Michael Brandvold

Jody Havenot

Mark Strigl | Talking Metal

Jody Havenot

Matt Porter

Rolling Stone

Walking the Floor goes to space this week, with special guest Ace Frehley — known to Kiss fans as the Spaceman — joining podcast host Chris Shiflett. Together, the two ignore the show’s Americana-leaning format and, instead, geek out over guitar pickups, soloing techniques and Kiss lore.

“Ace Frehley is, without question, the single most important reason why I play guitar,” Shiflett admits during the episode’s pre-interview segment. Perhaps that’s why today’s episode is so spirited. Below, we’ve rounded up some highlights from the pair’s conversation, followed by the episode’s full premiere.

“Cold Gin” was technically co-written by Ace Frehley and Gene Simmons, although the former bandmate received sole writing credit. 
“I wrote that on the subway going down to rehearsal,” Frehley says of the song, which appeared on Kiss’ 1974 debut. “I came up with that riff in my head and I put it together, and actually, Gene wrote the breakdown section, but he never took credit. He said, ‘Ace, it’s your song.’” More than 40 decades later, Frehley remains grateful to Simmons for the vote of confidence. “I really wasn’t a songwriter,” he says. “I learned a lot from Paul and Gene.”

Growing up in the Bronx during the late Sixties and early Seventies, Frehley attended concerts by some of the era’s most iconic rock acts.
“I saw Cream’s first New York appearance,” he remembers. “I saw the Who’s first New York appearance. I saw Led Zeppelin’s first New York appearance, opening up for Iron Buttefly at the Fillmore East, and then half the audience walked out on the headliner.”

Although Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley often monopolized the band’s decision-making process, Frehley was often able to sway their opinions. 
“Some lighting director talked Paul and Gene into using this system where above us would be this big mirror, and the spot[lights] would be in the pit, and we’d bounce the spots off the mirror,” he remembers. “And I said, ‘What, are you kidding? You wanna pay for this? You want spotlight guys in the pit? I wanna be able to see the fans…’ They were gonna go with it, and I talked to Peter, and I said, ‘Look, we’ve gotta talk these guys outta doing this. This is a bad idea.’ And they listened to me.” That said, Frehley wasn’t always able to bend the ears of the band’s highly opinionated leaders. “When it came to The Elder,” he points out, “they didn’t listen to me.”

A longtime user of DiMarzio guitar pickups, Frehley used to deal directly with the gear manufacturer’s owner.
“Larry DiMarzio used to hand-wind pickups in his bedroom with this spooling device, and I used to meet him at the Staten Island Ferry and get the pickups,” he remembers. “I [still] have two or three of the pickups that he personally hand-wound.”

He prefers to improvise his guitar solos in the recording studio.
“Ninety percent of it is winging it,” he says of this approach to composing guitar leads. “In the early days, I used to rehearse guitar solos with Kiss on the first couple albums. They’d give me a cassette without a solo on it, and I’d play with it. I’d work out a solo, and I’d get into the studio, and they didn’t like it! So I said to myself, ‘Well, you just spent the whole afternoon working on something that somebody didn’t like.’ So as my career progressed and my playing got better and my confidence got better, I just decided to wing the solos.”

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Mitch Lafon

Ultimate Classic Rock

Ace Frehley revealed that non-sobriety was a contributing factor to the dismissal of his solo band in favor of the musicians Gene Simmons had hired as his own outfit.

Frehley, who struggled with addiction issues during and after his time with Kiss, before finally resolving them, admitted he’d put his former colleagues “through hell” and that he now had no time for people who hadn’t learned the lesson he’d finally grasped.

“I think Paul [Stanley] and Gene, when I left the group the last time and I was strung out on drugs and alcohol, they probably thought I was just going to fade away and maybe O.D. or disappear,” Frehley recently told the Juliet:Unexpected podcast. “What happened was I got sober, and I came back stronger and bigger than ever.” As an example, he added, “I just went to Australia with Gene, showed up on time, played well, sang well.”

Asked if his issues had contributed to the “toxicity” within Kiss, he said, “In the past, yeah. They were right about a lot of things. I mean, today I have no tolerance for being around drunk people. I put those guys through hell – if I do say so myself – but, I mean, I get it. But it took a while for me to understand.”

