Joel Hoekstra recalled how Ace Frehley once complimented his playing even though his guitar was turned off, naming it as the moment he “really understood” the KISS icon.
As the person who made the Starman persona as famous as it is and a guitarist who played licks as memorable as “Love Gun”, Ace Frehley’s rock ‘n’ roll legacy is indisputable, even though his personal history is marked by anecdotes which often sound quite out there. One such is Joel Hoekstra’s experience of jamming with the KISS legend, which took place at a rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia museum during the guitarist’s time in Night Ranger.
In a new interview with Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French on the “Jay Jay French connection podcast”, the Whitesnake & Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist recalled getting a rather unexpected compliment from Ace Frehley after the performance (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“We had a situation where they wanted us to be the band, but have guests up. And one of them was Bun E. Carlos, one of them was George Lynch, and one of them was Ace. Ace came up there, and we were in this high-priced, small room. Everybody had to pay a lot of money to be there. It was all wood; [it was a] really loud room, and we had our amps really quiet.”
“Ace comes in and dimes it. Everything’s just on 10, and then he wouldn’t start until they jacked him up in the monitor. Like, the only thing you could hear was Ace. I mean, it was unbelievable, the rock star attitude of it all. I remember there were four of us up there, because Lynch stayed up, and Brad Gillis, of course. And those guys were over there trading, and you couldn’t hear anything. It was like a mosquito in a construction site.”
At that point, Hoekstra decided to simply tune out:
“I thought, ‘Why is anybody bothering right now?’ So, I just turned my guitar off, because I thought all I’m doing is contributing to the noise. Ace sounded great, actually. He played great, he had an amazing tone. But I just thought, ‘I’m going to do the right thing here and just turn my guitar off.’ And what was amazing about that, Ace came over to me after, and he complimented me on my playing.”
“He came over and he said, ‘Oh yeah, you did a really good job up there, you know.’ And I thought, ‘Man, my guitar was off, but, you know, thank you.’ But, yeah, I get it. That’s when I really understood Ace Frehley. He’s just a rock star. He’s larger than life, you know?”