Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 832 - RIP ACE FREHLEY OF KISS 1951-2025

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 832 - RIP ACE FREHLEY OF KISS 1951-2025 · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

0:46
None. What's up everybody, It's Keith.
0:58
It goes cold. meg.com, I am back once again remoting in to
1:03
discuss the Life and Times of Ace freely of KISS.
1:07
We've got a special guest coming in soon, my buddy Ken Pierce
1:11
from Piercing Metal and Ken Pierce Media.
1:14
I don't know anybody who loves KISS more than Ken, and he has
1:17
some very special memories to share about ACE and KISS.
1:21
We've done a lot of Kiss coverage.
1:23
It goes cult. We did the wise Kiss retiring
1:25
for the end of the road shows, which Ken did attend.
1:29
And you know, I've been a lifelong Kiss fan basically
1:32
since I could remember. I love the band and this is, you
1:37
know, just horrible. We've had a lot of losses this
1:40
year. You can see my Halloween tree
1:42
there in the corner. A lot of losses this year.
1:45
I'm still really shook up from the Aussie death, even though,
1:48
you know, we knew he was sick for a long time.
1:50
But this one hurts and hits differently right in the
1:55
childhood. So I did my live stream last
1:58
night, my weekly show. If this is your first time here,
2:01
We go live a bunch of times a week.
2:02
We run interviews with metal heroes and rock legends all week
2:07
long. We do content that goes
2:09
cultman.com for all your rocky metal news, concert tours,
2:13
festival needs. So without further ado, let me
2:17
first do some minutiae. This is a great photo taken by
2:23
Hilary Jason Goes cold at Psycho Las Vegas 2019.
2:28
We covered Ace a lot as a solo artist.
2:30
We reviewed his final album released in his lifetime, 10,000
2:34
Volts. A lot of discussions Monday.
2:38
I will be back on live to reveal the next two bands on the Mojave
2:42
Experience Festival lineup coming next March to Joshua
2:45
Tree. I thought the screen went very
2:47
well last week. We're going to do these every
2:49
week until the full lineup is revealed.
2:51
I'm really excited about this. Tune back in Monday if you love
2:54
Stoner doom and psychedelic rock.
2:57
Also, I had my show last night. The week the Ritual is every
2:59
Thursday afternoon evening West Coast time.
3:03
East Coast about 8:00 at night and Europe overnight.
3:07
So go follow us and check in on that to catch you up on
3:11
everything you missed. Also also, we are still giving
3:16
away tickets to the cult death, cult failure, and patriarchy in
3:20
LA. Feel free to enter if you have a
3:24
legitimate shot of going to the show.
3:28
And I think that is all the details here.
3:34
You know, usually we ask for tips on these shows.
3:38
Feel free to tip us if you want. I'll gladly whack it up with my
3:42
Co host for today. Can if we get any tips I'll
3:46
gladly tip him on. We are not on TikTok today.
3:50
We're just doing all the regular socials so feel free to jump in
3:54
the comments. If you have any special memories
3:56
of base, feel free to share them.
3:58
Looks like some people are watching on YouTube, Instagram
4:01
and Twitch right now. And yeah man, we're here.
4:04
There's our cash amp if you want to scan it, pause the video and
4:09
drop us a tip. We also accept super chats and
4:12
super likes and thanks on YouTube.
4:15
And so yeah, we're here to talk about Ace, man.
4:17
And this is just, it just hits. It's just hitting me a certain
4:22
way hard. And let's put the custom layout
4:25
behind me and here to talk ace and kiss with me is my one of my
4:31
best friends in the world and one of my most respected and
4:34
esteemed colleagues, Ken Pierce of Piercing Medal in Ken Pierce
4:39
Media. Ken, how are you doing today?
4:44
I'm shocked, I'm shocked. It, it hasn't really 100% hit me
4:52
that Ace is gone, but it's a, it's a real, it's a real gut
4:58
punch. Like you said, losing Ozzy not
5:02
too long ago and dealing with the impact and metal fabric of
5:10
reality was one thing. And then, you know, for me, I am
5:16
as close to a lifelong Kiss fan. I, I got into them maybe like 9
5:22
or 10 I think I first heard them so.
5:26
So having one of the original members of KISS pass away is
5:29
just like a SO, but other than that, I'm.
5:33
Fine, Yeah, yeah. Ken just had an epic weekend
5:37
last weekend at New York Comic Con.
5:40
And you are a soldier. I've covered Comic Con with you.
5:44
It is impossible to keep pace with the great indomitable Ken
5:48
Pierce and I miss those times. My friend I missed and I hope.
5:52
He's his flattery is his flattery is really nice.
5:55
He's, he's not incorrect. I knew, I knew more than I knew
6:00
more than 200 people at Comic Con.
6:02
And I thank the stars above that I saw no more than three of them
6:07
because I do not have time to stop.
6:08
I, I walked, I walked something like 26 1/2 miles in four days
6:15
across Comic Con. So, but yeah, it's amazing.
6:20
I know this is the real grim and terrible thing to say.
6:23
I I did not expect Ace to pass away.
6:25
Obviously he went pretty quickly after that accident.
6:28
Not that I, you know, like Peter is the one who has been in poor
6:32
health the most, right? Like I know, I know Paul is like
6:35
almost a bionic man now with shoulder surgeries and knee
6:38
replacements and a hip replacement from all that ass
6:41
shaking on stage and jumping around.
6:42
But Peter's the one who had a cancer scare.
6:45
He had breast cancer and, you know, we beat it.
6:49
But he's older and doesn't do as much.
6:52
And even he had like, sort of talked about doing a lot of
6:55
conventions and fan events. And he, you know, like, his
6:58
enthusiasm is waning because he's older and, you know,
7:02
doesn't see himself touring anymore.
7:03
He Peter, I don't think Peter is going to go first, but like
7:06
Peter's older and, you know, we really are reminded of the
7:10
fragility of of these guys. Anybody over, you know, 70 is
7:13
not old to me, but we, you know, Diane Keaton just passed away at
7:16
79 and all, you know, maybe this is a little bit of a wake up
7:20
call. Gene just crashed his car last
7:22
week. He easily could have died.
7:23
Imagine if Gene perished and then Ace died.
7:26
Like what a fucking brain fuck that would have been.
7:31
Yeah, yeah, it's tough. I mean, you know, the, The thing
7:34
is, we are getting at the age where our, now we're heroes in
7:39
music and in entertainment, like the films and television shows.
7:43
They're, they're at the age where they say thank you,
7:47
goodnight, and they go off to that whatever's after this.
7:51
So I guess it's, it's more on our minds now 'cause we're
7:56
getting older too. You know, it, it, it relates.
8:01
I, I said to a friend of mine, we had gone to Judas Priest.
8:05
This is not the recent Priest show and I'm sorry that I have a
8:08
little bit of a sore throat. I'm sucking down lozenges to
8:11
just to not choke while we talk. But I had said, I had said
8:16
during one of the recent Priest shows, we were coming back and
8:19
my friends were harping about some of the songs that were
8:22
played and some of the songs that were left out.
8:25
And I said, hey, wait a minute guys.
8:26
You know, like I'm going to be 60 in a couple of years and
8:29
that's already happened. The the other one is his mid
8:32
50's. The other one is late 50s also,
8:34
and I said, isn't it amazing for us to be coming back from a
8:38
Judas Priest concert when we used to go see them and listen
8:41
to them in our high school years?
8:44
Think about how fortunate we were.
8:46
And you know, and the same applies to KISS.
8:48
We had KISS in whatever incarnation people want to harp
8:52
about and say, oh, it's not this.
8:54
It's not that. We had KISS until 2023.
8:59
We still have ACDC. We we did still have Ozzy until
9:04
only a few years ago when he was just too I'll to play.
9:08
We have we still have Alice Cooper.
9:10
These guys are are up there and it's and it's sad to have to
9:15
realize that they will not be up there much in some time.
9:20
So I don't know. Yeah, we have.
9:23
We have Rush. We have Rush coming back.
9:25
Apparently tickets are anywhere from, I've heard, 400 to 600
9:30
home. Home equity loan to internal
9:34
organ you don't need right? There goes your children's
9:38
college fund and there goes your retirement.
