“I never got a phone call – they just said that to sell tickets”: Ace Frehley says he hasn’t been approached to join Kiss’s final concert
“There’s really no hard feelings – I love those guys.”
Credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images
Hardcore Kiss fans still holding out hope for former guitarist Ace Frehley to appear at the band’s upcoming final show: you’re about to be disappointed, unfortunately.
Frehley – who served as Kiss’s lead guitarist between 1973 and 1982, and then again between 1996 and 2002 – has said in a new interview that there is no chance he’ll take to the stage with his former bandmates for one last time, as hasn’t received a phone call or invitation to do so.
“You know what it is? Those guys use my name and Peter’s [Criss, original Kiss drummer] name months ago,” Frehley tells Mark Strigl of SiriusXM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard [transcribed by Blabbermouth]. “They said that they invited us to perform at that show. I never got a phone call. Peter never got a phone call. They just said that to sell tickets.
“And recently, Paul Stanley has made negative statements about me and Peter. For example, I think the last negative statement he said, when people asked him, ‘[Are] Peter and Ace gonna perform at the Garden?’ he said, oh, we would mar the show if we got up and [played] – which is really insulting.”
He continues: “I’ve been touring without Kiss for years. I mean, Kiss hasn’t put out an album in, what, nine years; I’ve put out five or six. And [my upcoming] album [10,000 Volts] I think is gonna really turn heads.
“I know Gene’s [Simmons] gonna really like it and tell the press he does like it. I have no idea what Paul Stanley’s gonna say. He usually holds back on any deep praise for me because he’s jealous of me.”
But despite the verbal back and forth between Frehley, Stanley and Simmons, Frehley maintains that he doesn’t hold ill feelings towards his former bandmates.
“I wish Kiss the best, all the best on their final shows for the End of the Road tour,” he says. “There’s really no hard feelings. We say things sometimes in the heat of passion or sometimes our memory isn’t… [we don’t] recall things. But I love those guys. We’re all getting old, our memory isn’t what it used to be, so I just let it roll off my back.”
Earlier this month, Gene Simmons commented on the inevitable absence of both Ace Frehley and Peter Criss from Kiss’s final shows, saying: “I feel sad and angry that both Ace and Peter aren’t here.”
“They’re not here to enjoy this unbelievable journey with us,” he said. “They were there at the beginning and deserve all the credit. And when they look in the mirror, the only reason they’re not here with us is themselves.”
Kiss’s last show ever – at New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden on December 2 – will be streamed live on pay-per-view. Head to PPV.com to grab tickets.