Ace Frehley will always be know first and foremost as a guitar player. After all, he was the original lead guitarist in Kiss. But what some may not know is that Frehley is also a talented artist: creating his own “spaceman” makeup design, and depending on whether you ask him or Paul Stanley, may have designed Kiss’ iconic logo.
During an interview with the Guitar Tales Podcast, Frehley explained his art background. And also, dropped a bombshell concerning a pricey gift that a former Kiss bandmate supposedly once gave him.
“I was always a computer nut,” Frehley admits (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “The early Macs, you used to be able to hot rod the CPUs and put in faster CPUs and ‘overclock them’ with special gadgets. I used to hot rod my computers because I did animations.”
“I did the animation for the ‘Psycho Circus’ tour, where the four faces morph from one into the other. I did that animation on my laptop. Gene [Simmons] saw it, and he goes… He took me out the next day and bought me $15,000 worth of computers. ‘Ace, keep going with this. It’s good!'”
Frehley also discussed his high school career and how a teacher recognized his talents, revealing that it’s not uncommon for rockers to be into drawing.
“You’d be surprised, but most musicians can draw. Art and music go hand in hand. When I was in high school, I was an A+ art student. I doubled up on art, actually. I went to DeWitt Clinton High School [in the Bronx], and I was really good friends with the head of the art department. He’d get me out of trouble and give me hall passes and stuff, even though he wasn’t supposed to, because he knew I had the gift of art.”
“Eventually, when I joined Kiss, designing the Kiss logo and worked on the ‘Anomaly’ album. But I don’t really have the time to do art much anymore, between touring, doing videos.”