9:40
But I mean, if you never saw them, maybe it's going to be
9:43
worth it. We can pick that up at another
9:45
time. I think as we get closer to next
9:47
June, maybe we'll do another round table and discuss Rush a
9:50
little ahead of that. Come back.
9:52
I would love to have you back. Of course, always, you know, we
9:56
I just, I also saw that Cooper and Priest tour out here this
9:59
week. I had like one of the most metal
10:00
weeks of my life. I hosted karaoke on Sunday.
10:03
I did a whole bunch of metal jams.
10:05
I went to karaoke on Monday and I did some interesting fun
10:08
songs. I saw Jew Jew's Priest and and
10:12
Cooper and Coc on Tuesday at Shoreline Amphitheater in the
10:16
Bay Area, my first time there, Mountain View, where Google is
10:19
technically. And then Wednesday I went to see
10:21
Dark Angel, Sacred Right, violence, high racks, you know,
10:24
midnight, incredible week of metal.
10:27
And then this Ace News, you know, started developing and I
10:30
just want to take one second. I soapboxed a little last night
10:34
on my show. You might have heard me, most of
10:38
the people who do what we do have not been doing this well or
10:41
professionally for a long time. And I want to urge anyone who
10:44
maybe probably we're not this is not the audience for it.
10:47
But if anybody is watching this and you're in our brethren or
10:51
our sister in or they themes who do what we do, be kind and
10:56
gentle when it comes to reporting illnesses and deaths.
11:00
Because it was like ramshackle Ace is dead.
11:03
Ace is dead. Ace is past it's past wait hours
11:06
before an official announcement. Really think carefully.
11:10
TMZ Blabbermouth will probably have it first.
11:12
And in terms of the kiss and Ace sphere, Eddie Trunk would have
11:16
known first. John Astronomy, Ace's friend and
11:19
manager and Co memoir author would have known 1st and no one
11:23
else. People did not know that he was
11:26
gone until those sources confirmed it.
11:29
So like, I know this is really just a thing for me and you.
11:32
We complain and and fetch quietly to ourselves about like
11:36
the lack of ethics and journalism skills.
11:40
But yeah, when you, yeah, when you, when you want to report
11:44
about a death of a celebrity, judge slowly and make sure it's
11:49
authenticated before you, you know, if you're a lot of people
11:52
were just blurting out shit for clicks and attention.
11:54
Let me get my post out now. But he didn't actually, yeah,
11:58
you know, like this is he and his family that might not have
12:01
been told before they saw it on Facebook.
12:03
And I hate that. I hate that in general.
12:06
There was definitely sometimes some things I've reported on
12:09
where the families didn't know. And we knew before the families
12:12
knew when people were mad and privately messaged me.
12:16
So, you know, I try to be a little more soft about that.
12:20
Well, I certainly don't like having to post this kind of
12:22
stuff and, and I certainly have hate having it be something like
12:28
a, oh, you got to keep up with the Joneses because you know,
12:33
for, for all of our respective impact and the audience that
12:37
both you and I are fortunate to reach, we're not the TMZ level
12:43
of mediums. So no one's gonna knock on our
12:47
door 1st and say he died 2 seconds ago.
12:50
And then they, they throw out an, an article 18 seconds after
12:55
it happens. And it's, I don't know, I don't
12:59
think that's right either. I said the family has to digest
13:03
passing and then say, all right, go out there and do it.
13:07
I mean, you brought up Eddie Trunk a few days ago.
13:10
He said that he got on on on social media and he said, I know
13:17
exactly what happened to Ace and I can't say anything.
13:19
Well, I don't know why he needed to even say that.
13:22
And and I like Eddie. I love listening to him and I
13:24
love his stories about all of these great bands.
13:27
But it's the kind of thing that I don't think that I would have
13:30
said if I, if I knew such a person like Ace, I don't think I
13:34
would have needed to to have that be.
13:37
I have a secret. And you, you can't hear it yet
13:40
because it's not public knowledge.
13:43
Maybe after it became public knowledge, you could say, well,
13:46
I did know this some days ago and I wasn't allowed to say
13:49
anything. He didn't need to say it
13:50
beforehand. Yeah, when he was doing like a
13:54
little warning shot. I don't know.
13:57
I don't know. Is there a warning shot with
14:00
this said that that they wasn't told was the family told he's
14:05
got 8 hours to live? You know, I mean, if he was on
14:11
life support, I guess a difficult decision has to be
14:15
made with that or, or, or did he go while on the life support?
14:21
You know, I mean, who knows if The thing is breathing for you,
14:26
It's, it's a terrible situation. I, I think all of us in one
14:30
point in our lives have had relatives that were in a bad
14:33
state and it was the mechanics that kept them along And, you
14:37
know, and, and whatever family member has to decide on.
14:40
OK, what are we, what are we doing here?
14:43
Does this help the person? Is he coming out of this?
14:45
Is it, you know, it's it sucks either way.
14:48
It sucks from a, from a probably accidental injury, you know,
14:55
tripping and falling and I guess banged his head and and and
15:00
there we go. It's, it's, it's just a terrible
15:03
loss of, of a, of a great player, you know, and there's
15:08
also some. Speculation.
15:10
He had a stroke and that was how he fell.
15:12
Like maybe? He just it could happen.
15:14
I had I had a friend have I, I had a friend had a medical issue
15:18
not too long ago. They they blacked out and they
15:21
banged their head on something and it's it's related to heart,
15:24
it's related to blood pressure. And you know, this is also an
15:29
older person and Ace is an older person.
15:31
So it's like these are either these are things that happen,
15:34
you know, and and it's it's just unfortunate.
15:36
It he's you know, he's very much missed.
15:40
I I was listening to a lot of classic kiss last night.
15:44
I got a one of the classic kiss shirt song from well, not
15:50
necessarily a classic. It's a reprint care of Walmart,
15:54
but it does say kiss on the back of it.
15:56
So it's, but yeah. Yeah, all my shirts are packed
16:01
away. I'm going to probably have to
16:02
get out my Rock'n'roll over and Destroy shirts at some point
16:05
soon. I also, if I were a fan, you
16:08
know, I love KISS and I love Ace.
16:10
I don't want Ace. I would not have wanted Ace like
16:12
anything less than 100% who he is.
16:15
He may be flawed, but he was authentically himself, for
16:18
better or worse. And I want that guy and I
16:21
wouldn't want him to suffer. And Ozzie suffered for a long
16:23
time, as we're now finding out. I had a hard time.
16:26
I listened to some Kiss yesterday, put on alive and
16:28
alive too, but it was hard to listen to, was too happy for me.
16:32
And then, you know, it's not like when John Bonham died.
16:34
You could go put on like a Led Zeppelin 3 and be contemplative
16:37
and sad. You can't do that with Kiss.
16:39
But before we talk about the legacy, which is really why you
16:43
were here, and I want you to talk about the first time you
16:45
saw a kiss and the last time you saw a kiss.
16:47
But before that, let's just quickly talk about the statement
16:51
that Gene and Paul put out and the statement Monarch Heavy put
16:54
out. So I'm going to read both of
16:55
these. He has posted this across across
16:58
the socials about an hour, an hour, an hour after he passed.
17:03
We are devastated by the passing of Ace Freely.
17:05
He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier
17:09
during some of the most formative foundational chapters
17:11
of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part
17:14
of Kiss's legacy. Our thoughts are with Jeanette
17:17
and Monique and all those who love them, including our fans
17:19
around the world. Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of
17:22
KISS and then sometime later Monarch Music Group.
17:24
Monarch Heavy Ace's label for the last, I don't know, 15
17:28
years, 1010 plus years at least. Monarch Music Group official
17:31
press statement for the passing of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
17:34
inductee, founding member of KISS and guitar legend Age
17:37
Freely No lies detected. With profound sorrow, Monarch
17:41
Music Group mourns the loss of the iconic and beloved rock
17:44
guitarist and Monarch recording artist Ace Freely, who passed
17:47
away today at age 74. Quote Our thoughts are with his
17:50
family, friends and the devoted community of fans who have stood
17:53
faithfully by his side through every era of his career, says
17:57
Monarch President and CEO Steve Stevenson.
