ACE FREHLEY

Do you hope to play a few songs from your new album when you hit the road?

We’ll probably do ‘10,000 Volts’ and I think we’ll work up ‘Cherry Medicine’ too; that’s an easy song to sing and play. ‘10,000 Volts’ was a little tricky for me to sing and play so I worked with Steve on making the guitar part a little easier; so my guitar player will play the more difficult part when I’m singing. It’s a very wordy song so singing all those lyrics while playing a difficult guitar part was just too tricky. So Jeremy will play the harder part while I’m singing and he’ll do the intro solo and ending solo while I’ll do the solo in the middle.

Obviously you’re known for your time in KISS. They finally called time on the band in December. Were you disappointed not to have been invited to just one show to celebrate your pivotal role in the band?

Not really. After what Paul said on the Howard Stern Show, I had no desire to perform with them. He said that if me and Peter came up on stage you might as well call the band PISS, so after that I resigned myself that I’d have no involvement in any of those shows. A lot of the fans were disappointed because those guys constantly contradict themselves. If you go back six to nine months prior to the last shows, Gene and Paul and Doc were inviting us to play. A month or so before we were due to come up and play with them, Paul made that statement which made it impossible for me to come and play next to them. They just didn’t make any sense and in many cases they never have.

Gene and Paul have at times questioned your work ethic; do you feel that the six albums you have done since you left has more than answered that?

I choose to do what I do and I really have no idea why Paul and Gene do what they do. From my vantage point, it’s a money grab. They do the same set over and over again and they’re not concerned with doing new material. Gene has said that Rock is dead, although recently he did say something nice about me in an interview and about my record. I love Gene; we used to room together when we had no money… Peter used to room with Paul.

Gene has his own solo band now. That would make an intriguing co-headlining tour?

Anything is possible. Some fans have thought that I could play guitar with Gene but I’m so booked up for the rest of the year I just couldn’t fit it in, even if he asked me to, as I’ve made commitments and signed contracts. I wouldn’t discount the fact that maybe we could co-headline some shows; I would definitely get up on stage and play with Gene. He actually took me to Australia in 2018 when he was doing his Vault Experience…. I called that his Silly Safe. Gene probably had a laugh about that himself; he has a good sense of humour.

You clearly still have a lot of time for Gene?

Last year Gene collapsed on stage in South America and I was concerned. I wrote him an email and said, “Hi Gene, it’s Ace. Are you doing Okay?” Within five minutes he emailed me back and said he was just dehydrated as he’d been playing in the jungle, it was humid and 106 degrees. Once he was hydrated, he was fine. That’s the kind of relationship me and Gene have… I used to have that with Paul, but at this juncture, it’s not.

Do you still hear from Peter?

Yeah, I still hear from Peter, I just spoke to him a few weeks ago. He lives about an hour and a half away from me. Peter’s 77 now so there’s no way he could do a two hour set, but he can still play. Six months ago I did a thing in Florida with Peter and, funnily enough, Vinnie Vincent… it was really weird. He was my first replacement after I quit KISS and that was the first time I’d met him. It was like this little guy and I’m looking down on him and he looked like my grandmother or something. He can still play and he plays crazy. Peter knocked out three or four songs and so did I, we did a couple together and we had fun.

You’ve always had a good relationship with Bruce Kulick too?

I love Bruce, me and Bruce are very good friends. We’ve always kept in touch over the years and there’s a mutual respect that’s not there with Tommy (Thayer, final KISS guitarist). I think there is some respect though as he was a fan of mine when he used to be in a KISS cover band when he was younger, so there’s a mutual respect but he just doesn’t verbalise it. Tommy can play the same notes but it just doesn’t sound the same. I have a certain technique that I use, the way I get harmonics, and I have a certain swagger and attitude like Keith Richards has. Other people can play Rolling Stones songs but it doesn’t sound like Keith Richards.

You had those two stints in the band from 1974-1982 and then 1996-2002; how do you feel looking back on it now?

It was a lot of fun except when it started getting weird when Gene and Paul started making deals behind our back’s making extra money and we weren’t included in it. It left a sour taste in my mouth so I just walked away. When we were equal partners and were a democratic band we all made the same money, which was great. We even split the publishing four ways, even where one person didn’t write the song… that was Bill Aucoin’s idea. Mostly we got along well and had weekly meetings where we’d air out whatever was bothering us as resentments can wreck a band. We got along for years and then the drugs and alcohol came into play and that didn’t help it as Paul and Gene were sober.