Jam for a guest spot in Nashville after taking on a Beatles classic with Grace Bowers and Trey Anastasio, making the most of his numbered playing days.

Inspired by Frampton's ability to overcome adversity, Andy Timmons wrote a song in tribute to the guitarist – and his hero ended up playing on it in a poetic twist of fate.

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.

Paul Stanley recalls Kiss’ 1975 live record, Alive!, as lifting the band to stardom and being “the beginning of a rollercoaster ride.” The Starchild adds: “When the chain and the pulley is bringing the coaster to the top, and you know what’s ahead, all you can do is hold on.”

Their first three albums – 1974’s Kiss and Hotter than Hell, and 1975’s Dressed to Kill – hardly dented the charts while critics and peers sneered at their bombastic, kabuki-clad image. But despite its studio additions, Alive! captured the essence of Kiss at their brimming-with-energy best. “If it was a court, I’d say the defense rests,” Stanley comments.

Kiss have been off the road since wrapping up their End of the Road tour in December 2023. Stanley says he’s taken a break from guitar, but his instruments are never far from his grasp.

“I've found myself strumming acoustics more. Next to the bed I’ve got a great Les Paul, and I’ll pick that up too.

“But I haven’t played anywhere near as much,” he admits. “I guess after however many years of playing, I just wanted a breather. But it’s never far from me and I know I’ll be spending more time on it soon.”

In November, Stanley and his bandmates Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer will take part in the Kiss Storms Vegas fan event, performing without makeup. Former guitarist Bruce Kulick will also be there along with a boatload of other period-correct acts.

“I’m excited about getting together and playing,” Stanley says. “Getting to give everything a rest – my body and my voice – has been great. But I look forward to getting back out onstage.”

Kiss are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Alive! For many it’s the greatest live rock record of all time. How do you measure its importance?

“It broke incredible ground for us. We were building this rabid following, and 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!’”

There had been some live albums to that point, but they weren’t commonplace. Alive! changed that.

“When we did it, certainly, it was considered not acceptable to work on those recordings in a studio. But honestly, up until then, you only knew that an album was live when you heard some applause at the end of a song!

“We wanted to create the experience that you had at a Kiss show. For that, we had to surround you with other people. We had to find a way to make explosives that usually squash down a mic. We had to, I guess, enhance it so that it more [accurately] replicated the experience.

“Nobody wants to hear somebody break a string every time they listen to a song; nobody wants to hear a wrong chord. Alive! is thought of in the way it is because it captures a live experience. That can’t be done with just a bunch of microphones and a band – it just doesn’t happen.”

Purists may complain that Alive! features overdubs, but Alive! does an excellent job of capturing who Kiss were as a band in 1975.

“When people go to a show, they not only hear with their ears; they hear with their eyes. Both can be more forgiving when you’re at a live event, even when you look at it later under a microscope.

“We never claimed to be virtuosos – we were virtu-no-sos! What we captured was the power, the passion, and the commitment to our audience, and theirs to us. Call them overdubs or call them replacing things that weren’t up to snuff. I make no apologies; the album has stood the test of time, and if you don’t like it, you probably don’t like us.”

What was it like as a young man on the road in the wake of Alive!?

“It was overwhelming. It was intimidating. It was exciting. It was almost a feeling of helplessness, in the sense that what was about to happen was unstoppable. We had created something – a moment – and all we could do at that point was hold on.”

Many critics and peers had looked down on Kiss up till then. Did you notice a change after success came?

“Not really. I think, until you’ve seen a band live – and I’m talking about a lot of bands, and musicians who are held in high esteem – you don’t get it. When you see them, there’s no getting around it. You throw away any prejudices or preconceived ideas you had and it’s undeniable.”

You mostly played Gibsons during that era. Why?

“I grew up in a time where, almost any weekend, I’d pay four or five dollars and see Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, or Derek and the Dominos. And most of the bands I saw were Gibson players.

“But perhaps because I started on acoustic guitar, the idea of a neck being bolted onto another piece of wood seemed almost contradictory to something a little more organic. My first good electric guitar was an SG Les Paul, then a double-cut Special. So my roots are in Gibson.

“And now, what [president] Caesar Gueikian and [director] Mark Agnesi have done at Gibson is beyond commendable. I remember with heartbreak when Norlind was running the show.”

You started playing Ibanez guitars in the late 70s. Not many people in America used them at the time. What led to that change?