He continued, “I got sober a couple of times over the years… but invariably I’d relapse because I’d get on a bus with a bunch of musicians who were getting high, smoking pot and drinking beer and whatever. How long you gonna last on a bus before you end up saying, ‘Gimme a cold one’? … So, pretty much, my [addiction] sponsor said to me, ‘The only way you’re gonna get sober, Ace, is if you get rid of all the people around you who get high, and surround yourself with sober people… or at least with musician who keep it behind closed doors… You don’t want to see it, you don’t want to smell it. And that’s what I’ve been doing.”

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CJ News

The most popular rock act fronted by Jews, whose lightning-bolt Kiss logo has to be altered in countries that forbid Nazi symbols, announced its “End of the Road” farewell tour starting Jan. 31 in Vancouver, followed by multiple dates in Toronto and Montreal, among other cities. During their 46 years together the collaboration of Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz) and Paul Stanley (born Stanley Eisen) generated plenty of topical tales.

Victory was delayed in Toronto

For their first concert tour, which kicked off in Edmonton, Kiss was originally scheduled to make their Toronto debut in April 1974 at the Victory Burlesque, the Spadina Avenue theatre initially built to show movies in Yiddish – except the show was cancelled. When they played the city that June, it was at Massey Hall, opening for the New York Dolls. The band made it to the Victory that September, where they also guested on Citytv’s music show, Boogie.

This visit was also when Kiss met Toronto-based record producer Bob Ezrin, who already made his name on albums by Alice Cooper. Ezrin was hired for the 1976 album Destroyer, which proved to be the band’s most successful. And in 1981, he oversaw their least-successful album, Music from ‘The Elder’.

Anti-Semitism divides the tribe

Simmons and Stanley originally worked with drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley. But they split into two factions due to what Stanley claimed  in his 2014 memoir Face the Music was an attempt to sabotage a band they felt was “unfairly manipulated by money-hungry Jews.” Criss and Frehley refuted the accusations, pointing to their own Jewish family members. But both of them were out of Kiss by the early-‘80s. For the 1992 Erzrin-produced album Revenge, the band – with the addition of Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer – were an all-Jewish lineup.

Helping hand of guitarist’s dad

The original four members reunited for MTV Unplugged in 1995 and, after a dozen years out of costume, went back on tour with painted faces. But tensions with Criss and Frehley resurfaced. Following a so-called “Farewell Tour” in 2000-01, they called Singer back to fill in as drummer wearing Criss’s Catman costume.

Frehley also ended up on the outs again, and Kiss employee Tommy Thayer filled his Spaceman boots, a part that he might have been born to play. Simmons boasts that his mother, Florence Klein, was among the 15,000 liberated from a concentration camp in northern Austria by a U.S. platoon led by his bandmate’s father, Brig.-Gen. James B. Thayer, who died at age 96 in September. Florence died on Dec. 6 at age 93.

The long road to artistic redemption

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Matt Porter

Gus | Backstageaxxess

40 years ago, the band KISS pulled off something that was unheard of at that time. Each member (Peter Criss, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley) all released solo albums on September 18, 1978. This hasn’t been matched before or since. KISS’ following tour which was Dynasty, had each member perform a song from each of their respective solo albums. Each of these albums sold over a million copies with selling the most. His also charted the highest and spurned a top 20 single in “New York Groove.”  None of the original KISS members have ever performed their respective solo album until now.  At this year KISS Expo at the Hilton in Parsippany, another chapter n KISStory took place.  Ace Frehley gave fans what they have been dying to see and hear, to perform his famed self-titled solo album in its entirety.

Recently, Frehley changed his entire band and enlisted the same musicians that his former bandmate Gene Simmons had in his solo band. They are Phillip Shouse on bass, Jeremy Asbrock and Ryan Spencer Cook on guitar, and former and now current drummer in Matt Starr. Having these players has upped Frahleys game to now try things he hasn’t been able to do in a handful of years. For starts, he recently tried to do a few rarities on this year’s KISS Kruise (“Save Your Love’ and “Dark Light”).  The results may have been mixed but mostly the consensus overall was that all KISS fans were glad that at least Frehley was brave enough to step outside the box.  Fast forward to December 8^th as fans from all over made the trek to see Frehley perform this beloved album in its entirety.  Frehley dedicated the performance to the memory of Gene Simmons’ mother who recently passed away at the age of 92.

