The legendary guitarist reflected on Kiss’s merchandising over-commercialization and his past substance abuse issues. Frehley expressed openness to a Kiss reunion if given equal production control. The band would reunite five years later for a world tour.
In 1990 Ace Frehley discussed his new band, featuring Sandy Slavin on drums and Richie Scarlett replacing Todd Howard. The new album was heavier, focusing on guitars. Frehley mentioned performing classic Kiss songs and covers like ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down.” He reflected on Kiss’s merchandising over-commercialization and his past substance abuse issues. Frehley expressed openness to a Kiss reunion if given equal production control. He highlighted collaborations with Skid Row and the success of his new album and tour. Frehley also shared his health improvement and commitment to making music for enjoyment, not necessity.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
new band, heavier sound, Sandy Slavin, Richie Scarlett, Kiss material, solo album, ELO cover, Hide Your Heart, reunion possibility, production control, merchandise overload, substance abuse, health improvement, new album, tour success
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Ace Frehley
8
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
This reaction, okay,
Ace Frehley 00:03
level, whether you don’t need it, not fine. They’re happening.
Nestor Aparicio 00:07
I’m happy to hammer jacks. Hammer
Ace Frehley 00:09
8jacks is going to be happy? Yeah, I
Nestor Aparicio 00:11
saw you left there, down there. Changed the show last time I played there. Yeah, it was two, two and a half, three years ago.
Ace Frehley 00:17
This new band that I got is a lot heavier. Who’s already I got Sandy Slavin on drums from a group called riot. He’s a real powerhouse. And I replaced Todd Howard with Richie Scarlett, who’s a lot heavier than Todd. He’s his roots are the same roots as mine. He was brought up on Led Zeppelin and the who and Hendrix, you know, he’s from the East Coast, whereas Todd was brought up in San Diego, you know. And you know, Todd was a rich most people don’t know it, but Todd was originally a keyboard player turned guitar player. You follow me? Yeah, that’s where all the keyboards and stuff came in on the second sighting album. That’s why this new album is a lot heavy, because it’s just guitars layer on top of guitars,
Nestor Aparicio 01:07
still this kiss material or the show,
8Ace Frehley 01:12
yeah, oh yeah. We should do, we do the good ones we’re doing, rocket ride shocked me. I’m even doing snow blind off my first solo album, right?
Nestor Aparicio 01:26
Still doing New York groove and New York,
Ace Frehley 01:33
I just, I almost said, New York Jews, New York groove. Colson, you know, we’re doing about half of the new album. You know, shot full of rock trouble, walking to Boston, Limbo to die.
Nestor Aparicio 01:50
8You covered the ELO song.
Ace Frehley 01:52
Do you talk single?
Nestor Aparicio 01:54
Do you talk to Jeff Lynn
Ace Frehley 01:56
about that? Or you don’t? You know, you don’t have to ask for permission once a song is released, once, once an artist has released a song, then you don’t have to ask permission to re record it. I mean, that’s basically what that’s the same thing that happened with Hide Your Heart. You know, Bonnie Tyler originally recorded that song about a year and a half ago, and my bass player, co producer John Regan played on her album. And this spring, when we were in pre production for this, for the trouble walking album, John brought over her cassette, and he played me the single, which was, Hide Your Heart. And that was the first time I ever heard the song. I fell in love with it. You know, it sounded like a hit record to me. So we decided to record it, and only after we had recorded it did I find out that kiss was doing it also.
8Nestor Aparicio 02:45
So was your relationship like with them? I mean, do you don’t talk to them much?
Ace Frehley 02:49
I talk to them from time to time. We’re on good terms.
Nestor Aparicio 02:52
So why? Why wouldn’t you, you know, put the older union thing together? It seems to be, why wouldn’t you do the reunion thing now? I mean, it seems so, so popular. I didn’t
Ace Frehley 03:02
8say I wouldn’t do it. I might have said it a while ago, but I would definitely consider doing it at this point in time, in the near future, if it was presented to me properly. Okay, I’d have to have equal control in
Nestor Aparicio 03:20
the production. Was it ever that way?
