{"id":3738,"date":"2026-01-11T23:14:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2026-01-11T23:16:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:16:50","slug":"from-the-vaults-ace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3738","title":{"rendered":"From the Vaults: Ace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The following artist\u2019s names conjure up an instant mental image:\u00a0 Cher, Elvis, Prince, Madonna, Rihanna, Shakira, Adele, Beyonce, Bono, Sting, Eminem, Sade, Kesha, Flea, and Slash (to name a few more modern examples).\u00a0 Do you remember the black leather clad Elvis or the spangly jumpsuited Elvis?\u00a0 Do you see Cher standing next to Sonny Bono or the latter day Cher wearing a multitude of wigs and outrageous outfits.\u00a0 Sting?\u00a0 Does the black and yellow bumble bee sweater that inspired his name come to mind?\u00a0 A hoodie and ball cap clad Eminem reminds me of his menacing appearance when he first broke through.\u00a0 Madonna has gone through so many phases, a mental image of her would no doubt be tied to whatever song(s) of hers one likes the most.\u00a0 Then there is Ace Frehley.\u00a0 I am willing to bet most will picture him as the \u2018Spaceman\u2019 or \u2018Space Ace\u2019 in full KISS regalia from his two stints with that band.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sadly, Paul Daniel \u2018Ace\u2019 Frehley (April 27, 1951 – October 16, 2025) left this mortal coil too soon at the not exactly ancient age of 74.\u00a0 The end could have come sooner for Frehley and he admitted in many interviews that it would have if he had not sobered up in 2006.\u00a0 In earlier interviews, Frehley said he never used effects pedals on stage because A) his guitar plugged straight into a stack of Marshal amps is the sound of rock and roll (also his sound) and B) he has always had balance problems.\u00a0 Effects would have just given him more stuff to trip over.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On September 25, 2025, it was reported Ace had taken a fall in his home studio which forced him to cancel his upcoming tour dates.\u00a0 A week later, he suffered a severe head injury after taking another tumble at home, this time down a flight of stairs.\u00a0 The second fall left him hooked to a ventilator with a brain bleed.\u00a0 When his health failed to improve, the family made the tough decision to end his around the clock life support.\u00a0 Frehley died a few hours later without ever regaining consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frehley was born in the Bronx, New York, and during his teenage years, he survived a rough home life by joining a street gang.\u00a0 The \u2018Ace\u2019 nickname reportedly came from his knack for picking up women.\u00a0 He also got to be a pretty good at guitar after his father put a $25 Japanese model in his hands.\u00a0 Ace was a self taught guitarist who idolized the British Invasion sounds of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Keith Richards.\u00a0 After he dropped out of school to pursue a musical career, life steered him into driving a cab to make ends meet.\u00a0 At the age of 22, his musical prospects took an upturn when he answered an ad in <\/span>The Village Voice<\/span><\/i> that said, \u201cLEAD GUITARIST WANTED with Flash and Ability.\u00a0 No time wasters please.\u00a0 Paul 268-3145.\u201d\u00a0 The \u2018Paul\u2019 in the ad would turn out to be Paul Stanley and the band in question went by their pre-KISS name Wicked Lester.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Guitar World\u2019s <\/span><\/i>Andrew Daly described Ace\u2019s first encounter with his future bandmates in the January 2026 issue (Vol. 47 NO 1):\u00a0 \u201cLegend has it that Frehley showed up at the fledgling act\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Frehley has often said that the chemistry between him and the other members of KISS (Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, and Paul Stanley) was immediate.\u00a0 But it was Stanley, the other guitarist in the band, that he initially connected with on a musical level.\u201d\u00a0 In his last interview with <\/span>Guitar World <\/span><\/i>earlier in 2025, he summed up his relationships in KISS as, \u201cMore than anything, it was chemistry.\u00a0 But it\u2019s hard to say:\u00a0 it\u2019s always that way with those things.\u00a0 I do know that the little things about my style fit well alongside Paul\u2019s playing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frehley added more than killer guitar parts to the evolving world of KISS.\u00a0 He designed the iconic KISS lightning-bolt logo and his Space Ace \/ Spaceman makeup.\u00a0 He also helped Stanley come up with his Starchild image.