Ace Frehley

The January 2005 issue of Guitar World magazine includes a 2 page interview with Ace Frehley. Actually, it’s a Q & A based upon readers’ mail in the magazine’s Dear Guitar Hero column

On the cover it says:
"ACE FREHLEY answers your questions! Page 44".

And since the questions came from fans, there’s some very good questions!  Here are a few of them..















Where did you get the idea for the smoking guitar? How did you make it work? And did it ever get out of hand and cause serious damage?

Ace: “In the early Seventies we were on tour in Canada and I bought some smoke bombs. I had just replaced the pickups on my Les Paul with hand-wound DiMarzios – which [Larry DiMarzio] was winding in his bedroom at the time – and I wondered if the smoke would come out of the pickup ring if a bomb was in the potentiometer. It worked, but it wasn't a great effect, and it badly gummed up my volume and tone controls. The idea manifested itself again when KISS got bigger. I got together with an engineer and developed a fake rhythm pickup that snapped into a box mounted in the guitar's body. We stuck the smoke bombs in there, and it worked fine. Sometimes, for a really big show, I'd have my tech pack in an extra big bomb. When we did that, the metal
plate on the guitar's back would heat up and burn my leg, or cause a little fire.  When Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons] sold a bunch of my costumes,  I noticed that some of them had burn marks on the right leg.”

How did you feel when Gene and Paul made you into everything from a comic-book hero to a...?

Ace: “A lot of it was cool, and a lot of it was overkill, but it was out of my control, so I had to let it go. I left the group in '83 and didn't rejoin till '96, and during that time they took the ball and ran with it. Even when I rejoined, they made deals that I had no control over. I never saw the product until after the fact.”

Did having to put makeup on every night ever get annoying?

Ace: “Yeah. Everything becomes a drag if you have to do it night in and night out.  One of my worst experiences happened in Paris in the Seventies. I drank too much champagne after a big show and fell asleep with my makeup on.  I had an allergic reaction and woke up with my eyes swollen shut.  I thought I had gone blind and was terrified.  Our manager brought over a doctor who gave me cortisone shots, and that fixed it.”

When did you last speak with Gene and Paul, and is there any chance of you rejoining KISS?

Ace: “I spoke to Paul about a month ago. He ended up in the hospital for dehydration, and I was concerned, so I gave him a call. We had a nice chat, but we didn't talk business. For the record, and despite all the stories floating around, I was never fired from KISS. Every time I've left, it was my decision, including the last tour with Aerosmith. When I declined to do it, they said, ‘Well, we're going to do it with Tommy [Thayer] then,’ and I said, ‘Do what you have to do’."


You've been working on your next solo album for over 10 years. Is it soup yet?

Ace: “It's, like, really thick soup. The last time I was ready to finish up, I got offered the KISS reunion tour and put it on the back burner. And once I get on the road, all bets are off.  There's a lot of good material from those '95 sessions, but some of it is dated. I want to rerecord a lot of it, but I just haven't been able to get in the studio with a top producer. Basically, it's gonna come out when I feel it's ready.”

Did you ever get tired of Gene's theatrics?

Ace: “Not really. Gene's theatrics are great and a trademark part of Kiss. We are a theatrical rock group, and as long as the fans want to see that, they are going to get it. The only thing about Gene that sometimes gets overbearing is he'll try to come over to me when I'm playing and shove his tongue down my throat. He actually made it one time, and I had to run offstage and gargle with Listerine.”

I just wanted to let you know that KISS stinks without you.

Ace: “Thanks. Everyone's entitled to his opinion,  and some people have said that they think the group sounds better now. They must not have ever heard the original lineup, though.”