KISS's Ace Returns to Space

 

Ace Frehley, lead guitarist for the classic lineup of KISS, was a tormented soul whose travails have now ended and whose burdens are now lifted. And I have a bit of an inside view here...

A good friend of my wife and I was Ace's guitar tech/luthier for a number of years, and actually self-published a monograph on the Spaceman a while back. 

Bill got his start playing Ace in a KISS cover band, though he was in fact highly over-qualified for the gig (he was also in a Hendrix cover band and could play the master note-for-note). This and his involvement in KISS conventions got Frehley's attention and a professional and personal relationship grew out of it.

But if you know anything about Ace, you know the story ended badly. As you can tell by these videos, Bill is a very calm, very centered, and very soft-spoken individual (sometimes a little too soft-spoken!), but he too ran out of patience with the troubled rock legend. 

Ace became a running conversation every time we saw each other, but I ultimately sussed out that he didn't really want to talk about it. So I'd ask about The Misfits, or Blue Cheer, or the other bands that Bill worked with over the years.  

Bill did post a tribute to the Spaceman on his Facebook, but even then you could feel the pain and a bit of the anger. I never really understood what went down with he and Ace, but it could just be that dealing with addicts eventually grinds down the most patient of souls. I'm sure a lot of you out there know exactly what I'm talking about.

I have to admit I was never a KISS fan, outside some of their old hits. I have tremendous admiration for Gene and Paul's marketing genius, but even when I was a kid I sensed it was all to compensate their overwhelming musical inadequacies. In other words, KISS made for a great brand, just not so much a great band. But they gave a lot of people a lot of great memories, so more power to them.

Enjoy your travels, Spaceman.

 

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