“When I was in Japan and met with Hoshino, the Ibanez people, I saw quality – I saw real, quality instruments. Whether it was Greco or Tokai Love Rocks Les Pauls, they, at that point, were making better Les Pauls than Gibson was.

“The Japanese knew how to make a great guitar. I’m not sure they understood why they did certain things – I think they were just emulating and copying. But they were very open to a real collaboration, as opposed to an endorsement.”

Is that what brought about your signature Ibanez PS-10, at a time when signature guitars weren’t so common?

“I – except in the very early days, [when I] needed free gear… and that’s sometimes the reason that people do endorsements – wasn’t looking for that. I was looking for a guitar that I would love. And the PS-10 – in the best ways, as a compliment – is based on my templates, and a lot of them came from my old Gibson guitars. The neck on my guitar is just fantastic; it’s based on one of my old Gibson guitars. The frets and the whole layout harken more toward those classics.

“And again, Gibson went through some times when I thought that the people there were clueless. When I did meet with them, it only reaffirmed my worst thoughts. So I’ve been with Ibanez for decades, and I love my guitar.”

Some people think you play an Iceman, but the PS-10 isn’t that, is it?

“It’s certainly become iconic, but sometimes people confuse it or interchange the Iceman and the PS-10. They’re not, by any stretch of the imagination, the same guitars.”

Since Kiss finished touring, how do you keep your chops up?

“I took a real break without consciously deciding to do that; most people who play guitar sometimes need to put it down. But other than the agility that comes from playing every day, there’s a lot of muscle memory involved, and that doesn’t go away. It’s fascinating how I can just pick up a guitar and play I Want You or C’mon and Love Me or Detroit Rock City. It’s just there; It’s part of who I am.”

Have you made any interesting gear discoveries lately?

“When I was in London about eight months ago I was at the Gibson Garage. I’ve always loved J-200s – but I have to add that I’ve never found a J-200 that sounded the way it looks!

“When I was a kid I’d see everybody – quite a few classic folkies – playing them. I got a ’39 J-200 with rosewood sides and back, and I got a ’55 one with maple; and quite honestly, they’ve always disappointed me.

“At the Gibson Garage they had some of Tom Murphy’s aged acoustics. Everybody is doing the tourified tops now, which I think is a fantastic idea. I think tourification brings incredible warmth and brings qualities that usually take decades to get.

“So, I saw a beautiful J-200 and I thought, ‘Okay, here we go, another disappointment!’ But I picked it up, and it may well be the best acoustic guitar I’ve ever played. It just sounds gorgeous! And looks – beyond cosmetically, somehow, there’s an age and personality that has been transplanted into some of these guitars. I’m blown away.”

It’s been made clear that Kiss, while no longer a touring act, are by no means over. What’s next?

“We tend to hear others talking about the Kiss ‘avatars.’ We talk about them too, just for identification purposes. But these are no avatars. I don’t even know what the technical term is. But the show we’re putting together is going to be absolutely phenomenal. It’ll be like nothing – you know, nothing – that anybody would expect. That’s really, really exciting.”

• Keep up with all things Kiss at the band's website.

Stanley Eisen, who you may know as Kiss' Paul Stanley, may have wielded a Gibson guitar or two during the band's game-changing Alive! era, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.

“I grew up in a time where, on almost any weekend, I would go for three, four, and five dollars, and see Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, or Derek and the Dominos. And most of the bands I saw were Gibson players,” he explains in an upcoming tête-à-tête with Guitar World.

However, it seems Stanley had a change of heart in the late ’70s, when he broke with tradition and opted to source his axes from the Japanese guitar behemoth Ibanez – a brand he still endorses to this day.

“When I was in Japan and met with Hoshino, the Ibanez people, I saw quality,” he says matter-of-factly. “I saw real, quality instruments. Whether it was Greco or Tokai Love Rocks ‘Les Pauls,’ they, at that point, were making better Les Pauls than Gibson was.

“So, the Japanese knew how to make a great guitar. I’m not sure they understood why they did certain things; I think they were just emulating and copying, but I sat with them, and they were very open to a real collaboration, as opposed to an endorsement.”

And at a time when signature guitars definitely weren't as common as they are now, Stanley teamed up with Ibanez on his first signature model, the PS10.

“I was looking for a guitar that I would love,” he asserts. “And the PS10, when you close your eyes and play it, it’s basically, in the best ways, and as a compliment, it’s based on the templates, a lot of which came from some of my old Gibson guitars.”

