Ace Frehley, the Kiss guitar legend whose fiery playing and pyro-laden guitar tricks influenced and enraptured generations of players, died Thursday in Morristown, New Jersey, following complications from a fall in his home studio last month. He was 74.“We are completely devastated and heartbroken,” Frehley’s family said in a statement. “In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth. We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others. The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”Frehley's former Kiss bandmates, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, released a joint statement, writing: “We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley. He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part of Kiss’s legacy. Our thoughts are with Jeanette, Monique and all those who loved him, including our fans around the world.”Over the course of five decades, Frehley's Les Paul-fueled riffs and solos helped to define not just Kiss’ music, but the very sound of arena rock guitar. His influence stretched far beyond the makeup, from Tom Morello calling him his “first guitar hero” to Dimebag Darrell having Frehley's face tattooed on his chest.Born April 7, 1951, in the Bronx, Paul Daniel “Ace” Frehley got his first electric guitar as a Christmas gift in 1964. A self-taught player, he drew early inspiration from Hendrix, Beck, and the Stones—and in particular the Who’s Pete Townshend. As he told Premier Guitar in 2010, “I used to sit next to the record player and figure out every Who song. Playing a lot of Who music really helped develop my right hand, which helped with not only my rhythm technique but my leads, too.”In 1973, Frehley auditioned for a band seeking a “hard rock guitarist with balls and flash.” After hauling his 50-watt Marshall up a flight of stairs and jamming on “Deuce,” he landed the gig, forging Kiss alongside Simmons, Stanley and Peter Criss.As Kiss’ lead guitarist from 1973 to 1982, Frehley’s smoking, rocket-shooting, levitating Les Pauls became as iconic as the music itself. These stunts also carried genuine risks. As he told me in 2014, “One night [my flying guitar] hit something and slipped off, just grazing my shoulder. Imagine [a Les Paul] with a battery pack and a box to protect it from the heat of a smoke bomb.”Frehley's unique picking technique, where his loosely-held pick and thumb simultaneously struck the string, created what he described on Shred with Shifty as “a sound just shy of a pinched squeal, but more spunky.” This approach, combined with the fact that he ripped his solos through a “dimed Marshall stack,” powered the licks in Frehley-composed songs like “Cold Gin” and “Shock Me,” as well as “Rock and Roll All Nite,” Love Gun” and other Kiss classics.Frehley's 1978 self-titled solo album went platinum, with his cover of “New York Groove” reaching No. 13 on Billboard's Hot 100—the highest-charting single from any Kiss member's solo effort. His recording philosophy, as he explained to Premier Guitar, involved tracking basics with Les Pauls, then “doubl[ing] stuff up with Fenders because they have a different sound.” He'd layer acoustics underneath electrics, he said, because it “adds a fullness that you don't really hear until you take it away.”After forming Frehley's Comet in the mid-'80s, Ace returned to Kiss for their massively successful 1996 reunion tour, remaining until 2002. His late-career solo work demonstrated continued vitality. From 2009's Anomaly through 2024’s 10,000 Volts, Frehley’s output was well-received by fans, and he toured steadily behind the records. His 2016 effort, Origins, Vol. 1, and 2018’s Spaceman, featured collaborations, respectively, with former bandmates Stanley and Simmons. Despite public animosity over the years (Frehley was not involved in the band’s 2019-2023 End of the Road farewell tour) he recounted to me that working together again, at least at that time, was simple: “We all have the other's cell phone numbers and we just call each other!”As a player, Frehley opted for feel over technical dexterity. But never stopped learning. When I asked him in that same interview if he was still discovering things at 67, he laughed: “All the time. Half the stuff I do, I don't know what it's called. But you know, if it sounds good, I do it.”This intuitive approach defined his career. As he told Premier Guitar in 2010, “I pride myself on thinking outside the box, and I'm probably like that because I'm not a schooled musician. To me, there are no rules, and there never were.”
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