Ace Frehley 03:24
It started out that
Nestor Aparicio 03:27
way. I mean, did Paul sort of, it seems to me, he’s running the ship more so than than gene, or a lot more than the other fellows. But
8Ace Frehley 03:35
what happened towards the end with Kiss? I just stopped caring. I just wasn’t into it anymore. So I like Paul and Jane, kind of like just do whatever they wanted to do.
Nestor Aparicio 03:46
A mistake, excuse me, a mistake looking back on
Ace Frehley 03:51
it, not really. I mean, it was basically just a way for me to get the out of the pound, which is what I wanted to do, do my own thing, and I’m much happier. But since that happened, a lot of water has gone under the bridge. You know, we buried the hat shit. You know, now we’re all friends, and you know, we’re talking about a Keshe leading maybe for 1991 so we’ll see what happens.
Nestor Aparicio 04:15
8Peter Chris, is he gonna I don’t know
Ace Frehley 04:16
about Peter. Peter right now is working in LA on with a new band trying to secure a record contract. So I wish him all the luck. It was nice of him to come and help me out on a few songs for background vocals and percussion on this album.
Nestor Aparicio 04:31
What has he been doing for the past? You know, however many years? I mean, he’s the one guy that Great
Ace Frehley 04:36
Balls of Fire. I know for a while, and I know for the past year or two, he’s been working on a book that supposedly assumed to be published, and
8Nestor Aparicio 04:50
autobiography kind of thing,
Ace Frehley 04:52
I guess, about his autobiography.
Nestor Aparicio 04:57
So I mean looking back on the whole kiss. Thing, you know, I know people probably harp on shit all the time, but I mean, you ever embarrassed by how out of hand the thing got, or and about how out of hand the thing got with, you know, bubblegum cards, and what are your feelings about this stuff and everything, you know, bubblegum cards and dolls I saw,
Ace Frehley 05:16
8we got so big with the merchandise. And, you know, we were, kind of like, we were, we were so busy, you know, if we weren’t on the road, we were on the we’re in the studio, or, you know, in a foreign country. So basically, you know, we let our management, you know, we gave them free reign to just kind of like, run with it. And they got overboard. You know, I think they over merchandise the ban and cheapened us to an extent, you know, made us almost a bubble gum group to some people, you know, I think the real hardcore heavy metal people towards the end got turned off by all that merchandise. And you know, because when they saw five year old kids going to school with Kiss lunch boxes and kiss radios, you know, I think they just felt it was maybe over commercialization.
Nestor Aparicio 06:05
Did you feel that at the time? I mean, we’re
Ace Frehley 06:09
trying to tell you that, you know, we were so busy, you know, with our career that, you know, I didn’t even pay attention to it. I just kind of went along with it. You know, I would have probably said, you know, this is too much. Let’s, let’s cut back on some of this merchandise. And it’s getting out of
Nestor Aparicio 06:27
control. Even though it was raking in dough,
8Ace Frehley 06:32
we didn’t need any more money at that time, believe me.
Nestor Aparicio 06:34
I mean, there’s those, those heavy year 7778 79 I mean,
Ace Frehley 06:39
we were millionaires after the alive album,
Nestor Aparicio 06:43
8and then money is not dried up whatsoever. For any of
Ace Frehley 06:46
you, it’s definitely spent a lot of it, but there’s still some floating around, believe me.
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
Well, I mean, is it the kind of thing where now you guys can just, you know, concentrate on, or you have been for 10 years just putting out music and not worrying about how many, you know, how many units you’ve sold, or
Ace Frehley 07:03
I don’t worry about that. No, I don’t have to do this for a living. Put it that way, I’m making music because I enjoy it.
8Nestor Aparicio 07:13
Okay, well, I think I’m at a question. Anything else you want to tell me about the new album or the tour
Ace Frehley 07:19
here’s been great. Every show has been sold out standing room only, not.