18:00
Quote We at Monarch have We at Monarch Music Group are deeply
18:03
honored to work alongside of Ace and been his label home since
18:06
2014 so 11 years his creativity humor and passion for music will
18:11
remain an enduring part of monarch's story and there's a
18:13
little bit more about you know already the spaceman changed
18:17
rock and the spirit of rock forever fiery playing
18:19
unmistakable style larger than life nice one there presence
18:23
inspired generations to pick up the guitar and chase their own
18:26
musical dreams no complaints there what do you think about
18:29
the Paul and Jean statement to the.
18:34
Point. It was to the point because Jean
18:38
and Paul and the relationship with with Peter and Ace is going
18:43
to be dissected by everybody that listens to either side.
18:47
So I felt that they kept it safe, they kept it classy and
18:54
they were respectful. I can't imagine that they are
18:57
anything less than heartbroken about Ace passing away, even if
19:02
they were head to head fighting, head to head fighting or
19:06
bickering about things in the press or in the private.
19:10
This was their brother when they were on 10 E 23rd St. in that
19:17
loft. Making it all happen, right?
19:21
Right, right up the block from Gramercy Theatre, right?
19:23
Yeah. I should.
19:24
Whenever I'm around there, I always tell the bands that that
19:29
this building is right up the block and several of them have
19:33
gone on their break and walked up to the building just to see
19:37
it, which is really cool. So.
19:40
Right on. When I was in Boston, I used to
19:42
tell people, hey, across the street there from that Pete,
19:44
next to that pizzeria, you know, the basement is where Aerosmith
19:47
first rehearsed. So it's kind of fun.
19:51
It's fun to know those things. And you and I had a fun,
19:53
adventurous day in 23. We walked around the East, the
19:57
East Village, and noted all the landmarks have now disappeared
20:01
places. It's tough, man.
20:03
And then, yeah, I didn't. That Beastie Boys mural got
20:07
erased. I'm like, I don't know why that.
20:08
Yeah. The Bad Brains one is still
20:10
across the street from the C. DS1 I have to I have to go back
20:14
and see it now that all the scaffolding is not around it.
20:17
But that's a sidebar, sorry. You know, it's OK Omar posted a
20:21
nice video of the that Bad Brains mural yesterday the other
20:25
day, which we shared on Ghost Call and before that it was a
20:27
Blondie mural, which I also loved when I worked briefly at
20:31
Bowery Electric. I didn't.
20:33
I don't think Peter has social media anymore.
20:35
Did he make a statement at all? I didn't see.
20:38
I didn't see anything. Well, no, wait, I did.
20:42
I did see something. Let me see.
20:44
Loudwire said. Like Peter has a statement.
20:48
Yeah, if you can. I just kind of did a cursory
20:51
research and I don't see anything He might not have
20:54
Peter. Peter's very much more or less
20:57
online. He's not terminally online like
20:59
the rest of us, right? He's living life.
21:05
It it scrolling through, it looks like Loudwire posted
21:09
something, but it seems to be connected to the other.
21:16
Oh yeah, he OK, so Peter's statement, according to his
21:20
personal website, Peter says with a broken heart and deep,
21:25
deep sadness. My brother Ace freely has passed
21:27
away. He died peacefully with his
21:29
family around him. My wife and I were there with
21:32
him to the end as well. I love you my brother.
21:35
My love and prayers go out to Jeanette, Monique, Charlie and
21:38
Nancy and all of Ace extended family, bandmates, fans and
21:43
friends. May the Lord comfort you at this
21:45
difficult time. Papa Bad As a founding member of
21:52
the rock group Kiss and an Aces solo career, Ace influenced and
21:56
touched the hearts of millions. His legacy will live on in the
21:59
music industry and in the hearts of the Kiss army.
22:03
At this time, I ask all of you to be respectful to Ace's family
22:06
and allow them to grieve privately.
22:08
To the Kiss Army and Ace's rock soldiers, my heart is with you
22:13
all broken. God bless Peter Chris.
22:16
So quite a bit more than than what Gene and and Paul said.
22:21
But I, as I, as I said earlier, Jean, Jean and Paul need to kind
22:26
of monitor the safety and the dissection of anything they say
22:31
by people. Because I mean, I had friends
22:33
that would refuse to go see kiss because Tommy was in the make
22:37
up. And it's like, OK, well, you
22:40
know, and I've had them. I was a fan before them and they
22:42
told me I was not a fan anymore because I was willing to.
22:46
I said I'm sorry guys, I said. I said I would have preferred
22:49
Ace in the band still too, but Kiss music brings me joy and I'm
22:53
not about to give that up to well to appease any opinion.
22:58
As we're finding out, life is very short and we need to find
23:01
the joy and embrace the joy and not let people shit on our joy.
23:04
But I will say that I really did not go see Kiss until the
23:08
reunion tour with Ace and Peter because I was mad about them not
23:12
being in the band or brought back.
23:13
But you know, I, I maybe I regret that now.
23:16
I, I would I really love revenge.
23:18
That's the kiss record, that non ace and Peter record that I
23:21
love, plus the unplug, which we'll talk about in a minute.
23:24
So to reel it back now that we, you know, the beautiful
23:29
statement by Peter and he's always been, you know, for a
23:31
schmucky kid from Canarsie, right, who was a street gang kid
23:36
with a soulful voice and a good jazz drumming style.
23:39
Peter always was like the heart and soul of Kiss more than
23:42
anything else. And he of course he's going to
23:44
be classy and I know he's very faithful and stuff like that
23:48
from his book. I have actually never read the
23:51
Ace books and now I kind of want to go back and get those books
23:56
and there's three of them out. And he 2/1 was written got ghost
24:01
written right by John Astronomy. One is no regrets.
24:05
I have no regrets. Is that the one?
24:08
That one, that's the John Astronomy Co written book.
24:12
Co written air quotes. Can you see Ace writing down a
24:15
book? Can you?
24:16
I can't see him writing a book. But what do you mean kidding me?
24:21
I can't write a book. I'm busy soloing, you know, so.
24:25
So yeah, you know, Ace to take it back, he, he was the most
24:33
talented member of KISS. I will always go down saying
24:36
that he's clearly the most talented person in KISS.
24:38
He is the only person that continued to evolve and and
24:41
improve over the classic KISS era.
24:44
His solo album is far and away the best KISS solo album.
24:47
And and Peter is my favorite member of KISS and Ace's solo
24:51
record is the best. Even if you take out New York
24:53
groove, it's the best. He's the only member of KISS to
24:56
have a good solo career Freely's comet.
25:00
You know the covers records are good for what they are.
25:02
I didn't love 10,000 volts, but he's got enough.
25:05
You know he has the platinum solo kiss record and enough
25:08
actual excellent influential Ace freely and freely's comments
25:12
records. You know gene's solo career
25:14
sucks. Paul hasn't really other than
25:16
Seoul station. He hasn't really tried to do a
25:19
vaunted solo career. Peters stuff something down
25:22
mixed bag. So you know, Ace really is the
25:26
guy. He a whole 2-3 generations, 4
25:30
generations of guitar players got into picking up a Les Paul
25:34
because of bass freely and like you can't even if you know, OK,
25:37
they're better lead guitar players than him, sure.
25:40
But like for what he brought to Kiss and what he did in those
25:43
high heel boots that he could barely walk in, he really truly
25:47
was larger than life. He was incredible.
25:48
He left an indelible fingerprint on rock.
25:56
You know, what do you think about Aces endearing influence
25:58
as a guitar player and and a guitar player from KISS?
26:04
I was I was fortunate enough to see Kiss, so I I liked them for
26:10
years before I got to see them. I had heard them on the radio a
26:14
couple of times because Rock'n'roll Night was played on
26:19
the radio as a a single and Beth was not out yet.
26:24
Well, they would play Strutter on some of the rock radios and I
26:28
was like, oh, this is catchy. Who's this?
26:30
I'm a kid of maybe 9 or 10 at the time.
26:34
And then I saw the commercial for a Live 2 at my parents were
26:41
at something and I was in the, in the house with the kids that
26:44
were in that house. And the KISS commercial came on
26:47
for a Live 2 and I saw this, whatever this was.
26:52
I was like, oh, and I, I liked it.
26:54
And I was able to get a copy of a live 2 from the record store
27:01
And I, I had to see this live, but we didn't go to see the New
27:06
York shows of a live 2. But the parents were kind enough
27:10
to take me to the Dynasty tour and I got to see them in the
27:14
Madison Square Garden. We were way, way up and but it
27:17
didn't matter because Kiss was such a big thing and the band
27:21
that that stage was very sparse. And then they came up from the
27:25
bottom and they all had their colors.
