RIP Mr Frehley. Back in the ‘70’s I wasn’t much of a fan of KISS. Thought they represented a kind of gimmicky shtick of over commercialized rock music. I was among a clique of musical friends that was directed toward what we considered more serious, less shallow music. However, over the years I’ve become much more tolerant of that if the music is decent. If you listen to their catalogue , it’s really not bad music. There are also a number of guitarists who I respect who were inspired by Ace Frehley.
I was surprised by the latter thing about respect and inspiration.
Think that Peter and Ace were the best musicians in the band, and Gene and Peter hogged the spotlight (and later all the money!)- but this can be the nature of bands. Saw Kiss once in the early-mid 2000's minus Ace and Peter, but from the photo below of Ace with the guitar on fire, would have loved to see him and Peter on stage.
Some touching tributes- Ace never took lessons-he was self-taught. I was never a huge Kiss fan, but I loved Ace's personality. The man was hilarious.
NJ-based DJ extraordinaire, Eddie Trunk was very close with Ace, and he was very emotional here: