RIP Ace Frehley. Because he deserves his own TDC.

[DaveH]

https://www.tmz.com/2025/10/16/kiss-guitarist-ace-frehley-dead/

 

[tbonesullivan]

Yeah, I'm seeing that he had fallen at his home studio in Morristown in late September, so he had been hanging on for a while. I never knew he lived in Morristown. Bill Baker at Dave's Sound repair is almost certainly devastated by this. I never knew he lived in Morristown until now. Truly a massive influence on the world of rock guitar. I can only imagine how many Les Paul type guitars were routed for a third humbucker due to ACE. Were all THREE pickups Super Distortions?

I wonder how many smoking guitars we're gonna see pop up at live shows in the following months.

[velorush]

Found this rabbit hole: https://www.axeology.com/

Full evolution of all the guitars.

 

ETA: appears much of the site remains under construction, but some great details and photos.

Edited October 17, 2025 by velorush

[Disturber]

RIP Champ!

[LucSulla]

I never connected with Kiss the way many of you did, possibly because I'm a bit younger and didn't have the same experience of hearing them when they were more uniquely hard edged compared to what else was around and wrapped in the perfect bit of mysterious artifice. By the time I started digging into music on my own in 86 & 87, I don't think it was possible for Kiss to feel the same at that point in time as they did in the mid-70s. I have a few friends my age who became Kiss fans, but most of the time, that was due to an older sibling being in the mix. I can certainly understand how an album like Destroyer must have felt if you were a kid when it came out and just having your mind blown because I had that experience with other bands in my youth. Just not Kiss. 

However, the list of players who picked up a guitar after hearing Ace in the 70s who would go on to inspire me is certainly a very long list of amazing players beyond even just guitarists. If for nothing else, I owe him a debt of gratitude for that. 

RIP.

[Jakeboy]

Never a KISS a fan here, but I did dig Ace’s solos and vibe. He was playing rock and roll with a blues-rock mentality of “turn it up and watch me play” . The way he played defined 70s rock in so many ways. RIP. 

[bry4321]

 

FYI @Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame

[velorush]

^^ I forwarded to the end hoping for smoke! ^^

[diablo175]

On 10/17/2025 at 2:13 PM, LucSulla said:

I never connected with Kiss the way many of you did, possibly because I'm a bit younger and didn't have the same experience of hearing them when they were more uniquely hard edged compared to what else was around and wrapped in the perfect bit of mysterious artifice. By the time I started digging into music on my own in 86 & 87, I don't think it was possible for Kiss to feel the same at that point in time as they did in the mid-70s. I have a few friends my age who became Kiss fans, but most of the time, that was due to an older sibling being in the mix. I can certainly understand how an album like Destroyer must have felt if you were a kid when it came out and just having your mind blown because I had that experience with other bands in my youth. Just not Kiss. 

However, the list of players who picked up a guitar after hearing Ace in the 70s who would go on to inspire me is certainly a very long list of amazing players beyond even just guitarists. If for nothing else, I owe him a debt of gratitude for that. 

RIP.

I can't help but agree- if you were not exposed to the spectacle and bombast of Kiss in the mid- late 70's, you likely wouldn't get them. Their zenith, IMO, was Destroyer and their swan song was 1977's Love Gun. From that point on, everything seemed to be an effort to preserve or rekindle their former glory. Well-packaged and commercial. 

I saw them in the late 80's sans makeup, with Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick. They were trying to ride the hair metal wave (which was on it's way out, ironically) and while they put on a good show, it just wasn't the same as 70's era Kiss. Kulick is a very solid guitarist and brought a modicum of 80's guitar dynamic to the band but Ace was the Spaceman (showmanship) and a talented contributor to the song writing. Besides, a smoking, 3 pickup Lester seems far easier to obtain than ungodly shred technique.  

 

 

[hamerican gigolo]

Loved KISS when I was a kid. Remember the market just being over saturated by the Phantom movie & the solo albums. By the time of Unmasked, I'd moved on. I was 12. 😉

Ace was a huge influence on me. I remember an interview with EVH in the '90s where he stated that anyone who picked up a guitar because of AF was " ridiculous ".