27:28
Their Jean was red, Paul was purple, Peter was green and Ace
27:33
was blue. And they, it just was like a
27:37
like a magic show come to life with heavy music and just
27:42
watching him shoot the shoot the Rockets at the the lights and
27:45
blowing those up and the guitar going on fire and smoking was
27:50
just just crazy. And it was 12, you know, And I
27:54
was like, Oh my God, I never saw anything like that before.
27:57
And it was, it was my very first concert.
28:00
So it's a special memory. And I wouldn't see Ace in the
28:03
band again until the reunion tour of 96.
28:09
And that was something I never, ever thought was going to
28:12
happen. When they came out and and we're
28:14
standing there with Tupac, I was like, Oh my God.
28:18
I mean, yeah, yes, they had reunited on the Unplugged, but
28:22
who knows if that was just a one off, you know?
28:25
So I'm sorry I've gone off tangent here.
28:28
No, no, you're good. We're going to get to the
28:30
Unplugged in a second and the Reunion in a second.
28:33
That's a wonderful memory. I love whenever you talk about
28:35
it. You talked about it extensively
28:37
in our KISS End of the Road round table with all our other
28:40
friends. And you know, I didn't get to
28:44
see Kiss, but my brother Bill, who is now passed on saw Kiss
28:48
many times and that's because that's how I got into Kiss.
28:51
He played Rock'n'roll over over and over.
28:55
Rock'n'roll over Sorry Alive Alive 2 Destroyer and
28:59
Rock'n'roll over over and over and over and Love Gun And I
29:02
bought my first vinyl on my on my 5th birthday.
29:06
It had come out over the summer while I was still 4 and I got
29:08
some some money for my allowance.
29:11
We were pretty much impoverished the whole 70s and early 80s and
29:14
but I got a little bit of birthday money and my mom's
29:16
like, what do you want to get? Do you want to go to Corner's
29:18
department store and get AGI Joe?
29:20
And I was like, no, I want to go get Rock'n'roll over because
29:23
Billy won't let me play is or touch the records.
29:26
Don't touch my guitars, don't touch my records.
29:28
OK, FOMO. So we walked down from, you
29:31
know, AD Ave. and White Plains Rd. in the North Bronx where I
29:35
lived on the 2 train line. We walked to Pelham Parkway.
29:39
It seemed like the longest walk of my life at that time.
29:41
And we walked back because my mom needed to get her steps in.
29:45
And we got rock'n'roll over and I took it home and I took it out
29:48
and just looked at it and it came with the stickers on the
29:50
cover and put the stickers on my turn, my little first turntable.
29:56
And it was unbelievable. And I loved KISS kiss or we got
29:59
in the Kiss Army at like 5, you know, you know, 5-4 or five.
30:03
I was in the Kiss army and they sent the little certificate in
30:08
the patch and, and a little like, you know, little stickers.
30:12
And just like you, we had the color forms, the lunch box, the
30:15
dolls, the every the you master everything.
30:19
What was your favorite piece of you know, the music is one
30:22
thing, but what was your favorite piece of Kiss
30:23
merchandise when you were a kid? I think it was the dolls, even
30:28
though I didn't love the way that the dolls were very
30:31
unposable. Peter had the most pose ability
30:35
in terms of a figure, but the gene, the Paul and the Ace
30:41
figure was very, very limited articulation, as they say in the
30:46
toy industry. And and the boots did not have
30:51
any of the garish style to them. They just were regular black and
30:57
silver boots on the feet. And then the the thighs were
31:03
extra pieces of cloth that they had put on these dolls.
31:06
But it was still great. You had the guitars on the back
31:10
and you had to cut those guitars out and, and, and I did that.
31:14
I wish my Kiss dolls were meant in box, but nothing from that
31:18
age was mint in box. You know, if anybody who says
31:21
they have the mint in box meant that they found a relative who
31:25
had this stuff in the basement of a store that didn't sell
31:28
them. And that's the only reason
31:30
they're because nobody kept stuff in boxes back then.
31:33
Nothing but that, that, that probably, that was probably my
31:38
favorite. I don't recall ever owning the
31:41
lunch box. I did have the colour forms.
31:47
I wish I still had those just for the pieces.
31:50
They could have been turned into some kind of artwork and and.
31:55
And the shrinky dinks. I didn't have the shrinky Dinks
31:58
I had and I still have them. It was like a press on kind of
32:02
thing that the, that the, that the image would go onto a piece
32:06
of cardboard and they were like standees.
32:09
Maybe I'll maybe I'll pull those out one of these days.
32:12
They're in a envelope somewhere and and I do have the view
32:15
master which was based on the Dynasty photo sessions, which
32:22
was really cool. I know I'm in the minority.
32:25
I hate it. I was made for loving you.
32:26
But looking back on it, Dynasty is not a bad album.
32:29
Unmasked is not a bad album, Creatures of the Night is not a
32:32
bad album. I really got.
32:35
I was so heartbroken by the disco kiss and I didn't know
32:38
better and now I can laugh at it.
32:41
But like for a long time, beside my hatred of journey, my hatred
32:45
of that one song has let you know maybe will outlast my
32:48
lifetime. But I love the kissed all and I
32:52
also want to shout out, you know, the kiss comic books from
32:58
Marvel because like. Oh yeah, the comic.
33:01
Book was incredible. I left the comic book out.
33:04
I'm sorry. Yeah, that's.
33:06
But they're made with their blood.
33:10
A a historical report that was ended up being not really true,
33:16
I know. But it's so fun.
33:18
They did pour delete. It.
33:20
They did pour a a small bottle of each of their blood into red
33:25
ink vats and that and that ink was discarded according to
33:30
history. I I I found that out as it
33:35
probably would have true. I think the blood clogged the.
33:40
I think the blood clogged the printer.
33:43
It did. It did something to the ink that
33:46
was not like this was not a good idea, you know, So it was a fun
33:52
stunt, you know, and also thinking about it today where
33:57
everybody is like masks, washing hands and everything.
34:01
That's kind of gross when you you think about it now.
34:04
But but yeah, it was still that is a great kiss comic book.
34:09
They are they are fighting Doctor Doom in that one and
34:13
that's and that was great. The second comic was the second
34:18
comic had great art, but I did not like the story as well.
34:22
But you can you can find that somewhere.
34:26
Those two Marvel editions are are everywhere.
34:31
But I got to say that image comics put out a kiss psycho
34:34
circus for quite a while. That was a very uneven storyline
34:39
for me. And then Dynamite put out a
34:42
whole run of a of a bunch of kiss stories, which were a lot
34:47
of them were written by writer Amy Chu, who, who did stuff I
34:52
think she did like a Green Arrow.
34:53
And I think she also wrote some of the the DMC comics.
34:58
So, so yeah. So she's yeah.
35:01
So 6. Degrees of of Darryl McDaniels
35:04
6° of separation. He's the best.
35:08
You know, I, I will, you know, obviously people are very
35:10
cynical about Kiss's success as marketers.
35:13
And I was going to say like beside the Star Wars toys
35:16
commercials from before the 1st Star Wars came out, before that
35:20
kits Jingle for the kids, those kids, that's the name kids, they
35:23
look insane. That has stayed with me for 50
35:27
fucking years. That commercial, it was a, you
35:31
can't calculate if, if what that's like we didn't have the
35:35
Internet. We didn't go to the movies all
35:37
the time. We didn't have cartoons.
35:40
As much as we do now. We didn't have constant
35:42
stimulation from these electronic idiot boxes.
35:45
But before I get off my soapbox, let's now talk about like Ace
35:51
and his solo career. Like, we know that 70s KISS is
35:54
incredible and they had some other successes.
35:56
Like I said, I love revenge, particularly impartial to
35:59
revenge of the Bruce Julick era. And Eric, we always talk,
36:02
doesn't get enough credit. Eric Carr.
36:04
But Ace is solo stuff right after he left KISS with this
36:09
huge reputation, Freelee's Comet Dude, Trouble Walk In and
36:13
Fractured Mirror, Like Van Halen even cited that as incredible
36:17
guitar stuff. Obviously Dying Bad Garrel, Skid
36:20
Row, Mötley Crüe, every band still held up Ace as a solo
36:26
artist, which he is really again, the only KISS artist with
36:29
a great solo career. I would say it's great.
36:31
I think it's pretty great. I got to.
36:34
I got to. See the debut of of Freelee's
36:39
Comet when when he played Lemoore for the first time as a
36:44
solo artist. And I think he went on at like
36:47
2:00 in the morning and it was just, we were, it was packed to
36:51
the rafters and I was right up front and I didn't.
36:56
I didn't get a guitar pick I. I know that, but it was right up
37:00
front. And when he finally came out, it
37:03
was madness because it was like, Oh my God, this is ace.
37:07
He's got no make up on and he's playing these songs off of he
37:12
opened up with RIP it out to my knowledge.
37:14
And he had he had the great Anton Fig on drums and Richie
37:18
Scarlett was there playing, playing rhythm guitar and and I
37:24
don't remember who else was in the band back then, but but it
37:29
was it was kick ass, man. It really was kick ass and and
37:36
this might have. Even been before the.
37:38
Album came out, I don't think the album was out yet and and
37:43
when the album came out, I had found out that it was at at a
37:49
famed. Music Store.
37:50
In Brooklyn that I cannot remember the name of now for
37:54
some reason, and I'm horrible at this I, I forgot what it was
37:59
called, but my friend and I when I was in Flatbush, so I, I, I'm
38:05
blanking, but we drove out all the way out to Flatbush to get
38:08
it because the record store that was in my neighborhood did not
38:12
have a copy yet and they weren't going to get it for a couple of
38:16
weeks, but. But this this store had.
38:22
It we, we drove out and got it. So cool.
38:26
Cool, Yeah. Yeah, I saw.
38:29
Ace once as a solo. Artist, I'm going to say it was
38:31
like Roseland in the 90s and he was kind of uneven at the show,
38:35
but I felt like it was a lot of kiss, love and energy in there.
38:39
And you know, I'll be honest, I thought around the time of
38:43
Revenge, Gene and Paul, I'm not going to drag them.
38:47
It doesn't make sense. But like, it is what it is.
38:49
They are very bitter about Ace and Peter.
38:52
They knew they could probably make more money if they had a
38:54
Saint Peter, right? That just stands to reason.
38:56
Maybe they feel like they didn't need them, just like on the
38:58
farewell tour, the all the farewell tours.
39:01
But I really never thought they were coming back ever.
39:04
You know, like I never thought like occasionally Peter would
39:07
come out and sing that. But there's so much acrimony.
39:11
I really never thought even after the Unplugged, which
39:14
seemed like a publicity stunt, like why did Kiss even get it
39:17
unplugged? But they did, you know, I don't
39:20
think Revenge was particularly, you know, it's a album from
39:23
199192, right? 92 Kiss Unplugged was 9596.
39:29
So like, I never thought they were going to get back.
39:31
Together. When the Unplugged happened, did
39:33
you think that ACE could return? We'll just take ACE only.
39:38
When the unplugged happened did I think?
39:40
Ace was going to return. I did not at all expect that
39:46
that either of those guys were going to return because Kiss was
39:50
again on the climb in a more of a Hard Rock vibe and they would
39:56
do in a different, different approach to it.
40:01
And I didn't, I didn't think that outside of the outside of
40:05
the interest of the fans that they had for all these years,
40:09
was anybody really interested in going backward and, and, you
40:14
know, having these guys come out assuming with no makeup on.
40:19
Because why would KISS ever go back to the way it started?
40:23
It didn't, it didn't seem like something logical that they
40:27
would do it. It looked like they would move
40:29
past that era. And I mean, I'm glad they, I'm
40:33
glad they did. You know, I mean, 'cause it was
40:35
cool. But no, I didn't think, I didn't
40:38
think Ace was going to stay. Ace had a reasonably successful
40:42
solo career and I guess he was about four albums in by then and
40:48
and he would regularly fill mid size venues, you know, stuff
40:54
that maybe the size of Roseland, not quite a Hammerstein place,
40:59
but you know, bigger, bigger than those days at Lemoore, not
41:04
quite arenas that Kiss would do, but but like Roseland style
41:07
spaces and and and he was doing good.
41:10
He was doing good. He had a, he had a kick ass band
41:13
with him. And so, yeah, so I, I didn't see
41:16
them giving that up because that's very well paid.
41:18
Those are good paying. Gigs to do casinos right?
41:21
Yeah. Yeah, no.
41:28
You mean, yeah, I don't know. Anyway, so yeah, I it's hard for
41:37
me to put into words what it was like to for me to see Kiss for
41:40
the first time on that very first reunion tour.
41:44
Oh, hey, thanks for the $5 chat there.
41:51
We're getting old, no doubt deal.
41:52
Ozzy Asian period. Eddie Money.
41:54
Yeah, it was a sunset one too. On and on going Live Today.
41:59
Yeah. Thank you for being here.
42:01
VW blue sky. I'm really grateful for the the
42:05
money there that super chat I appreciate and my my friend
42:07
texted me and. Said that store was zigzags.
42:11
Zigzags. Oh my God.
42:13
I don't well, I didn't go there A.
42:15
Lot myself because, you know, I didn't have the car and and it's
42:19
like I wasn't really wanting to take three buses to go get
42:22
records so but yeah, I will say that.
42:27
My second oldest patch on my battle vest is my KISS Army
42:30
patch, and I bought that at Colony Music in the 80s when I
42:35
was just in high school, LaGuardia High School.
42:37
So, you know, got out to places like Zigzags and Colony music
42:41
and Bleeker Bobs and and the disco Rama and all the awesome,
42:45
you know, all the cool places we went to to buy our stuff.
42:51
You know, man, it is hard. It is hard to to to you know, I
42:56
don't I'm afraid of what's coming.
42:58
I had predicted that it could be just a deluge of of dudes.
43:01
Now, like I said, hopefully maybe we'll we'll get this at
43:04
the end here, but so the Kitts does the unplug.
43:07
Peter also comes back and he you know, fairly, you know, he he
43:11
was decent enough on drums. You know, he was never the
43:14
hardest hitting guy. He's a jazz drummer first and
43:16
foremost, and and and he's prideful.
43:19
So he wanted to like until he felt, maybe, you know, like he
43:22
couldn't play anymore, like to the standard.
43:25
He wanted to be out there. And I don't have a problem with
43:28
that at all. And, you know, there are a lot
43:31
of bands with a lot of acrimony. Look no further than Pink Floyd
43:35
taking a pitifully low valuation for their entire catalog at like
43:39
$400 billion because Gilmore told his agent, take the first
43:43
deal. I don't want to do this anymore
43:45
with this Jackass. So, you know, much respect.
43:50
And, you know, it sucks. It sucks that we have to be here
43:54
today talking about him being gone.
43:57
Very tragic to end this way, you know, Hopefully didn't suffer
44:02
too badly. But you know, and again, Ace is
44:05
a person who is authentically himself.
44:07
He is synonymous with Gibson guitars as much as anybody,
44:10
except for probably Joe Perry and Jimmy Page are the only
44:14
other two guys I think of as Gibson guys.
44:17
There's many people who play Gibson's.
44:19
And now Metallica is kind of Kirk Hammond is kind of becoming
44:22
a Gibson ambassador now with a coffee table book and a whole
44:25
line of Gibson's. But you know, Seagull rock
44:30
squawk 79 Gibson lists Paul Sunburst Ace inspired only 400
44:34
back then. You know, it was original
44:36
Gibson, not like made somewhere else.
44:39
But nice work Seagull rock Squawk But yeah, you know, I I
44:45
think Ace's later solo career has been interesting.
44:49
I really liked Anomaly. I thought it was actually like a
44:51
pretty solid record. I did not love 10,000 volts as
44:54
you know. You did see that tour, I think,
44:58
and the origins when I saw, when I saw the.
45:01
Two, I'll say that when I saw the two gigs that he did in New
45:06
York for for 10,000 volts, the first time around he played the
45:14
song 10,000 volts and then two other solo songs and everything
45:19
else was KISS. And then the last time around he
45:23
did cherry medicine from 10,000 volts as opposed to the title
45:28
track, two other solo numbers which were the same as the last
45:31
time around. And of course, the rest was
45:34
kiss. And part of me was a little mad
45:36
at that because I said, you know, he this is not to speak
45:41
I'll of him, but you know, he always seemed to to want to
45:45
argue publicly about the guys. And and it's like, you know, you
45:51
have a dedicated following and we love you.
45:54
We want to hear more of your solo material.
45:56
You don't have to always rely on the kiss stuff because your fans
46:00
are here to hear you play the stuff that you kick some
46:04
righteous ass on and inspired so many guitar players with.
46:10
And yes, we want to hear, you know, cold gin.
46:14
We want to hear shock me. We want to hear, you know, RIP
46:18
it out and stuff. But it was very strange because
46:21
those two shows he closed with Rock'n'roll all night and it was
46:24
just like, wow, OK, I, I loved it.
46:28
It was great to hear him do it. But it just struck me as odd,
46:31
you know. But, you know, you got to.
46:34
If he thought that that was going to be the better way to
46:37
close the show, so be it. But I would have liked to hear
46:40
some of those other deep tracks from, you know, trouble walking
46:45
and and so forth. You know, there's a lot of good
46:49
stuff on those first, the first three Ace Rock Soldiers albums
46:55
are are are killer, you know, So yeah.
46:58
And Ace also did the graphic. Design on all his later albums.
47:01
So he actually did the design and he did the layout.
47:03
That anomaly physical CD that folded out into a pyramid was
47:07
like, I can't believe he even put that model.
47:09
It was so expensive to make. Yeah, that's fine.
47:13
And. That's not easy stuff to do to
47:15
to print in the age. Before 3D printing and, you
47:18
know, offset stuff. Siegel Roxwalk also says the
47:22
four KISS books were fun to read, being one who can't even
47:25
turn the lines. Yep, I got it.
47:29
And some spam on Twitch of course.
47:30
As always. I do think Rock'n'roll All Night
47:34
is the solo. He will be remembered.
47:36
The live version of Rock'n'roll Night from Alive is what put
47:39
Kiss on the map is broke them as a band, the album and the
47:42
single. Do you you know we said Shock
47:45
Me. Shock Me is synonymous with aces
47:47
and it's probably his most creative solo in terms of
47:53
composition. Do you have I know you?
47:55
I think you once told me Destroyer is your favorite Kiss
47:57
album and a lot of people's favorite Kiss album.
48:00
Is that that? Is that still true?
48:02
It it. Yeah, Destroyer.
48:04
Was the for me, the the one with the most songs that I liked at
48:08
the time. But my absolute favorite Kiss
48:11
album is I know it sounds terrible to say the live 2
48:15
because that's the first album I owned by them.
48:18
So it's it's my favorite, you know, I mean, yeah, those albums
48:22
were. Incredible the two live so.
48:23
But yeah, Destroyer. Destroyer and then love Gun I
48:28
liked a lot more than Rock'n'roll over, so I know I'm
48:33
in the minority. I love rock.
48:34
And roll over. I already told the story.
48:35
I love that album to pieces and it and some of those songs
48:39
aren't great, but I and they don't hold up.
48:41
But I do love that album and I feel like it was, you know, kind
48:47
of a time capsule for them. RC Cola says trouble walking is
48:50
a really good album. Shot full of rock is from that
48:53
is killer. It is killer.
48:54
RC. Thank you.
48:55
Appreciate that comment. Yeah, man, I got to say I still
49:00
think my favorite ace solo is she.
49:02
I think she right out of the gate.
49:04
It's incredible. He wrote Called Gin like the
49:06
muse, the the rips, Right. I think called Gin is an ace
49:09
composition. It was his first thing he
49:11
brought into the band. And we know already I'm I'm
49:13
going to we're going to do another one of these on the
49:15
glacial musical broadcast next week.
49:17
And Nick Cameron loves to say like, oh, you know, if you love,
49:21
do you love Malimo, Then every solo in the Malimo album is also
49:24
one kiss kiss, you know, Dressed to Kill and Hotter than Hell.
49:28
Yes it is. Yes it is.
49:31
But it's OK, you know? And by the way, if you love
49:34
Pearl Jam, all the guitar solos on 10 are all the guitar solos
49:38
on Threats to Kill by Kiss. Because Mike McCready couldn't
49:41
think of anything to write himself, so he just played the
49:45
Kiss solos from the first Kiss record that he had been
49:48
listening to when they went in to cut solos.
49:50
It's a story I don't think a lot of people know.
49:53
Seagull Roxworks is alive 2 with Shock.
49:55
Someone else did 3 solos on the four side.
49:57
Yeah, You know, that was Gene and Paul's ruthlessness coming
50:00
in. Anton Fig plays drums across a
50:03
bunch of Kiss. That was probably, that was Bob
50:04
Kulick, right? Was it Bob Kulick?
50:07
Yeah, and I think 1. Other person came in and did
50:10
some stuff. Sambora ended up coming in and
50:12
doing some solos at one point. Interesting that they imagine
50:16
how different Kiss would have been if they picked Richie.
50:18
They just didn't pick Richie because he was too tall.
50:21
Fucking weird. Fucking weirdos.
50:24
Anyway, I don't want. Anyone in the band tall?
50:26
I'm Gene Simmons. And no one in the band can be
50:27
taller than I or Paul. It's not possible.
50:30
And they're tall guys. Yeah, yeah.
50:33
So yeah, I love, I love. I still think the solo from she
50:37
is incredible for what it you know, for when it was and what
50:40
it was. And, you know, I'm really
50:43
grateful for Bob Ezrin and destroyer and I'm grateful for
50:46
the kiss management for helping them achieve their, you know,
50:50
monetary dreams and kiss mania and dynamite and tiger bead and
50:55
cream and circus magazine that kind of, you know, put kiss on
50:58
the map with just the hype of everything.
51:01
But you know, I, I again, you know, Ace is authentically who
51:06
he is, flawed though he may have been at times.
51:08
But I'm really, you know, we lived in the time of Kiss.
51:12
We still live in the time of Alice Cooper and Judas Priest,
51:14
of Metallica and Iron Maiden. He when he was on point.
51:18
On these shows, he was always fun to watch because he had he
51:22
was so corny with the jokes and and it was just like, Oh my God,
51:27
Ace, that was terrible. And he's like laughing.
51:31
He didn't care that the joke was bad and or really not 100%
51:37
politically correct. It was just like it was ace.
51:40
It was great and and you know, threw threw guitar picks out by
51:45
the dozens at these shows. If you were in front, you were
51:49
going to get a bunch of them. If you were in the back.
51:52
I don't know. But he was always he was always
51:56
fun to watch. I the last time I got to see
51:58
him, I guess was in March. He played in New York over at
52:02
Sony Hall and I went and we did a fun little giveaway on the
52:07
website. So I put a a whole mess of
52:10
people into the show as well, which was gratifying to me and
52:15
and everybody was a Kiss fan as well.
52:18
So it just. It just made it a better.
52:22
Night singing and laughing and and rocking and rolling all
52:27
night. So yeah, yeah.
52:30
Siegel, Roxwalk. Says never met someone else with
52:32
that Ace laugh. Well, I think that Ace laugh was
52:35
his favorite thing. And growing up was the Three
52:37
Stooges on Channel 11 in my hometown of the Bronx, NY.
52:42
Ace is from about 3 miles away from where I grew up.
52:45
He is from 172nd St. and Bathgate Ave. which is about,
52:49
you know, 10 blocks north of where Yankee Stadium was and is.
52:53
And I think of Ace's whole sense of humor as 3 Stooges, right?
52:58
And then he and he is the he is the true to life Curly.
53:02
Maybe he's not fat and round and bald, but he's got that loosey
53:06
goosey personality that was great and a great foil, I think
53:10
to to Paul and Gene and Peter. And of course Peter and Ace were
53:14
closer than the rest of the guys because Peter and Ace were St.
53:17
guys. They were from the streets.
53:19
They were ghetto as fuck. Even when they were, you know,
53:22
pretend to be classy, they were ghetto.
53:24
And Paul and Jean came from, you know, different upbringings, not
53:27
broken homes, not drinking and drugs, not, you know, they were
53:31
Queens guys, just a different breed, as you know.
53:33
Oh, hey man, thanks for another super chat.
53:35
That's really super nice of you. Mr. Speed 2000 man.
53:39
Shandy. Some love for Shandy.
53:41
I never hear anyone talk about Shandy, my favorites never had
53:44
much radio play and the elder, hey I know they did not like I
53:47
did. Some of the elder is fucking
53:49
great. It's just too bad.
53:50
Dark light. From the Elder is great.
53:53
That's a great a song right there.
53:55
They did not. They did not get Shandy.
53:56
Shandy, I don't think. He did I I think my favorite
54:00
song on on Masked would have to be Talk to Me and Torpedo Girl.
54:06
Torpedo Girl. Terrible lyrics, terrible Gene
54:10
Simmons lyrics, I think, but like an amazing song like it
54:13
rocks. The that was Torpedo Girl was an
54:16
A song. Was it an A song?
54:19
I don't know. The lyrics are awful.
54:20
I don't know. Get your feet wet.
54:24
Actually, I'm a plumber. You know what, man?
54:27
I will tell you this, it's over now.
54:30
Off release comments, Second sighting album.
54:32
Todd Haworth. He was fucking sick, bro.
54:35
It's a great song. Ace was totally cool with
54:37
sharing the spotlight. He had to be, you know, he's a
54:40
more of like an interpreter, not a great singer.
54:42
But I will say, look, I know that.
54:45
Kiss meets the Phantom. Of the part he's not good but
54:48
the person who, and maybe he deserved it but the person who
54:50
got done the dirtiest is Ace. All his stuff dubbed out.
54:55
His fight scenes are clearly like a black guy in a wig and
54:57
make up absolutely brutal. Like brutal.
55:01
All the worst things about Kiss meets the Phantom is the Ace
55:04
stuff, which sucks because he's so fucking cool, man.
55:08
He's the coolest. What a absolute shame.
55:12
But I still fondly love Kiss Meets the Fam.
55:15
It's so bad. It's good, you know, star time,
55:18
you know, like, how can you not fucking you?
55:20
It's so quotable, you know? Gee's brother was an only.
55:26
Child. Yeah, exactly.
55:29
This is this is, of course, this is pretty funny.
55:31
I mean, that's that's like, that was like maybe even a dig at
55:34
Gene. You know, I always say pretty
55:37
interestingly that my grad school convocation featured
55:41
Leonard E Boy as the speaker because he donated his archives
55:45
to be to. Boston.
55:46
University, and he's from East Boston and he actually went to
55:50
BU for BC and dropped out. But he wanted to give his legacy
55:54
to BU, thankfully. And he came and spoke to us.
55:57
He did the whole graduation and he did a private ceremony which
55:59
I got to be part of. And he was like, I, I felt like
56:02
Star Trek was done. And then we, I went to the the
56:06
Chinese Theater in Hollywood to see a little movie in 1976
56:09
called Star Wars. And as we were walking out, I
56:12
turned to my best friend and said, I think my phone is about
56:14
to ring about Star Trek again. And he's like, really?
56:17
Oh, yes. Did you just see what you see
56:19
everyone coming out of this theater?
56:20
I guarantee you my phone is going to ring tomorrow.
56:23
And tomorrow my phone rang. And I know that Gene and Paul
56:26
went to see Star Wars and and they were like, dude, let's do
56:32
kiss in Star Wars and superheroes.
56:35
I mean, like the the 70s Spider Man TV show that I also love
56:39
that no one loves is even better than the kiss meets the Phantom.
56:43
But it's charming in its terribleness, Don't you agree?
56:47
Yeah. Yeah, it was.
56:51
It holds a special place for me. Yeah.
56:53
You know, it really does it. It does overall.
56:57
I know you. I know you saw the last two ever
56:59
KISS shows as far as the old KISS.
57:02
Maybe they will again. Gene and Paul will resuscitate
57:05
the band that KISS Navy on land or whatever the fuck they're
57:08
calling it. Which is dumb when you had a
57:10
KISS Army brand for 50 years. But KISS crews on land?
57:14
Stupid, but how did you? Feel about Tommy, I know.
57:18
That Ace did not like Tommy, although Ace knew Tommy well
57:21
liked him originally learned relearned the kiss catalog from
57:26
Tommy. But how did you feel about Tommy
57:28
and Eric kind of taking? You know, obviously it is what
57:31
it is. They were going to take their
57:32
places were going to be taken. Someone had to do it.
57:35
And I feel like Tommy gets a lot of derision that is unfair to
57:39
him. I agree that the.
57:41
Derision is unfair. He's a talented musician.
57:45
He's a great musician. I don't think the make up was
57:49
either of their choices. I think that was part of the
57:53
business model. Jean.
57:56
Was quoted. At one point saying that letting
58:01
letting Vinny and letting Eric have their own identities was
58:05
probably a mistake because the the people that grew with them
58:10
early didn't take to the other identities and only remembered
58:14
the core 4 and and that must have set him on a it must always
58:20
be the original four faces. Could it have been handled
58:25
better? I guess I'm not in that
58:27
marketing meeting back then when they did this.
58:31
I didn't mind it in concert. I wasn't going to be reticent
58:36
about it. I I wanted to see music I liked
58:40
played by a band I liked and and then faces that I identified
58:46
with, I think. KISS would have worked if.
58:51
Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer had different faces either way, but
58:57
that was not the decision they made to go with.
59:01
But I think Tommy's great. I think he's a an amazing guitar
59:04
player. You know is there, you know, you
59:07
said that Ace sometimes was was sloppy sometimes, but that's
59:10
ace. You know, it was part of the the
59:13
magic. He was just raw and and he would
59:16
just play it from the heart. Tommy.
59:21
Was always tactical. And it was always like
59:23
perfection, you know, He was never going to come out with
59:28
that kind of same vibe because it's two different players, you
59:32
know? Ace remains one of the most
59:36
influential guitar players in history.
59:40
And and that's going to be the case going forward for years.
59:43
You know, I, I think in some sense, and I don't want to get
59:47
anybody screaming at me, but for saying this, because as much as
59:51
I loved Ozzie and as much as I respected Ozzie and everything
59:54
Ozzie did, I think someone like Ace freely is more influential
1:00:00
than an Ozzie was. Because Ozzie influenced maybe
1:00:03
singers, right? So there's one singer in every
1:00:06
band, or two singers in every band depending on your your
1:00:11
model. But there's 123 and sometimes 4
1:00:15
guitar players in a band depending on who it is.
1:00:18
And so many of these guitar players were influenced by Ace
1:00:22
Trilli and, and say it. And they were like, oh, oh Ace
1:00:26
really was the first guitar player I ever saw.
1:00:28
Or Ace was the first one I ever picked up on guitar 'cause I
1:00:32
loved what he played and I loved his identity and I loved his
1:00:35
style. So, you know, flame, flame me if
1:00:39
you must. I that's where I am, I think.
1:00:41
I think Ozzie for helping. Create metal and being a pop
1:00:45
cultural icon, it's a little different.
1:00:47
Oh yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't a slight.
1:00:49
On him at all, it was it, Yeah, you're just saying a lot of
1:00:52
guitar. Players picked up the guitar
1:00:54
because Ace existed. Right, Paul.
1:00:57
Paul, Daniel. Ace Freely from the Bronx, NY A
1:01:00
A a a street tough who could play a little guitar and love
1:01:04
Hendrix and The Beatles and and real rock'n'roll.
1:01:07
Also, by the way, I didn't even bring this up.
1:01:09
Ace is the illustrator of the iconic Kiss logo, more memorable
1:01:16
than the Led Zeppelin Angel or the Black Sabbath demons or, you
1:01:20
know, a whole bunch of us. Can you remember the Deep Purple
1:01:23
logo except the words Deep Purple.
1:01:24
I cannot, you know, Jewish priest.
1:01:28
I was thinking about the prong during the show and I was like,
1:01:31
oh, you know, they didn't even have the prong until like the
1:01:34
80s. That's not even their original
1:01:36
logo. They had the little scripty font
1:01:38
that's like very mussified and fanciful because they were like
1:01:41
wearing blouses and cowboy hats and bell bottoms.
1:01:47
Ace drew that logo and, you know, he is, you know, I mean,
1:01:52
Maynard James Keenan posted the famous picture of him today
1:01:56
painted up as Ace as a little kid.