Nestor Aparicio 07:23
The beauty of playing small places you always get gives me the beauty of playing a small place, you always get that vibe in the room.
Ace Frehley 07:30
8Yeah, there’s that intimacy. This singles doing well, looks like the second single is going to be trouble walking. So we’re starting to discuss ideas for videos for that. We’re going to be down there in haberjacks on the 28th I’m sure you’re aware of and I’m just excited. You know, are you familiar with the track theater in Philadelphia, the Trocadero, sure. Yeah. We’re playing there on the fourth of March. And what’s
Nestor Aparicio 08:02
your relationship with Skid Row and the whole doing the gym? I
Ace Frehley 08:06
got the French they sang backgrounds on three tracks, trouble walking too young to die and back to school. They’re real good friends of mine. I hooked up with those guys when we co hosted a headband is bra on MTV. I know if you saw it, but we did an acoustic version of COVID. I’d like to have that on the tape, a milestone in MTV history. And then they were playing that week. They were on the Bon Jovi tour. At the time they were playing at Brendan Byrne arena, so they invited me to jam with them. So I got up on stage and did COVID and ended their set. That was like an amazing thing. And then after the show, you know, I was hanging out with Sebastian, and he heard I was going into the studio shortly to start my new album, and he offered his services as a background vocalist. So, you know, when it came time for background vocalists, I gave him a call. And luckily, he was doing a concert about an hour away from the studio. I was recording that. So he came by with snakes and Rachel, and, you know, we laid down some background vocals. And it was real helpful, just kind of accidental on this day. Well, I think it was meant to pay, you know, everything for some reason. You know, we’re lucky enough that our schedules coincided.
Nestor Aparicio 09:31
Can we talk more about the history you think how serious this is? The whole thing is, as far
8Ace Frehley 09:35
as or I can honestly tell you, is like when people would ask me a year ago, if they said, is there going to be a kitchen? And I would say, Absolutely not, you know. And it seems like within one year, the complexion has changed almost 100% I mean, Paul and Gina are actually talking, seriously talking about
Nestor Aparicio 09:55
it. This is a makeup kind of thing, too. Or yeah, the only
Ace Frehley 09:59
way i. Would do it is with makeup in the old show and a huge production. I think that’s the only way to do it. I
Nestor Aparicio 10:06
8think it’s only people would come to see it, you know, yeah, I
Ace Frehley 10:09
think, I think the whole that would be the cool thing about it would be to bring back the makeup, you know, just for one tour. And, you know, let a lot of the kids today who never got a chance to see us in the 70s.
Nestor Aparicio 10:20
So when the whole thing broke up, I mean, was it like, I mean, I read there were some substance abuse problems. Is that? Is that a fact, or is that not with me? Oh, yeah,
Ace Frehley 10:28
I had some bad problems with drinking and substance abuse. The substance abuse basically stemmed from several car accidents. You know, doctors that put me on medication, which was habit falling. So, you know, between my drinking and my substance abuse, you know, I was kind of a mess for a while there.
8Nestor Aparicio 10:46
So how did you you finally wanted to dry it out? Yeah, I
Ace Frehley 10:49
dried out. And, you know, I decided to, you know, start working out and get in shape. And probably today, I’m healthier than I’ve been in 10 years.
Nestor Aparicio 11:00
Last time I saw you is like you did like a second show on your tour here, and you really tuckered out after show. I just remember how tired you were. How would you get that way
Ace Frehley 11:10
8better shape now than I was the last time I played hammer checks? I’m trimmer. I’m healthier. Yeah, I’m down to I’m six two. I’m down to, like 164 now
Nestor Aparicio 11:21
that’s probably the way you were 15 years ago.
Ace Frehley 11:23
Yeah, I’m not abusing any substances at this point in time, and I feel good. That’s good. I’m happy that the new album and the rights been received, and I appreciate your support. And all the fans. Just want to say thanks.
Nestor Aparicio 11:39
No problem. Next Wednesday night. Okay, that’s fine. I see it all right. Bye.
