--- Karl Cochran, formerly of Ace Frehley's Bad Boys band, says he is working with good friend Eric Singer on some material for an upcoming album. No word yet on what the band might be called...my vote is for "REVENGE", for obvious reasons, in addition to the fact that it's a cool band name. (I can see it in Metal Edge now: "Eric Singer, drummer for REVENGE, threw a pool party for a friend's birthday...")

--- Gene Simmons was signing at 2 p.m. at the Ampeg booth and had a huge line -- always very popular, but this year at least twice the size of the crowd at Gene's signing from about two years ago. KISS has definitely caught the public's attention again.

--- Ace's signing was also slated for 2 p.m., and then moved to 2:30 p.m., but he didn't actually show up until about 3:45 p.m. (1 hour 45 minutes late), and quite frankly he looked like hell. (When people asked him how he was doing, he even said he was feeling miserable.) Why did he show up almost two hours late? Well, word was that he had missed his flight from New York the night before. When Gene found out that Ace still hadn't arrived in Los Angeles after his signing was scheduled to start, Gene got up from his own signing right in the middle of it, left the convention and went to the airport personally to make sure that Ace was delivered to the show. (Gene then went back and finished his signing.) I couldn't quite believe this until people who were standing on line waiting for Gene to return told me it had happened.

--- This was the first time I had since Ace without the makeup after the reunion, and I gotta say....man, the years have not been good to this guy. He was wearing the same Marylin Monroe shirt from the MTV Unplugged show, and he was definitely a few pounds lighter than when he did Unplugged, but his face has definitely been ravaged by the years. I look at pix of Paul from 20 years ago and he looks more mature but not all that much different; Ace now, from 20 years ago, looks like an entirely different man.

PART 2
I was picking up my friend Mitch from where he was staying on Sunset at the apartment of a friend (the bass player for David Bowie and Rod Stewart), when who should be at the buidling but...Ace Frehley, and his manager George Sewitt.

Ace was getting ready to sign papers in the next few days to move into the building, though it's not certain if he's getting a place there permanently or only for the recording of the PSYCHO CIRCUS album. (No, don't ask for its address, I won't give it out.)

Ace says he's got some great tunes ready for PSYCHO CIRCUS, and goes into the recording studio for the album in another day or two. (Contrary to what most people think, an entire band doesn't necessarily all go in to record an album at once; the guitar leads are usually the last instrument that's put down before the vocals.)

Ace also said he had hardly slept at all in the 48 hours before his appearance at the NAMM show, which is why he looked like such at the signing. (He was going to show up at the House Of Blues for Leslie West's gig on Sunday night, but he was too "wiped out" to make it (no pun intended). Leslie's show was great, though, he's lost a ton of weight and he was in great spirits backstage. (Which is hit-or-miss for Leslie.)

NAMM Expo Reports!
From: PowerGrfx@aol.com
On Saturday January 31st I attended the NAMM convention in Los Angeles. While there, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Gene Simmons was scheduled to make an appearance at the Ampeg booth to promote his new amp and sign autographs. I also found out that Ace Frehley was scheduled to be at the Gibson booth to promote his guitar and to also sign autographs during the same time that Gene was to be there. I had Gene sign the cover of my KISS comic book ('77 Marvel 1st issue). I had Ace do the same thing when I met him later that day. Both Gene and Ace were awesome. It was hard to get them to sign more than one autograph or talk about the new album because they were so many people surrounding them. Here's the best part: I was given two free tickets to attend the Gibson All-Star-Jam at the Roxy in Hollywood after the convention. When we arrived, Gilby Clarks band (with Eric Singer on drums) was playing (Eric played a tremedous drum solo!) Later that night, Slash and his band played a full set of blues covers (which was very cool). After Slash's last encore Ace Frehley joined Slash and his band in a cool blues number. When Slash and his band left the stage, Ace came back and played four songs with the bass player that was in his solo band before the KISS reunion and Eric Singer on drums! It was totally out of control! They played: Rip it Out, Cold Gin, Strange Ways, and Parasite (in that order). I was front row, center. Right in front of the Ace the whole time (about two feet away!) I still can't believe it happened... Eric and Ace rocked the house like you would'nt believe. Awesome show!!!

I almost forgot to tell you that when I met Ace, he told me that he is scheduled to be on the either the David Letterman or Jay Leno show tomorrow (Monday night (Feb 2,1998). I say either of those because I can't remember which one it is.