1:01:59
Did you have, you know, obviously beside Jean Paul and
1:02:01
now Peter? Thank you for reading that.
1:02:03
Did you have a tribute that you saw that was particularly
1:02:07
touching? Or they're all kind of just
1:02:08
bleeding together for you, you. Know I I I read the the quote
1:02:14
from Paul and Jean a couple of times.
1:02:19
Alice Cooper wrote a great one. Alice Cooper's was.
1:02:24
Fantastic. I thought Bruce.
1:02:26
I thought Bruce Culux was was well done, but I did not.
1:02:33
Read a ton. Of of the tributes, 'cause I was
1:02:37
it, it took a while for me to process that he was actually
1:02:40
gone and my phone was just blowing up and I had to start
1:02:44
answering. I know, I know, I know, you
1:02:50
know. You know, I had friends of.
1:02:54
My parents down South art were texting me saying have you
1:02:58
heard? I'm like, unfortunately I have,
1:03:01
you know, but thank you for reaching out.
1:03:03
I appreciate that. You know, so it was a lot.
1:03:08
It was a lot. So I didn't really over process
1:03:12
any of the memorial posts. I'm I'm glad he's getting them.
1:03:17
It doesn't matter to ace. Will it provide some bomb to his
1:03:23
loved ones? I think so.
1:03:27
But the bottom line is he's gone and, and now it's just music and
1:03:33
words to carry us through, You know, So you were a poet and you
1:03:40
didn't even know. It lovely.
1:03:41
I didn't know it very much. I didn't.
1:03:43
Know it very well said. And I can't really add much more
1:03:46
to that, except I love Kiss and I love Ace and I love Ace and I
1:03:49
will love Ace and I'm not ready for all our heroes to leave us.
1:03:53
I'm still very broken up about Ozzy.
1:03:56
Yeah, same. And my girlfriend.
1:03:59
Who said to me last night? Before we went to bed, like, you
1:04:01
know, I've never been like a really huge KISS fan, Where
1:04:03
should I start? And I said the behind the music
1:04:06
is actually probably in terms of what's commercially available to
1:04:09
everybody if you don't have the KISS story, DV, DS.
1:04:12
I think the behind the music is very even handed and fair to
1:04:16
them and kind of ends with the comeback of the reunion tour
1:04:19
with Tupac and at the MTV Music Awards, which still is mind
1:04:23
blowing. Even Tupac was like, yo, I'm
1:04:25
bugging out. This is wild.
1:04:27
I'm introducing kids in makeup. This is crazy.
1:04:30
I like. I like.
1:04:32
I like that one that came out around the reunion tour the the
1:04:37
DVD, and I also liked the biography Channel 2 parter.
1:04:43
So that's a good one, yeah. That's a real good one.
1:04:46
Hey, Ken, thank you for joining me today.
1:04:49
I'm going to let you plug all your stuff, but I do want to say
1:04:51
thank you for being there for me as my friend yesterday and thank
1:04:54
you for being here as a peer and a colleague today.
1:04:57
It's really meaningful for me to have you, the best kissologist I
1:05:01
can think of to be. Thank you.
1:05:03
I'm. I do what I can.
1:05:05
It's it really is my favorite band and I'm glad I got to see
1:05:10
them for as you know, it's it's important to say as many times.
1:05:14
So I maybe only saw a kiss in full, I think maybe 23 times
1:05:20
because when I started doing this craziness with the reviews
1:05:25
and stuff, I wasn't going around to other cities to see the same
1:05:30
band like some of my friends who would diehards also would go 345
1:05:37
shows on a tour. But folks like us, we have to
1:05:40
see. Oh well, as much as I'd love to
1:05:42
see another KISS show, priest is in town next week when these
1:05:46
guys are going to be in Omaha and oh, Van Halen's coming
1:05:49
through. So I got to see Van Halen, so,
1:05:53
you know, so I'm I'm happy I got to see them for as many times as
1:05:57
I did. I wish there were more to that.
1:06:01
But you know, seeing Ace in concert as a soloist, I guess
1:06:06
almost a dozen times by by history and seeing them with
1:06:10
KISS reunion and original three or four times.
1:06:16
Was was. Really cool too.
1:06:17
So you know he's he's not someone I'll ever forget.
1:06:22
I've only met him I think twice at events and I shook his hand
1:06:26
and that's about it. I do have a couple of guitar
1:06:28
picks from those shows over the years, but.
1:06:33
And they will forever remain cherished.
1:06:36
But yeah, it's it's it's not going to replace the fact that
1:06:41
he's not around to do more of this stuff.
1:06:43
I said, I said to some of my friends that had gone to that,
1:06:46
that last Ace really show one of the they had these two
1:06:50
particular friends had not really gone to too many shows
1:06:53
over the last few years for whatever reason.
1:06:56
And I had said one of the things that breaks my heart also about
1:07:01
the the passage of Ace was it was such a special night for
1:07:05
three old friends. And I said that I wanted this to
1:07:08
be the first of many Ace shows that we were going to go see
1:07:12
because he always brings a good time and we always knew all the
1:07:16
songs and stuff and and he always left an Ace gig a few
1:07:22
feet off the ground because he sang all night, He yelled all
1:07:25
night. You slapped your friend 5.
1:07:27
You kissed the girl next to you on the cheek.
1:07:30
Because it is it brought it brought all that vibe out, you
1:07:33
know, and it was a very good, very good vibe.
1:07:37
So that's all I got on it all. So we got a few last few.
1:07:42
Comments Seagull Rock Squad said The Joker was a perfect cover
1:07:46
song with for him since New York Groove and Mauricio hails from
1:07:50
Italy. Mauricio hello boys, my name is
1:07:52
Mauricio and I see you from Italy.
1:07:54
Big fan of Ace the soul with Peter a kiss sorry for ace
1:07:57
tonight in the sky another shining star by thank you
1:08:00
Mauricio and thank you everybody Ken again, lovely great
1:08:04
sentiments all. I will never forget seeing KISS
1:08:07
the first time New Year's Eve 1996 at the Nassau Coliseum or
1:08:12
the mausoleum as I like to call it as a Rangers fan.
1:08:15
But it was still really special. You know, they closed with, you
1:08:19
know, shit, shout it out loud, love, you know, shout it out
1:08:23
loud. Rock'n'roll night was the closer
1:08:25
that was the encore. And and then it was New Year's
1:08:28
and we drove home like in the the glow of of the band, it was
1:08:33
like surreal that I had seen this band that I watched my
1:08:37
whole life. And you know, we're not ready
1:08:40
for our heroes to leave. It's tragic what what happened
1:08:42
to him is very sad and I am very sorry.
1:08:45
And again, I, I urge fans and also music press and other
1:08:50
people who do what you and I do can to be a little more sensible
1:08:54
when reporting the death of someone and don't be vultures.
1:08:58
But thank you for being here, my brother.
1:09:00
And we'll do it again soon and I'll see on the interwebs.
1:09:03
Everybody, thanks for watching. Please check out Ghost
1:09:06
cultman.com. Candy, you want to plug your
1:09:08
stuff real quick? I'm going to have everything
1:09:09
linked up. Yeah, you can.
1:09:11
You can find out. What we're doing on
1:09:12
piercingmetal.com, and if you just go to that there Google and
1:09:16
do a hashtag of piercing metal as one single word piercing like
1:09:21
the ears, metal like the junt junt.
1:09:24
You'll you'll be able to find pretty much everything that
1:09:28
we're up to. And also you can also do Ken
1:09:32
Pierce media as a hashtag and you'll find far too much stuff
1:09:36
online for for you to tinker around with.
1:09:39
I appreciate anybody that enjoyed what I had to say.
1:09:42
Rest in power, ace freely. And dude, indeed, Mauricio.
1:09:47
We're all we're all global here, ma'am, my friend, everybody is
1:09:50
welcome. We're like a a rock'n'roll and
1:09:52
metal will take you whenever you can get in and in any condition.
1:09:56
Ken, thanks for being a part of this and thank you everybody for
1:09:59
watching. I'll be back Monday with the
1:10:00
Mojave experience next lineup reveal.
1:10:03
And stay tuned to Ghost Cult man for all this and more and
1:10:06
hopefully fewer, fewer deaths than more.
1:10:10
Peace, yo. Thanks.
1:10:12
Hail Ace forever.