\u00a0 Ace added his touches to soon-to-be KISS hits like <\/span>Deuce, Strutter, <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Black Diamond.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The band\u2019s records were not big movers but word of mouth about their live shows led young fans to say, \u201cI don\u2019t like their records but I buy them because I saw them live.\u201d\u00a0 By the time they hooked up with manager Bill Aucoin in 1973, KISS was at a tipping point<\/span> with the label suits.\u00a0 KISS was very much in need of something to tip the balance toward success and away from getting dropped by their label.\u00a0 The latter scenario would likely have meant returning to their former day jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The band\u2019s label, Casablanca Records, was also on the edge of going out of business when they took a calculated gamble.\u00a0 KISS was known for their powerful, theatrical live shows.\u00a0 The band felt their studio albums didn\u2019t show them at their best, so why not record a live album to showcase them in their best environment?\u00a0 The 1975 release of the double album <\/span>Alive! <\/span><\/i>was a major step forward for them according to Stanley:\u00a0 \u201cIt broke incredible ground for us.\u00a0 We were building this rabid following, yet we weren\u2019t selling albums that reflected that.\u00a0 <\/span>Alive! <\/span><\/i>was a sonic souvenir where people could go home and say, \u2018That\u2019s what I saw, and that\u2019s what I heard!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The album also kicked their fan base KISS ARMY into high gear.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In his final <\/span>GW <\/span><\/i>interview in 2025, Frehley expressed similar sentiments about <\/span>Alive!<\/span><\/i>:\u00a0 \u201cWe felt that our studio albums were good, but they didn\u2019t capture the essence of our concerts.\u00a0 I think <\/span>Alive! <\/span><\/i>did.\u00a0 A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon.\u201d\u00a0 The multiplatinum success sent KISS rocketing up the charts and pulled Casablanca Records back from the brink of going bust.\u00a0 My first contact with <\/span>Alive!<\/span><\/i> happened in the fall of 1975 in the Ontonagon Area School\u2019s old Elementary\/JH gym on Greenland Road.\u00a0 I had a purchased brand new stereo setup and was using the stage monitors from my college band Sledgehammer for speakers.\u00a0 I volunteered to spin records for the JH dances that year and yes, we were still spinning vinyl records and cassette tapes back then.\u00a0 There was one condition:\u00a0 the kids needed to bring the records they wanted to hear and nobody but me would handle the equipment.\u00a0 Songs from <\/span>Alive!<\/span><\/i> were big on the playlist and a few kids thought I would be shocked to see and hear such a radically different band.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nothing takes the fun out of shocking an adult (never mind a teacher of all people) than finding out they have actually heard about the \u2018next big thing\u2019.\u00a0 The kid who brought <\/span>Alive!<\/span><\/i> to the dance asked if I had ever heard KISS before.\u00a0 It was his turn to look shocked when I said, \u201cYes, I heard their first album back in \u201873 or so.\u201d\u00a0 A friend of my buddy Mitch had a super sound system in his Dodge Charger and when we would cruise around Marquette with him, he always had the newest music.\u00a0 Okay, it was an 8-track player, but it sounded great.\u00a0 On one night of our\u00a0 cruising adventures, he tossed on the first KISS album.\u00a0 My only remembrance of the music was looking at the artwork on the cassette and asking him, \u201cDo they really dress like this?\u201d\u00a0 He was the one who first shared the story with us about kids saying they didn\u2019t like their albums but they bought them anyway because they loved their live shows.\u00a0 For the record, this was the same scenario when I was introduced to the band Queen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All in all, the concept of doing a live album made a lot of sense and the end results for the label and the band proved it was a shrewd move.\u00a0 The only mistake they made was to vehemently deny that it had been touched up in the studio.\u00a0 Years later, Gene Simmons admitted they had to do a lot of \u2018touching up\u2019 before they could put the album out.\u00a0 Watching them perform live, it isn\u2019t surprising there would be missed cues, fluffed notes, and even inaudible vocals – KISS was never a band that stood around shoe-gazing when they performed.\u00a0 For whatever reason, they decided to repeat the lie that the album was cut totally live with no fixes.