They started the performance with what Frehley currently uses to open his set up which is the track “Rip It Out.” He talked about the next song which was about his ex-wife Jeanette Frehley (who was in attendance by the way) “Speedin’ Back to my Baby.”  Frehley talked very little in between each song as he let the music really do most of the talking.  Asbrock handled vocals on “Ozone” and” Wiped Out.” Those along with “I’m in Need of Love” were played for the 1^sttime ever live. In addition to this, Frehley had a small monitor to help on words for a few tracks. The band only played the album (which was 9 tracks) and no other songs were thrown into the set once the album was played in its entirety

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Blabbermouth

Peter Arquette | KISSasylum.com

Former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley celebrated the 40th anniversary of his acclaimed solo debut by performing the album for the first time in its entirety on the final day of the New Jersey Kiss Expo 2018, which took place December 7-9 at the Hilton Parsippany in Parsippany, New Jersey.

His setlist was as follows:

01. Rip It Out
02. Speedin’ Back To My Baby
03. Snowblind
04. Ozone
05. What’s On Your Mind?
06. New York Groove
07. I’m In Need Of Love
08. Wiped-Out
09. Fractured Mirror

Other guests that appeared at the event included Lita Ford, Bobby Rock (VINNIE VINCENT INVASION, NELSON), Lydia Criss and artist Ken Kelly (“Destroyer”, “Love Gun”).

Co-produced with frequent KISS collaborator Eddie Kramer, “Ace Frehley” is widely hailed as the best of the four KISS solo albums released simultaneously in 1978. It peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and outsold the solo efforts of his three bandmates.

Regarding how the decision to perform all of “Ace Frehley” came about, the guitarist told BUILD Series: “It came from the people putting the event together and some of the people who work for me. They all said it would be a great idea, and I said, ‘Yeah, I think it would be,’ so we’re going to make it happen.”

In addition to a trio of songs (“Snow Blind”, “Ozone”, “Wiped-Out”) that reflect Frehley‘s extracurricular interests at the time, the album includes a cover of HELLO‘s 1975 song “New York Groove”, which reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and remains a staple of the guitarist’s live performances today.

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NJkissexpo.com

NJkissexpo.com

Tickets and Info at www.njkissexpo.com

Brian Aberback | NorthJersey.com

“I’m playing the album because the fans asked for it,” Frehley said. “I love interacting with them. It’s a holiday gift for the fans but it’s also going to be fun for me.”

Each member of Kiss released a solo album on the same day 40 years ago this past September as a marketing tactic and to give them a chance to branch out on their own. Frehley’s album was a critical and commercial success, outselling those of singer-bassist Simmons, singer-guitarist Stanley and drummer Peter Criss.

The effort includes Frehley’s signature anthem, “New York Groove,” and standouts “Rip It Out,” “Snow Blind” and “Ozone.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever performed “Ozone,” “Fractured Mirror” or “Wiped-Out” live,” he said. “Now that I’ve decided to do this I’m probably going to put together a nice show in a small theater and record a DVD.”

Frehley’s latest solo effort, “Spaceman,” was released in October. The disc features the guitarist’s laid-back vocals, muscular riffs and blistering, melodic solos. Highlights include “Without You I’m Nothing,” with a guest bass spot by Simmons; the anthemic “Rockin’ With the Boys”; the Eddie Money cover “I Wanna Go Back”; and the autobiographical “Bronx Boy.”

“I think growing up in the Bronx gave me street smarts,” Frehley said. “The old saying, ‘if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere’ isn’t that far-fetched.”

Frehley co-founded Kiss in 1973 and became known for his stage persona, the Spaceman, and his dramatic guitar solos replete with pyrotechnic displays. After leaving the group in 1982, Frehley released several solo albums.

He rejoined Kiss for its 1996 reunion tour and left the band again in 2002 to continue his solo career.

While Frehley’s relationship with his former band mates has been strained at times, they’ve reconnected in the past few years. In addition to Simmons performing on “Spaceman,” Stanley played on Frehley’s 2016 covers album, “Origins, Vol. 1.” In October, Frehley took the stage with Kiss on the band’s Kiss Kruise.

Yet Frehley doesn’t see himself participating in the band’s recently announced farewell tour.

“I haven’t been asked to do the tour and they’ve been promoting (current Kiss member) Tommy Thayer as the guitar player,” Frehley said. “Tommy has been pretty much copying everything I do for the last 15 years. Everybody tries to copy me, but there’s only one Ace Frehley.”

NJ Kiss Expo 2018 featuring Ace Frehley

When: 6 p.m. to midnight Friday, Dec. 7; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9. Frehley will perform his 1978 solo album in its entirety at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Where: Hilton Parsippany, 1 Hilton Court

Tickets: Various packages available

Info: njkissexpo.com

Jody Havenot