Andrew Gilhooley's Blog

Yesterday I read the news that founding Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley had died aged 74. Since then, I have been reading tributes from people in the world of rock music as well as discussing it with friends on Facebook and wanted to gather a few of my thoughts here.

First, the music. I remember a friend introducing me to Kiss in my teens. The album “Music from The Elder” had recently come out, and along with one of their two live albums (I think it was the first one) this became my introduction to this larger-than-life rock band.

I remember Ace’s guitar solo on “Dark Light” from “The Elder” being this amazing torrent of sound, yet it was so musical and so much part of the song. Over and over again I have read in today’s tributes how much this was a part of Ace’s playing, that the solo always perfectly fit the song and that you could sing it was easily as you could sing any of the vocal lines.

Ace’s singing voice was distinctive, and his songs always seemed to have an edge of wry humour that added to the fun of Kiss.

Of course, by the time I got into the band, Ace was on his way out of it. His contribution to “The Elder” was minimal and he didn’t play at all on “Creatures of the Night”. By the time I saw Kiss live for the first time, on the tour for “Lick It Up”, he had officially been replaced by Vinnie Vincent. I would have to wait until the reunion tour of 1996 to see the original line-up perform, which was a delight to behold.

One of the reasons that the death of someone like Ace Frehley hits hard is that it is a stark reminder of our own mortality. Typically, the rock stars that we follow are between five and twenty-five years older than us. That might seem like a lot when you are a teenager, but it really isn’t. A lot of Kiss fans are now in their 50s and 60s themselves, so age 74 doesn’t seem that far away to us.

Ace was taken from us far too early, but I hope his family can take comfort in the public’s outpourings of affection for him and the knowledge that he gave a lot of pleasure to millions of music fans.