“He came over and he said, 'You did a really good job up there.' I thought, 'Man, my guitar was off…’” Whitesnake’s Joel Hoekstra on the time Ace Frehley complimented his guitar playing… even though he wasn’t actually playing anything
Hoekstra says he only “really understood” the KISS veteran after partaking in an intimate and exclusive jam, during which Frehley insisted on cranking his amp to ear-splitting volumes
(Image credit: Joel Hoekstra / Jayme Thornton)
Joel Hoekstra says he understood Ace Frehley was a “larger than life rock star” after he was complimented by the KISS icon, even though he’d turned off his electric guitar.
The strange anecdote was detailed by the Whitesnake and Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist during an appearance on the Jay Jay French Connection podcast.
Speaking to the Twisted Sister guitarist, Hoekstra said it happened during a high-end and high-profile jam session at a Rock N’ Roll Memorabilia Museum during his time in Night Ranger.
“We had a situation where they wanted us [Night Ranger] to be the band, but have guests up,” he explains (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “One of them was Bun E. Carlos, one of them was George Lynch, and one of them was Ace.
“Ace came up there, and we were in this high-priced, small room. Everybody had to pay a lot of money to be there. It was all wood; [it was a] really loud room, and we had our amps really quiet.”
Hoekstra and company were conscious of the room’s unforgiving acoustics. Ace Frehley, being Ace Frehley, was not.
"Ace comes in and dimes it,” Hoekstra continues. “Everything's just on 10, and then he wouldn't start until they jacked him up in the monitor. Like, the only thing you could hear was Ace. I mean, it was unbelievable, the rock star attitude of it all.”
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At this point, the room was getting crowded. The last thing anyone’s ear drums needed was more volume.
JOEL HOEKSTRA discusses Trans-Siberian Orchestra & Whitesnake and more. - YouTube
“I remember there were four of us up there, because Lynch stayed up, and Brad Gillis, of course,” he adds. “And those guys were over there trading, and you couldn't hear anything. It was like a mosquito in a construction site.
"I thought, 'Why is anybody bothering right now?' So, I just turned my guitar off, because I thought, ‘All I'm doing is contributing to the noise’”.
Frehley’s cranked amp allowed Hoekstra to appreciate his talents at least, as he says: “Ace sounded great, actually. He played great, he had an amazing tone. But I just thought, 'I'm going to do the right thing here and just turn my guitar off.'
“And what was amazing about that, Ace came over to me after, and he complimented me on my playing. He came over and he said, 'Oh yeah, you did a really good job up there.' And I thought, 'Man, my guitar was off, but, you know, thank you.'
“But, yeah, I get it. That's when I really understood Ace Frehley. He's just a rock star. He's larger than life, you know?"
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