In more recent Kiss news, the band that keeps on giving will be delivering a one-off unmasked show in November to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kiss Army fan club.

Guitar World's full interview with Paul Stanley will be published in the coming weeks.

By 1985, Kiss had been through three guitarists in three years. Founding member Ace Frehley quit in ’82, giving way to Vinnie Vincent, who was fired in ’84, leading to Mark St. John, who, due to a rare form of reactive arthritis in his hands, gave way to Bruce Kulick, also in ’84. In Kulick, Kiss had found their man.

He had style and chops and wasn’t afraid. He’d played in place of St. John on two songs from 1984’s Animalize – Lonely Is the Hunter and Murder in High-Heels – and toured in support of Animalize after St. John’s arthritis flared up. But Kiss’s next release, 1985’s Asylum, was his first proper Kiss album.

“I really wanted to prove myself worthy of being Kiss’s new guitarist,” he says. “I’d toured for Animalize and was appreciated by Gene [Simmons], Paul [Stanley], and the fans, but could I co-write songs and contribute solos that were memorable?”

Frehley had done just that to perfection. And Vincent, while a malcontent, followed Frehley's lead. As for St. John… let’s say Kulick couldn’t do any worse.

“My goal was to follow Gene and Paul’s requests when performing on the songs,” Kulick says. “If I could make them happy, that would be a job well done.”

Kulick had undoubtedly learned how to make Simmons and Stanley happy. But then again, after what they’d been through on the guitar front, the fact that Kulick was coherent and trouble-free had to be a breath of fresh air. But wait, there was more! Kulick could seriously play – and he got what it meant to be in Kiss.

“The time spent with them taught me how they worked individually and together,” he says. “Gene and Paul saw some things differently. I needed to keep that in mind – but I always felt confident that my relationship with them was strong and that I could rise to the occasion.”

It also helped that Simmons and Stanley didn’t expect – or want – Kulick to be an Ace Frehley throwback.

“It was about being a competitive guitarist in the Eighties,” Kulick says. “That was a completely different playing style than Ace was known for. Just look at Asylum’s first song, King of the Mountain. Everything from the composition to the guitar solo is very different from the classic Kiss makeup-era albums.”

Meanwhile, the gear Kulick brought to the party was a far cry from Ace’s Les Paul and stock 100-watt Marshall amp.

“One unusual item was a modded Marshall cabinet, I believe, loaded with EV speakers,” Kulick says. “As for guitars, this was pre-ESP, so I was relying on my custom silver Charvel that I’d toured with.”

Kulick used that same Charvel at [New York City’s] Electric Lady Studios when crafting the solo for Asylum’s big hit, Tears Are Falling.

“The construction of the solo is special,” he says. “All the verses are in a major key, but my solo starts with a minor theme, bringing emotion and attention to it. Then I incorporated other fancy riffs and an exciting, speedy ending as the climax. Naturally, it’s a solo I’m very proud of.”

Kulick also favors Uh! All Night and Who Wants to Be Lonely, revealing that once he heard the finished product, he knew Asylum was a winner.

“I was thrilled,” he says. “I had three co-writes and plenty of memorable solos. Paul was especially pleased with the music.”

Asylum was popular upon its release in September of ’85 – but not quite as popular as its predecessors, 1983’s Lick It Up and ’84’s Animalize. Nevertheless, it still went Gold.

“I could say all the non-makeup Kiss albums are underrated,” Kulick says. “I never really get into what album is better or worse from my era of Kiss. Each album has its standout songs and performances, and I think Asylum fares very well overall in Kisstory. It wasn’t as big as Animalize, but the three singles and videos are iconic!”

But for Kulick, Asylum’s success wasn’t just measured in sales, but the fact that he’d become a part of Kiss’s legacy.

“Having my face on the cover of the LP was a thrill,” he says. “Asylum represented a real accomplishment for me personally: it was clear that I was the new guitarist for Kiss.

“Every Kiss record represents a certain time in the band’s evolution. It’s up to fans to decide what they love about Asylum, but I am forever grateful to be associated with this album.”

• Asylum can be purchased via Mercury.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons made headlines earlier this year when he announced an ultra-exclusive tour package where fans could pay $12,495 to be his roadie for a day.

Naturally, some shrugged the stunt off as being a bit bonkers. Guitar World did the math and found out such an outlay was roughly equivalent to six months' worth of roadie wages (depending on the size of the job). But one Kiss mega fan has paid for the experience and says he can “die happy” as a result.

The opportunity was limited to one per show of Simmons’ 26-date US solo tour, but it reportedly took until the 13th date for any takers to emerge from the woodwork.

Retired correctional facility employee Dwayne Rosado was the one to shatter his piggyback, joining proceedings on May 5 at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey, with his 13-year-old son in tow.

“You only live once, and I want to experience life. I’m not going to die with a lot of money. I’m going to die happy,” Rosado told the New York Times. “Nothing can beat tonight. It’s cemented in Kisstory now because it’s going to be on YouTube and everything else. So I’ll get to look back and see that moment forever.”

For approximately the price of a 2010-2016 Honda Civic or a month's long cruise, Rosado got the chance to haul gear, set up amps, oversee soundcheck, and, vitally, be introduced onto the stage by Simmons and join the God of Plunder for a good old sing-song.

“It felt awkward, because I have a whole crowd in front of me, and all I wanted to do is hug him,” Rosado said of his time on stage. “I didn’t care about anything else that was going on.”

At one point on stage together, which you can see in the above video, Simmons asks Rosado Jr. what he thinks of his father, and he responds, in a Kiss-like manner, with “the best dad ever!”

Apparently, there are a few other, erm, perks of the fan package. There’s also the small matter of having breakfast with Simmons on the day of the show – there’s no mention of whether it's continental or American – and each lucky customer will walk away with a bass Simmons had used during a Kiss rehearsal.

Simmons himself has defended the package after the news of the savings-demolishing experience found itself at the end of backlash online.

“When I was a kid and went to see shows, I was always curious, ‘What’s it like when they’re in a hotel? What’s it like when the stage is set up?” he says. “I decided, ‘You know what, nobody’s ever done it. Why not open the idea to be my personal roadie for the day?’

“You meet at the hotel where you have breakfast together. You ride with me to the gig. You can set up amplifiers and drums to your heart’s content.”

Yngwie Malmsteen arrived in America in the early 1980s and, thanks to his white-hot neoclassical shredding, he soon found himself in fine demand. According to the Swede, Kiss and David Lee Roth both tried to sign him up to their bands, while he was apparently in the running to join Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio at different times.

In addition, he says he received two offers in the space of 24 hours from UFO and Alcatrazz, both of whom looked to bolster their ranks with his abilities right at the start of his career.

A Guitar Player Spotlight column had helped shine a light on the upstart virtuoso, and he first traveled across the Atlantic to feature on Steeler’s only album. When that project fizzled out, he wasn’t short on offers from potential suitors.

“I played around with Steeler; we were all over the Sunset Strip,” he tells the Eddie Trunk Podcast. “I remember one night we played in Orange County, and Phil Mogg of UFO came there. I love that band, it was great.

“So, he was all like, 'Hey, I'm putting UFO back together. I've gotta get a great guitar player, so come to my house tomorrow.' I said, 'Yeah, I'll be there.'”

UFO had briefly disbanded following the dismal response to 1982 album Mechanix. They'd go on to employ their former roadie Tommy McClendon for the gig, but if Malmsteen's story is to be believed, the Swede was his preferred pick.

“The next morning, I get a phone call from somebody,” Malmsteen continues. “I don't know who it was. Some manager or something, from what became Alcatrazz. And that was the same day I was gonna see Phil.

“So, they [Alcatrazz] come and pick me up, and they bring me to this rehearsal room. And I started asking these guys, like, 'What are your songs like', and all that stuff. 'Well, we don't have any songs yet.' I said, 'What's your direction?' 'We don't have a direction yet... But you got the gig!' I said, 'Well, let me think about it. I gotta go see somebody.'”

Playing out like something of a heavy metal love triangle, Malmsteen then went to see Mogg and heard UFO’s pitch. Though the band had his heart, the opportunity wasn’t what he was hoping it to be.

“I went to Phil Mogg's house, and he was super cool, but he didn't really have his stuff together as the other camp did,” he explains. “So, I called them [Alcatrazz] from Phil's house and said, 'Okay, I'll do your thing, but a couple of conditions: I write the songs, and we get a new drummer.'”

The Alcatrazz camp, clearly knowing what Malmsteen would bring to the table, heeded his commands. The fact the arpeggio fanatic has writing credits on every track of No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll, which was released in October 1983, is proof of that.