\u00a0 Had they just said, \u201cWell, we have a pretty energetic show and we didn\u2019t want to put out an album that didn\u2019t do the music justice, so yes, we had to go back and fix a couple of things,\u201d nobody in the KISS ARMY would have held it against them.\u00a0 They managed to turn what could have been their swan song album (had it been majorly flawed) into one of the premier live albums of all time.\u00a0 From 1975 on, all other live albums needed to get over the high bar set by <\/span>Alive!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The KISS rocket was still climbing in 1976, but by then Ace had developed a massive drinking problem.\u00a0 Things began to come to a head during the recording of the 1976 <\/span>Destroyer<\/span><\/i> album with producer Bob Ezrin at the helm.\u00a0 Frehley gave <\/span>GW <\/span><\/i>his honest assessment of how the wheels began to come off the bus.\u00a0 Ezrin got upset because he wanted everything done yesterday and Ace had a habit of showing up late.\u00a0 As Frehley put it, \u201cSometimes I showed up late because I had a hangover from the night before.\u00a0 Everybody knows I was an alcoholic.\u00a0 Bob was a guy who liked to get things done quickly, probably because he had a mountain of cocaine and a bottle of Remy Martin on the mixing desk with him.\u00a0 But, of course, Paul and Gene never mentioned that [when discussing why they kicked Ace out of the band].\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ezrin ended up bringing in studio ace Dick Wagner (The Frost, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper) to play the lead parts on <\/span>Sweet Pain<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Beth.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Frehley continued, \u201cI was [later] told Bob did that because he felt my solos weren\u2019t as great as they should have been, so he had Dick play them.\u00a0 But it was more about punishing me for not being on time.\u00a0 I see it as partially my fault, but also partly Bob\u2019s fault.\u00a0 The thing that bothered me the most was that I wasn\u2019t told he had replaced my solos;\u00a0 I had to find out after I listened to the record at my home on my turntable.\u00a0 That bothered me for a long time.\u201d\u00a0 Ace continued with KISS, even contributing the song <\/span>Shock Me<\/span><\/i> for the <\/span>Love Gun <\/span><\/i>(1977) album.\u00a0 Not only was it inspired by a real incident (Ace was electrocuted during a show in Lakeland, Florida in 1976), it also marked his first-ever lead vocal, not to mention another great solo (and not a replacement).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Famed producer Eddie Kramer was on the board for <\/span>Love Gun.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Kramer was known for working with Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, so he knew his way around guitar players.\u00a0 As for Frehely, Kramer said, \u201cRight from the beginning, I knew Ace would be a star – that\u2019s for sure.\u00a0 Ace had intuitive talents;\u00a0 he could play blues and rock, and I loved that he could play all these cool blues licks but make them his own.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t scared of anything.\u201d\u00a0 As much as he loved the guitar playing, getting Ace\u2019s vocal down on <\/span>Shock Me<\/span><\/i> took some doing.\u00a0 It took a bottle of something to \u2018calm him down\u2019 and multiple takes until Ace got comfortable.\u00a0 <\/span>Love Gun <\/span><\/i>was another big LP for the band and the success of <\/span>Shock Me <\/span><\/i>also lit a fire under Ace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even as his drinking and drug use escalated, <\/span>Shock Me<\/span><\/i> started Frehley thinking about leaving the band.\u00a0 The decision for all four members to record their own solo albums and to release them on the same day (September 18, 1977) was made to convince Frehley to hang around.\u00a0 Ace\u2019s album turned out to be the best of the bunch, both in terms of material and sales.\u00a0 It also underscored his growing perception that he was being \u2018held back\u2019 by KISS and could be more creative and productive on his own.\u00a0 Perhaps Simmons and Stanley realized this as the next three KISS albums (<\/span>Dynasty (1979), Unmasked (1980) & Music from \u2018the Elder\u2019 (1981)<\/span><\/i>) featured more tracks from Ace.\u00a0 When he told his bandmates he was going to quit prior to recording 1982\u2019s <\/span>Creatures of the Night<\/span><\/i>, Frehley said Gene and Paul begged him to stay.\u00a0 They were willing to \u2018work around his problems\u2019 because \u2018Ace was a unique player\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Out of the band, everyone expected Ace\u2019s new confidence in his own music to produce instant results.\u00a0 Daly said it wasn\u2019t so: \u00a0 \u201c[Instead of his solo career taking off like a rocket]<\/span><\/p>\n

