Frehley formed Kiss in 1973 with Stanley, Simmons and drummer Peter Criss and has collaborated with his former band mates both on stage and in the studio in recent years.

While fans of Kiss (and Frehley) have been hoping for a reunion for years, Frehley says that will only happen on the band’s upcoming End of the Road farewell tour if Stanley and Simmons find they need a reunion to get the tour sell out.

He points out in an interview with Loudwire that Stanley’s stance on a reunion dramatically changed this fall after the tour announcement.

“Six months ago, when Paul was asked, ‘Is Ace gonna be involved in future concerts?’ he said, ‘Absolutely not. The past is the past and now is now,'” Frehley recalled, paraphrasing Stanley’s statements to Billboard this past spring. “In the last week or two he’s saying, ‘I wouldn’t rule it out,’ and then he did another interview where he said, ‘There’ll probably be some old members coming back as guests for the last tour.’ But he’s not mentioning any names.”

Stanley emphasized to iHeartRadio’s Jim Kerr in October that he hopes “everybody who’s been in this band” will show up for its final tour.

Frehley says those statements amount to a ploy, cleverly designed to excite the fanbase and wring more money out of concert promoters.

“You know, they’re testing the waters,” he added. “I think they’re waiting for promoters to come back and say, ‘We’ll give you X amount of dollars if Ace is involved … and Peter is involved.’ It’s all about money with those guys — and they’ll be the first to admit it, especially Gene.”

Make no mistake, Frehley is game to play along. The Spaceman has said in the past he sometimes regrets leaving Kiss, but he won’t return for cheap.

And more importantly, Space Ace won’t just show up for a few cameos. Frehley says in addition the pile of cash he’ll command, he won’t take the stage again with Kiss unless it’s in the makeup and the costume that he designed.