"It would have been awesome to be in UFO too,” the Swede ruminates. “But that would mean I would have to do a lot of their classics and stuff like that – I was more into the fresh start thing.”

Malmsteen would forge a solo career off his one album with Alcatrazz, and his spot in the group was eventually taken by Steve Vai for 1985's Disturbing the Peace.

Speaking to Trunk back in 2021, Malmsteen revealed they weren’t the only two offers that came his way.

“I was offered a gig with David Lee Roth,” he said. “There was some murmur about the Ozzy thing. Ronnie James Dio talked about it all the time.

“When I actually lived in Sweden, I was offered a gig in Kiss. They wanted to talk to me. They called me up, and the guy said; ‘Are you hot?’, and then he asked me, ‘Are you six feet tall?’, and I’m metric, so I said, 'No, I’m 192,' and he goes, 'What the fuck’s that?!' So, they never called back!”

He adds that there were also “murmurs” of joining Deep Purple, but an offer never materialized. But, since that one album with Graham Bonnet and company, Malmsteen never joined another band, forging a path as a solo artist instead.

When he did work with other guitarists, as he did on the G3 tour, Joe Satriani said he presented unique challenges.

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.”

With a career that spans six decades, Mick Rogers – best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band between ’71 and ’75, and again since ’84 – has seen his fair share of bands come and go, and with that, a boatload of anecdotes. One such band was a nascent Kiss – who joined his group on their first tour, in support of their self-titled debut album.

“I had to use the same microphone that Gene Simmons used with all the blood coming out of his mouth,” Rogers tells Guitar World. “Can you imagine that! I remember Simmons saying to me: ‘We’re [Kiss] either going to be the next biggest thing, or we’re going to die on our ass!’

“They came on stage with all the makeup and stuff. I think people were quite silent because they just couldn’t believe what they were seeing… nor could we! They were scary, I mean, Gene Simmons was a scary-looking image, but he was lovely.”

Between May 16 and June 1, 1974, Kiss opened for Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Savoy Brown, hitting cities such as Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco – an experience Simmons later described in the 2019 End of the Road World Tour program [as per by Far Out Magazine] as one that finally made the band feel “like we were taking off.

“It was like somebody pushing you into the deep end of the pool whether you can swim or not. The early years of Kiss were far from glamorous. We rode in a station wagon hundreds of miles every day.”

“We would take turns driving and sleeping in the back,” he continued. “We ate burgers at roadside taverns. We stopped and peed on the side of long stretches of a highway when we couldn’t find a town anywhere near. We ate beans and franks because we couldn’t afford better food as we were on an $85-a-week salary! Becoming a rock star was better than anything and beyond anything I ever imagined.”

Despite wrapping up their second farewell tour in 2023, Kiss just announced a one-off unmasked show in November – with a “special live performance” from former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick.

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.

Gene Simmons has never been accused of missing a marketing opportunity. Even so, the Kiss bass guitar player raised eyebrows earlier this month with the news he was charging fans $12,495 for the opportunity to be his roadie for the day.

Now the God of Plunder has defended himself in an interview with the New York Post. “When I was a kid and went to see shows, I was always curious, ‘What’s it like when they’re in a hotel? What’s it like when the stage is set up? What’s it like being onstage when they’re performing and seeing the audience from the stage?’” he explained.

“I decided, ‘You know what, nobody’s ever done it. Why not open the idea to be my personal roadie for the day?’”

The “Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience” is available to one fan per show on his solo tour.

Simmons said select lucky fans would have the opportunity to travel in the bus and haul gear. “You ride with me to the gig. You can set up amplifiers and drums to your heart’s content.

“You’re onstage, right offstage to my right. You can video the crowds, whatever. And I pull you onstage to sing a song with me.”

For those who fear this sounds like servitude, Gene stressed that participants would be allowed to eat. “You meet at the hotel where you have breakfast together or, you know, whatever floats your boat,” he said.

Purchasers of the experience would also leave with a signed bass.

Simmons recently cancelled multiple shows until early 2026, but assured fans his health was not an issue. Purchasers of the Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience for cancelled shows may choose between a refund or moving their experience to one of the remaining dates.

Kiss, meanwhile, have announced an unmasked Vegas show with former guitarist Bruce Kulick – the band's first gig since their farewell tour ended in 2023.

Having wrapped their second farewell tour in 2023, Kiss has announced a one-off unmasked show in November to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kiss Army fan club.

