ALBAWABA - Ace Frehley died on Thursday in Morristown, New Jersey. He was the original lead guitarist for the hard rock band Kiss. Seventy-four.
From what his family said, he died in the hospital after falling at home not long before.
Mr. Frehley was an excellent showman, just like the rest of Kiss. He often appeared with white and silver makeup on his face while the group sold millions of records from 1973 to 1982 and then again from 1996 to 2002. Because of the silver stars on his face, people called him "the Spaceman" or "Space Ace" and liked the way he played guitars that had fire effects set up in them. The lightning-bolt letters in the band's logo were also his idea.
Ace Frehley (Photo by JEFF HAYNES / AFP)
Another original member of Kiss was guitarist Paul Stanley. The drummer was Peter Criss, and the bassist was Gene Simmons. Simmons was hospitalized this month after a car accident in Malibu, California. In December, all four will receive honors from the Kennedy Center.
At first, many rock fans thought Kiss was just a bunch of fakers. The band didn't take pictures of its members without their stage makeup until 1983. Teenagers, called the Kiss Army, became fans of the band because of how exciting and theatrical their live shows were. While Mr. Frehley was with the band, eight songs made it into the Top 40. He played on seven of them, such as "Love Gun," "Christine Sixteen," and "I Was Made for Loving You." (He wasn't on the band's biggest hit, "Beth," a ballad with ensemble backing that got to No. 7 on the Billboard chart in 1976.)
Ace Frehley (Photo by Theo Wargo/NBC / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
Kiss put out 11 records, both studio and live, that went gold or platinum in the US while Mr. Frehley was in the band. Kiss sold well over 100 million records in the end. The band's image with critics got better over time, thanks in part to the longevity of its party hit "Rock and Roll All Nite." In 2014, Kiss was added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello introduced the band and said that Kiss impacted many artists, including Metallica and Lady Gaga. He said that Mr. Frehley "laced their best records with unforgettable, timeless licks."
In an interview with the website Antihero in 2024, Mr. Frehley bragged, "Out of the four founding members of Kiss, I had the most success as a solo artist." That was mostly true because of his hit song "New York Groove." It has a stomping beat and is now played at Citi Field after every Mets win. "New York Groove" was the most popular song from a typical over-the-top Kiss stunt: all four members released solo albums at the same time in 1978.
Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Gene Simmons photo by AFP
The electrical engineer Carl Frehley and his wife, Esther (Hecht), had three children. Paul Daniel Frehley was born in the Bronx on April 27, 1951. He is the youngest of the three.
After hearing the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Paul started playing guitar when he was 13. For Christmas, his parents gave him his first electric guitar, thinking that it would keep him out of trouble. When he was 16, the drummer in one of his early bands gave him the nickname "Ace" because he thought Mr. Frehley was excellent at setting him up with good-looking women.
He saw an ad in The Village Voice in 1972, when he was 21 and still living at home. It said, "Lead guitarists wanted flash and ability." He auditioned for the band that would eventually become Kiss, believing he was a suitable fit. (His mom took him to the interview.) When he got the job, Mr. Frehley changed his name to Ace so that people wouldn't mix him up with Mr. Stanley.
It was mostly Mr. Stanley and Mr. Simmons who wrote songs for Kiss, but Mr. Frehley also added some songs, starting with "Cold Gin" on their 1974 debut album, which was just called "Kiss." He wasn't sure about his singing, so he didn't sing lead vocals until the band's sixth record, "Love Gun" (1977), where he sang his own song, "Shock Me."
