Mark Strigl | Talking Rock
On a recent episode of the 3 Sides of the Coin show, former Kiss producer Michael James Jackson was asked about Ace Frehely’s involvement on both the Killers and the Creatures of the Night albums. He said “Ace did play. I don’t remember; It was along time ago, I don’t remember what he played on. We recorded him in New York.”
When asked if this was for the Killers, Creatures of the Night or both? His response was “I honestly don’t remember. It was a very long time ago.”
He is then asked if it is possible that Ace’s guitar playing may be part of the basic rhythm guitar parts on the Creatures Of the Night album to which he responds “yeah, yeah., I remember we recorded him at Electric Lady. I don’t remember whether it was on a track or several tracks for Killers or on Creatures.”
In the 2003 official Kiss book Behind the Mask, Michael James Jackson is quoted as saying Ace was not on the Creatures of the Night record. In the same book, Vinnie Vincent talks about meeting Ace at this time. Could this meeting have taken place in the studio while they were recording Creatures? Ace Frehley, of course, went on to appear on the album cover, in the promotional music video for the track “I Love It Loud” and also did some press for the record. Around this time Ace claims that Kiss was encouraging him to go and do solo records but also to stay on as a member of the band.
Why has Michael James Jackson’s recollection of Ace’s involvement with a Kiss at this time in history changed? Again, in the 2003 book, he says Ace was not on the Creatures record and now in 2018 he claims he did record guitar sessions with him for either Killers or Creatures. Could his account had been altered for the “official” Kiss book in 2003 or is he now remembering things differently? Thoughts? Let us known the comment section.
This post was written by Mark Strigl
From the official 2003 Kiss authorized book Behind the Mask – page 350:
Michael James Jackson on the Creatures of the Night album: Because Ace wasn’t on the record, there were many other guitarists to audition. And there were several who actually played solos on the record. For example, on “I Still Love You,” the guitarist doing the solo is Robben Ford, a hands down tremendous technician. The guys were really blown away with Robben. Steve Farris, who was in Mr. Mister. played on the solo on “Creatures of the Night.” As I recall, we brought in about eight different guitarists and rejected about six of them…
From page 351:
Vinnie Vincent: I met Ace once and he seemed like a really nice guy. We got on very well. It was a very short conversation. I don’t think I’ve ever run into Ace again. I think I met him when I first joined the band. He wished me luck and said,”Have fun, good luck” And that’s about it.