The show, taking place at a weekend-long event at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on November 14-16, will see Bruce Kulick return to the band, having spent the best part of 12 years in the glam rockers, between 1984 and 1996.

An email sent to fans promises “a special live performance from former KISS member Bruce Kulick, along with other special guests, activities, exclusive experiences, and more.”

Kulick and the man he replaced, Mark St. John, are famously the only two Kiss members to have never donned make-up during their time in the band. The former Meat Loaf and Grand Funk Railroad guitarist is fondly remembered for his multi-album contribution during an experimental time for the band.

Speaking to Guitar World last year, Kulick said he’d “always missed being in Kiss,” despite having been left out of both the band's farewell expeditions, in 2000-01, and 2019-2023 respectively. Tommy Thayer has been Kiss guitarist since 2002.

“I’ve made peace with not being included in Kiss’s End of the Road,” Kulick says. “That said, no, they never called me... but if that meant being the Spaceman like Tommy, I wouldn’t want to do it.”

By his own admission, Kulick has seen a revival of his Kiss era in recent years, believing it’s not just the music that moved them – the guitars I played also matter”. His comments came as he launched a new '80s-style line that tips its hat to his eight years in the band.

Kulick's namesake axes hark back to his employment of an ESP M-1 guitar while in Kiss. It was a move that came after Paul Stanley wanted to create a clear distinction between Kiss' make-up and non-make-up eras.

“Gibson guitars represented vintage makeup-era Kiss guitars,” he told Guitar World. “But in early December 1984, Paul [Stanley] said, 'You're the new guitarist of Kiss,' and wanted me to know the vintage material and be part of the new generation of guitar players. I was keenly aware of the balance between the makeup years and my non-makeup years. ESP would bring me all these options!”

Despite his tenure in the band coming to an unceremonious end, he insists that he wasn't fired.

“I’ve always looked at it as I was never fired from Kiss; I was left behind for a wildly successful commercial venture,” he believes. “You don’t have to be an accountant to understand Paul and Gene.”

Ace Frehley has recently made a similar claim, although under slightly different circumstances: he alleges Kiss lied when they said he was fired in both 1982 and 2002, insisting he quit, and Gene Simmons wanted him to reverse his decision.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Kiss had returned to the stage after their final curtain had supposedly been drawn – Kiss were touring again just two years after their first farewell show wrapped. Tommy Thayer, though, who played across Kiss’ final two decades, has hinted that their long-term future exists in the virtual realm.

The news comes as Gene Simmons has postponed 17 of the solo shows during which fans had the chance to be the Demon’s roadie for the day, for the cool sum of $12,495.

A statement provided by Christina Vitaglano, who handles Simmons' backstage VIP fan experience packages, says the shows have been put back “until early 2026.”

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.

Gene Simmons is offering fans the unique opportunity to be his roadie and personal assistant for the day... but it will cost you $12,485.

The Kiss bass player is calling the package – which offers the chance for someone to carry his amps and brew his coffees – 'The Ultimate Gene Simmons Experience'.

So, what makes it so ultimate? Well, the lucky roadie-for-a-day will be tasked with assisting with loading gear into the venue, setting up the stage, helping oversee soundcheck, and, the icing on the cake, will be introduced by Simmons during the show, so thousands of people will know you’ve just emptied your bank account.

In other words, “You can get up there and be a rockstar,” Simmons sells it in an Instagram post.

But wait, there are perks! The lucrative package also includes lunch with The Demon, and at the end of a hard day’s work, you’ll get to walk away with a bass guitar that Simmons, at one point or another, used during a Kiss rehearsal session.

The exclusive package is available across all dates on his upcoming solo tour, which begins at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA, on April 3, but only one Ultimate package will be available per show.

According to Indeed, an average roadie gig pays around $500 a week, depending on the specific role. That means the package costs approximately six months' worth of roadie wages. Tidy.

For those enticed by the opportunity but suffering from much shallower pockets, fear not. The Gene Simmons Bass Experience simply removes the manual labor from the package, offering a meet-up with the Kiss man, and you still get to return home with one of his rehearsal-used four-strings.

That’s set to cost $6,500, but it will rise to $12,500 if you’d rather grab a bass that was used on stage.

If any of that tickles your fancy, head over to Gene Simmons' website.

In related Demon news, Simmons recently guested on Billy Corgan's podcast to reminisce on Ace Frehley's Kiss audition, during which Simmons nearly punched his lights out.

