As the famous story goes, Ace Frehley showed up to audition for this band called Wicked Lester (soon to be known as KISS) wearing mismatched sneakers. One orange and one red. Paul Stanley thought a homeless guy had wandered in off the street. Gene Simmons was equally unimpressed and threatened to kick his ass if he was wasting their time. Ace plugged in his guitar, and suddenly, none of that mattered.
That’s the entire story of Ace Frehley right there, isn’t it?
The news came on Thursday. A fall in his home studio, complications, the remainder of his solo tour cancelled, horrible rumors of a stroke, suddenly he’s on life support for a brain bleed, and then he was gone. Seventy-four years old. The Spaceman finally left orbit for Jendell.
I’ve been listening to Ace Frehley songs all day. It’s what you do when an artist you love has passed away. I’m not hearing any deep meaning in the lyrics or gaining any new insight into his vocal stylings. I’m just celebrating my first guitar hero and smiling.
I’m not going to tell you that Ace made me want to pick up a guitar. He may have inspired a whole generation of players, but I’m not one of them. What I love about Ace Frehley was how he moved through the world with a particular kind of oblivious grace.
Here’s a guy who influenced literally millions of guitarists. Slash, Dimebag Darrell, John 5, and many more were inspired by him and picked up their own guitars. One of his famous quotes is, “If I had known I would influence so many guitarists, I would have practiced more.”
Think about that for a second. The man changed rock music, inspired generations of players, and his attitude was basically “whatever.” Is there anything more rock and roll than that? Ace never really cared that much about his impact, but he was incredibly impactful, especially on the first six KISS records. Ace just showed up in mismatched sneakers and played.
Authentic. Messy. Iconic.
His ’78 solo album outsold the other three KISS solo records combined, and nobody was more surprised than Ace himself. He was always the most “rock and roll” of the members of KISS. When I was a kid, I didn’t know how much drinking and drugs he took. I just knew he was the coolest member. Gene Simmons turned KISS into a merchandising empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Paul Stanley became the ultimate showman. And Ace just wanted to play guitar.
When I told my wife that Ace Frehley had passed away, she did not know who that was. To be fair, my wife probably couldn’t name a single KISS song if you held a rocket-shooting guitar to her head. And that’s fine. Not everyone needs to be concerned with rock music history. Besides, outside of a few headlines, I’m not sure the world will care that much either. And that makes me sad.
There won’t be a tribute show like what was done for Taylor Hawkins. At best, someone will play “Shock Me” at the Kennedy Center Honors in December (my guess is John 5). Everyone who matters has already dropped their condolences and remembrances on social media.
And this is mine.
His music was the soundtrack of my teenage years and beyond. He wrote incredible songs, created memorable guitar solos, and through it all laughed like a maniac.
Gene Simmons might’ve been the one to sing “Rock and Roll All Nite,” but it was Ace who really did rock and roll all night and party every day.
All the way until the end.
Be seeing you.