What followed was a whole lot of drinking, several near-death car crashes, failed rehab attempts, and a separation from his wife Jeanette.\u00a0 Through the chaos came very little music.\u201d\u00a0 Things began to turn around when he met a veteran bassist named John Regan in 1984.\u00a0 They began to collaborate and the chemistry was good.\u00a0 Regan\u2019s stability helped Frehley focus and they began writing and playing music together.\u00a0 Ace\u2019s old friend Eddie Trunk was the Vice President of Megaforce Records and he convinced his partner and head of the label, Jon Zazula to sign Frehley.\u00a0 The resultant record, <\/span>Frehley\u2019s Comet <\/span><\/i>(1987), almost went gold.\u00a0 Two more records (<\/span>Second Sighting (1988) & Trouble Walkin\u2019 (1989)<\/span><\/i>) were released before the wheels finally did come off the wagon.\u00a0 Ace\u2019s drinking and the new grunge era music more or less pushed him (and his old band) off the music scene\u2019s radar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When MTV featured KISS on their <\/span>Unplugged <\/span><\/i>series in 1995, the band included drummer Eric Carr and guitarist Bruce Kulick.\u00a0 Simmons and Stanley asked Criss and Frehley to join them for a few tracks.\u00a0 Behind the scenes, they were planning a full costumed KISS comeback that would reunit the original line up.\u00a0 Ace was drinking and drugging in excess and even though the reunion tour was a success, the reunion album (<\/span>Psycho Circus<\/span><\/i>) was not.\u00a0 By 2002, Frehley was out again, however, his stalled solo career was not ready to resume.\u00a0 Once he sobered up in 2006, his musical output began to return to a more respectable level.\u00a0 <\/span>Anomaly<\/span><\/i> (2009) was the first of a string of strong solo albums that culminated with 2024\u2019s <\/span>10,000 Volts<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 It was rumored that Ace had another album in the works when he passed and there will be much speculation as to if and when that material will see the light of day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Happy to have survived his own demons, Ace still couldn\u2019t quite remove himself from the KISS drama.\u00a0 His old band went out on their massive <\/span>End of the Road<\/span><\/i> tour with an final set of shows scheduled for Madison Square Garden in December of 2023.\u00a0 You can pick the version of the story that makes the most sense to you (if any make sense, that is).\u00a0 Simmons said, \u201cWe would welcome both Peter and Ace to come up and do a couple of songs during our last show(s).\u201d\u00a0 Stanley told Howard Stern in the weeks before the final show, \u201cIf Peter and Ace are involved, we might as well call the band Piss.\u201d\u00a0 Frehley wondered why he would have said this, but in the end noted, \u201cPaul is talented but he is hot and cold.\u00a0 He sometimes says things that are nice and other times not so nice.\u201d This would have been a hard \u2018dis\u2019 to ignore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frehley himself oscillated between, \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t meet my monetary demands to show up,\u201d and \u201cI was never asked to participate.\u201d\u00a0 He modified that stance as the final show loomed saying, \u201cI\u2019m the kind of guy who never says \u2018never\u2019.\u00a0 I don\u2019t hate Gene or Paul.\u00a0 We are rock and roll brothers.\u00a0 Peter, too.\u201d\u00a0 It is too bad that Ace passed away before the band was honored at the Kennedy Center in December of 2025, but the event gave Simmons and Stanley an opportunity to say nice things about their former guitarist.\u00a0 Simmons posted, \u201cNo one can touch Ace\u2019s legacy.\u00a0 I know he loved the fans. He told me many times.\u00a0 Ace was the eternal rock soldier.\u00a0 Long may his legacy live on!.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Similar sentiments poured in from guitarists around the world.\u00a0 R.I.P. Ace Frehley.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Shock Me –<\/em> a song that Ace not only lived, but sang – his first KISS lead vocal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The following artist\u2019s names conjure up an instant mental image:\u00a0 Cher, Elvis, Prince, Madonna, Rihanna, Shakira, Adele, Beyonce, Bono, Sting, Eminem, Sade, Kesha, Flea, and Slash (to name a few more modern examples).\u00a0 Do you remember the black leather clad Elvis or the spangly jumpsuited Elvis?\u00a0 Do you see Cher standing next to Sonny Bono […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}