Though he wasn’t the first, Tommy Thayer is Kiss’ longest-tenured Spaceman. So there’s an argument to be made that, without his 23 years of service, they wouldn’t have made it to the end of the road – but Thayer humbly waves it away.

“It’s just exciting to be in the mix,” he tells Guitar World. “I’ve never considered myself to be in the rarified air of the players I grew up emulating. To be part of the history of one of rock’s greatest bands of all time is a nice feeling. It really doesn’t get any better than that.”

Since Kiss halted touring operations in December 2023, Thayer has played it low-key, though plenty is happening behind the scenes. His passion for playing is as fiery as ever – and he has thoughts on how things have changed since he found that fire.

“In today’s world, there’s too much information available on any subject, and it’s difficult to weed through it all; it’s confusing,” he says. “Go to the music store and try guitars; see what feels most comfortable in your hands.”

He adds: “I think it’s best to try new gear like amps and pedals in a band setting, or at least with other people playing, to get the best feel for what works. Borrow stuff from friends to try things out; that’s what I used to do.

“Listen to lots of music, and don’t be afraid to break the rules. Your tone and your style will evolve – that’s all part of the fun.”

What was the moment as a player where you truly felt you found your sound?

“When we started Black ’N Blue. Before that, I was trying to figure out who I was stylistically and find my footing. It was the same for [vocalist] Jaime St. James. We played together in local bands in Portland from 1978 to 1981 – it felt like forever – before we finally locked into Black ’N Blue.

“I always loved straight-ahead, blues-based ’70s hard rock. I wasn’t interested in much else. I’ve always played a Gibson Les Paul. I was listening to Joe Perry, Ronnie Montrose, Jimmy Page, Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy, Mick Ralphs, Billy Gibbons, Davey Johnston and Ace Frehley.

“It was such an exciting time. I wanted to emulate those bands and guitarists; I was consumed by it. One of the first solos I learned was China Grove by the Doobie Brothers. I stayed true to that style throughout the ’80s, which was a bit unusual for the time. Then Slash re-popularized the Les Paul in the late ’80s.”

Was there a nuance in your style that set you apart from the other players of the day?

“I always gravitated toward a bluesier, more soulful approach to playing, with fewer notes. The guys I admired played simple, memorable guitar lines that were about the song as much as anything. Things changed in the ’80s – everyone was trying to play as fast as possible. I really don’t think that ’80s guitar style has stood the test of time very well.

“Like I said, I had an infinity for the ’70s guitarists, who were second-generation players following in the footsteps of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix. Classic early ’70s hard rock like Mott the Hoople and Slade inspired me. They played and wrote simpler, hooky musical lines and amazing songs.

“By the late ’70s I loved Edward Van Halen – but for some reason I didn’t want to play that way, like most everyone in the ’80s ended up doing.”

So shred guitars and wild gear never appealed to you?

“Shredding never appealed to me. I was always a traditionalist; I took a simpler approach to guitar. A year after I left high school I found a great-sounding Gibson LP Custom in The Oregonian classified ads. I brought it home and plugged it straight onto my new 50-watt Marshall I’d just bought; the 100-watt would come later!”

You mentioned Slash bringing the Les Paul back – but you deserve credit, too.

“By the mid ’80s, Gibson Les Pauls were completely out of vogue. You could go into any second-hand guitar shop like Howie Hubberman’s Guitars R Us in Hollywood, and buy ’70s Les Paul Deluxes and Customs for under $500. Which I did! Thanks, Howie!”

Did you feel comfortable in the ’80s shred era?

“I naturally stuck with my playing style. Honestly, changing it was never something I considered. Blues-based rock guitar never goes out of style. It worked out well for me, obviously, because that was the type of guitar player Kiss wanted when I joined 23 years ago. Then after the reunion tour they wanted to stay with the original classic sound – and look – from the ’70s.”

You’d known the Kiss camp for a long time by the time you joined. Tell us about your first recording session with Kiss for 1989’s Hot in the Shade.

“It was in 1989, before I was in the band. Gene had been producing Black 'N Blue and eventually asked if I’d be interested in writing for the next Kiss album. 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 Away] and Betrayed at Cherokee Sound in Hollywood.

“We used a drum machine. I played the guitars with Gene on bass, and we both sang. Ultimately, both songs made the album. Instead of re-recording everything, Gene decided to keep parts of the demo, with Eric Carr laying down real drums and Bruce Kulick redoing the electric guitars and solos.

