Ace Frehley, founding member of KISS and guitarist who influenced millions, has passed away at 74 years old after a couple bad falls led to an eventually fatal head injury.
What can you say about Ace that hasn’t been said? He wasn’t Eddie Van Halen or Randy Rhoads – he didn’t have that speed or technical prowess, but what he did have was a unique style that incorporated riffs, bends, hammer-ons and pull-offs in unique ways that sound pretty easy until you’re sitting there in the basement trying to figure out how to play them and they make no damn sense.
What he also possessed a very unique sense of melody and the ability to construct leads that told a story – an art too often sacrificed by show-off speed-demons vying to get their photo on the cover of Guitar For The Practicing Musician. Whatever. They ALL – each and EVERY one of them – had an Ace Frehley poster on their wall.
He was a character in the Spaceman makeup and behind it. His famous cackle is unforgettable – whether he’s drunkenly joking with Tom Snyder about how he daylights as a plumber (with a sulking Gene $immons glaring on) or talking to SiriusXM rock talk show host Eddie Trunk about how he would have practiced more had he known he was going to be so influential. He wasn’t the brains behind KISS, or the best singer in the band, but he was most certainly the heart in their heyday.
The first time I saw Ace was in June of 1987 at Milwaukee Summerfest. My friends moaned and groaned as I dragged them from one end of the festival grounds to the other, insisting we catch whatever what we could of Frehley’s Comet at the Rock Stage once the Paul Simon Graceland set finished up in the amphitheater. We were all too cool to be listening to KISS at that point, but I still had it in my veins and couldn’t let it go. We got to catch the encore, and it was awesome. There’s a recording of that show from Milwaukee FM radio that absolutely rules.
The first piece I submitted to Colin for Pencil Storm was a review of a 2016 Ace Frehley concert in the parking lot of a Harley Davidson dealership in suburban Detroit. The review wasn’t exactly glowing, but I stand by my thoughts then and now, and still wouldn’t trade that night for anything.
I saw Ace for the third and final time in December of 2022 at the Token Lounge, a few minutes from my house in the Detroit suburbs. It was a fun set with a better setlist than the 2016 show, but I still felt Ace deserved more than to be reduced to playing KISS songs he didn’t write, pandering to that celebrity, and leaving out so many great songs he wrote for KISS, Frehley’s Comet, and his many solo albums. “Deuce” is awesome, but without Gene, Paul, and Peter, I’d rather hear Ace do “What’s On Your Mind” or “Trouble Walkin’” any day.
Since Thursday night, the tributes have been coming in consistently and strong. Ace meant a lot to everyone from Joe Perry to Tom Morello to Nuno Benttencort to Dimebag Darrell and on and on and on. His former band mates each sent tributes that were classy and heartfelt.
He meant a hell of a lot to this kid from Northern Michigan. The first album I bought with my own money was ALIVE! I liked his songs best from early on, and stole dozens of his riffs as my own. To this day, Tucos drummer and producer Gabriel Doman barks at me through my headphones while tracking guitars: “Get away from your standard riffs Jer. Do something different!”
They are ALL Ace Frehley riffs.
Rest in peace, Spaceman.
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit, fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos, and plays acoustic shows all over the place. Follow him and them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
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