Gene Simmons still wants Ace Frehley to join Kiss on their End of the Road farewell tour

Gene Simmons has once again invited former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley to play with the band during their ongoing farewell End of the Road World Tour.

In a tweet marking Frehley's 71st birthday yesterday (April 27), Simmons wrote that the “invitations still stand”, inviting him to “jump up on stage with us for encores”. “The fans would love it,” he added.

Frehley co-founded Kiss in 1973 with current members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, and former drummer Peter Criss. His initial tenure lasted almost 10 years, before he left the band in 1982. He rejoined in 1996, and left again in 2002, following the conclusion of what was originally planned to me the band's farewell tour.

Since then, Frehley and Simmons have worked together on multiple occasions, including on Frehley's 2018 solo album Spaceman, for which Simmons cowrote two tracks: Without You I'm Nothing and Your Wish Is My Command.

The pair also joined forces in 2017 for a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Harvey, in which they played three classic Kiss songs, Parasite, Cold Gin and Shock Me.

But their relationship hit rockier territory in 2019, after Simmons told Guitar World that Frehley was undependable and that he would never be able to fully rejoin the band.

“Ace and Peter Criss have gotten three chances,” he said. “They were in and out of the band – fired – three times. For drugs, alcohol, bad behaviour, being unprofessional. So the only reason Ace and Peter were let go the first time, and then the second time and then the third time, is that they weren't carrying their load.”

He added: “We’d love to have Ace and Peter join us here and there. And if they don’t, it’s not going to be because of us. But they’re never going to be in Kiss again... 

“Would we welcome Ace or Peter to jump up onstage for a song or two? Of course. Could we depend on either Ace or Peter to do a full set night after night? Not on your fucking life.”

Simmons' comments sparked the retaliation of Frehley, who in a now-deleted Facebook post said his “slanderous remarks” had cost him “millions of dollars”.

“I'm over 12 years sober [and] you're still saying I can't be trusted to play a whole night's show!” he said. “Well, that's exactly what I've been doing for the last 12 years with different configurations of The Ace Frehley Band to you and Paul's dismay!”

The pair's relationship has sweetened in recent years, however, with Frehley last year saying “anything's possible” regarding a reunion.

“That's the first question so many people have asked me over the years: ‘Would you ever consider doing a Kiss reunion?’” he told Eddie Trunk. “I said, ‘I never closed the door on anything.’ If the money's right and it's presented to me in the right way, anything can happen.”

He added: “I’m on good terms with Paul and Gene, which is nice, because we created something really special in the early ‘70s that has outlasted so many other bands.

“And God bless ‘em. They’re still doing it; I’m still doing it. Peter [Criss, drums] is still around. I’m not quite sure why Peter hasn’t toured over the years as much as I have, but it is what it is.”