Oh, well... 🙄

[Brooks]

10 hours ago, diablo175 said:

I can't help but agree- if you were not exposed to the spectacle and bombast of Kiss in the mid- late 70's, you likely wouldn't get them.

Yep. I was born in '66, then at Xmas '76 I got a stereo & three 8 track tapes; Frampton Comes Alive, Best of BTO, and Dressed To Kill. Immediately started air guitaring w/ a tennis racket and begging my folks for a guitar. Kiss was my bridge from comic books to music. Joined Columbia House and got more 8 tracks; Alive!, R&R Over, & Alive II. My brother, my best friend & I would put makeup on, turn on a black light, and air guitar to Kiss until my parents told us to go to bed. Soon got a guitar and moved on to Sabbath, Led Zep, etc but Kiss lit the fuse. Ace was always the coolest guy in Kiss. RIP

 

Edited October 22, 2025 by Brooks

[django49]

[alantig]

Still hard to believe Ace is gone.  He was a huge influence on me, and was my gateway to hard rock guitar.  Never missed him when he came to town.

[diablo175]

13 hours ago, Brooks said:

Yep. I was born in '66, then at Xmas '76 I got a stereo & three 8 track tapes; Frampton Comes Alive, Best of BTO, and Dressed To Kill. Immediately started air guitaring w/ a tennis racket and begging my folks for a guitar. Kiss was my bridge from comic books to music. Joined Columbia House and got more 8 tracks; Alive!, R&R Over, & Alive II. My brother, my best friend & I would put makeup on, turn on a black light, and air guitar to Kiss until my parents told us to go to bed. Soon got a guitar and moved on to Sabbath, Led Zep, etc but Kiss lit the fuse. Ace was always the coolest guy in Kiss. RIP

 

Funny story about Kiss air guitar- in middle school, I was in full-on Kiss fan boy mode. This, despite the fact that I didn't own a single Kiss LP. Couldn't afford one and my folks absolutely would not contribute a penny towards that satanic group. Nor would they drive me to a record store to purchase one if I did save up birthday $$$

None the less, my fanaticism was undeterred and I borrowed my neighbor's Kiss Alive. Played the shit out of that 2 record set. A year or so later, met a kid up the road who had 4 or 5 of their albums. I eventually persuaded him to sell me his well worn copies of Destroyer and Rock N Roll Over. By the time I hit 8th grade, I was fanatical. The middle school had this fledgling social experiment where they corralled all of the 8th graders in the gym and for 50 minutes, you could interact with your fellow classmates, shoot hoops, play records, dance etc. I guess idea was to promote social skills, I dunno. Anyway, me and my two fellow Kiss fanatics took that opportunity to climb to the top of the bleachers and air band to Kiss that we had managed to get on the record player which was connected to the gym's sound system. 

There we were, oblivious to the laughs of derision and scorn of rolled eyes, rocking out as if we were at Madison Square Garden. It was glorious! Sure, it damn near made me a social pariah but the classmates who took the time to get to know me just chalked it up to me being "Kiss crazy" I seem to recall I had a lot of classmates sign my 8th grade yearbook to that effect.  

[cmatthes]

As always, nobody does it better than NiteBob...

A few HFC'ers got pics in this little clip too!  
 

 

[scottcald]

5 hours ago, cmatthes said:

As always, nobody does it better than NiteBob...

A few HFC'ers got pics in this little clip too!  
 

 

Literally just watched this and came to post about it.  

[Steve Haynie]

At 8:51 you can recognize @Jeff R in a photo with Ace.  

[kizanski]

11 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

At 8:51 you can recognize @Jeff R in a photo with Ace.  

[Jeff R]

It was so precious to meet Ace ... I never got into comic books or cartoons as a kid, so Kiss collectively was my Hall of Justice. And Ace my first and favorite superhero of all time.

Here's the poster he signed above, picks from the show's guitar solo and when he played "Rocket Ride" (he pitched them to me, I was front row center), and the towel he used to wipe his brow after the encore ("Deuce").

When I say front row center, I mean it ...

That's me with the cell phone haha

Me and the man, my surrogate big brother Nitebob, in Ace's green room.

 

[cmatthes]

I'm just waiting for the Carondelet smoking pickup...