Paul Daniel (Ace) Frehley (April 27, 1951 – October 16, 2025)
I woke up this morning to read the very sad statement on Ace Frehley released by his family last night:
“We are completely devastated and heartbroken. 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.”
He is survived by his wife Jeanette, daughter Monique, brother Charles, sister Nancy Salvner.
I am writing this obituary as a fan who is very sad today as Ace entered my life when I was at school aged around 14 and remained with me to this day, as a man in my fifties. I keep hearing that line from Paul Stanley in Alive II – “I’m going to turn the microphone over to Ace Frehley….Shock Me” and I can hear the following song in my head without playing the record. What follows in this obituary is my sense of Ace, my feelings and a thank-you to him for entertaining me through the years.
I had a read this morning, while still in bed, the BBC report on his passing which managed to spell his name wrong at one point and wrote that Kiss made a lot of noise. They did. They blew things up, made a noise that rocked out stadiums and showed the world a new form of theatrical rock that transformed live performance. Kiss connected to their fans who loved the characters (Ace was the Spaceman with the smoking guitar) and remained devoted to those personas over the decades that came and went. As a fan, it was comforting for me to know that Ace was still there recording new music and playing shows long after his old colleagues stopped being interested in releasing new music as it was no longer profitable. For Ace it was the music that mattered, and right to the end he was there creating in the studio for his fans. This was Ace who was connected to the sound of the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix and who had been there at Shea Stadium in August 1965 to watch The Beatles, then a teenager in the crowd, soon to be a legend himself.
Of course, Ace lived life very much on the edge. Although he was sober in his last decade or so, his earlier life had been plagued with the excesses of a rock lifestyle, hitting the booze and the drugs a little too often, a point he makes himself in the lyrics to some of his songs. A favourite of mine is the wonderful “A Little Below the Angels” from “Anomaly” (2009)
Alcohol was a friend of mine
It almost got me dead
I crashed some cars, got into fights
Some things I now regret
I’ve been told I’ve got nine lives
Or maybe even ten
Now I’ve changed my ways, my soul’s restored
I’m better now than then
We’re just a little below
A little lower than the angels
And that’s alright
That’s alright with me…(Frehley)
Ace was a Catholic by upbringing, and he had a belief in angels (and aliens) that he would happily talk to you about, and this song refers to his belief that he once saw an angel, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
If you want to find out why Ace was so popular and loved it was because, in my view, he was an original, talented guitarist who inspired a generation of musicians coming out of the seventies. You can hear his influence in other musicians, the style he inhabits on tracks like “Parasite” (1974 from Hotter than Hell) are as distinctive as a musical signature, and only the best musicians have those. He may have never had lessons, but his style was developed in performance on the road. If you want to find Ace in the music then listen to “Shock Me” from Alive II, “Dark Light” from The Elder, “New York Groove” (his top ten hit from his Kiss solo album in 1978) “Speeding Back to My Baby” (Solo Album 1978) “Into the Void” (Psycho Circus) “Rock Soldiers” (Frehley’s Comet) “A Little Below the Angels” (2009) and 10,000 Volts (2024). If you place those into your play list alongside the “Fractured Mirror” instrumentals that were always a feature of his albums then you will have Ace with you, and you will hear his style coming through each time.
Lastly, Ace loved his fans, Gene refers to this in his tribute today. Ace was that Bronx lad who was proud of how he had risen up to be inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and proud of how he moved away from the gangs of the Bronx to a life he loved. He was a talented graphic designer and artist, his art often appears on his albums and art was clearly another outlet for him. For all of us who have had to battle through our weaknesses at times Ace represents someone who, for all his flaws, was genuine. He went through it and came out the other side. If the devil sat in the passenger seat of DeLorean’s automobile, Ace was the driver, and we all love him dearly.
God Bless Ace, be at peace with the angels.
By Mark C. Chambers