“Gene kept the vocals, background vocals, and my acoustic guitar from the demos. I probably used my ’73 Wine Red Les Paul Deluxe. I remember Lenny Kravitz was in the next studio and him borrowing that guitar.”

What were the conversations like about you joining Kiss?

“I remember Gene saying, ‘You need to start growing your hair again.’ That was the discussion! There wasn’t much said; they needed to do something because it was becoming impossible for the band to move forward at that point.

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

How did your tone evolve to where it is today?

“When you’re young and experimenting, it takes time to figure out what you don’t want, to get to what you do want. In the old days, getting distortion was a challenge. Even the old Marshalls sounded loud but too clean. You would have to find a distortion pedal to get a sound.

“The problem today is that with modern amps and pickups, there’s too much gain available. Most people don’t realize that it makes the sound smaller. I’ve always tried to find that sweet spot that breaks up smoothly and warmly, but not too much.

“On many of the records we all grew up loving, the guitars were recorded with smaller combo amps like Fender Deluxes. Jimmy Page recorded the first Led Zeppelin through a Supro combo amp with two 10-inch speakers.

“I’ve been using Hughes & Kettner’s amps since 2007; I’ve A-B’d them in the studio against great-sounding Marshalls, and they always sound a little bit better.

“But at the end of the day, the inspiration for how my guitar should sound comes from the songs themselves. When you’re playing classic Kiss tunes, the tone needs to fit the spirit of the band playing in arenas and stadiums – big, loud, and over the top.

You’re over a year removed from Kiss’s last show. Is there anything you’d change with how the band handled it?

“I was happy with how we wrapped up the End of the Road tour; I felt proud to be together with those guys for the end of 50 years of touring. It turned out to be an incredible five-year journey that just kept going and going – ups and downs, highs and lows. It was like a rollercoaster at times, but we made it.

“Right now, we’re putting the final touches on a multi-part documentary that’ll be a must-see. A camera crew followed us throughout the entire last year of the tour, filming us warts and all. We’re hoping it’ll be out later this year.”

What’s life been like since that last show?

“I’ve actually been super-busy. We’ve got a lot of things in the works. I’ve been traveling more than ever this year. I’ve been writing a lot lately, too, not with any particular project in mind, but just for the sake of creating.

“It’s been a great way to explore new ideas, collaborate, and experiment without any pressure or expectations. It’s about the process itself. It allows me to clear my head and get lost in the moment.”

Do you keep up with new players and music?

“You’ve probably seen Grace Bowers – she’s a phenomenal guitarist with a great vibe and look as well. A couple of years ago, I reached out to her, just to let her know I liked what she was doing. I really wanted to encourage her because she truly stood out.

“She and her friends came to our show in Nashville and we met in person. She told me that the first guitar solo she ever learned was Detroit Rock City.”

Has any new gear that recently caught your eye?

“The technology in guitars, and particularly amps, has evolved a lot over the years – but at the end of the day, it comes down to a great guitar into a great amp: simple. I’m always interested in checking out new gear here and there that can push the boundaries of my sound.

“I only use minimal effects during my ‘rocket’ guitar solo, so having the right effect to make it sound ominous is good. I use a Boss Super Chorus pedal and Super Octave pedal for that. It’s all about finding a balance between traditional gear that gives you that raw, live energy with a touch of new tech to make it shine a bit.”

Looking back, what’s the biggest mistake you made as a player?

“I honestly don’t regret any mistakes as a player or think I’d do something completely different. Things have worked well for me. I remember the first band I was in tried out for the junior high talent show and we didn’t make it. Another band that wasn’t any better made it.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’ll show them – they don’t realize they made a mistake.’ So it was that attitude of perseverance that pushed me along the way. I didn’t realize I had that quality until I was looking back years later.

“It’s those moments that light a fire under you to keep pushing forward. I think that’s what’s important – not just the wins, but the determination you build from the losses.

“Guitar is such an expressive instrument. It never gets old. Sometimes you realize you’ve been playing a small part of a song wrong forever; you stumble across the right way and you think, ‘That’s cool!’

“Even after all these years with Kiss, I’m still learning and growing. I look forward to pushing on.”

How do you hope to be remembered as a guitarist?

“I hope to be remembered for being true to the music, bringing intensity, and creating moments that got people to feel something. This kinda sounds like the end, but it’s not – there are exciting new things starting to happen, new stories to tell, and new experiences ahead. I can’t wait!”

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.”