Livewire Interview

Livewire 1996

How's life in Kiss, Ace?

Ace Frehley: It's great to be sober and it's great to be back with Kiss and it's fun to put the make-up back on again, and the audience has just been spectacular. Life is good, what can I say?

What does it feel like being onstage together after all these years?

Frehley: We're genuinely having fun with each other again which is nice. You can't fake that. I'm not that good an actor (laughs). I remember before we decided to do this, we all sat down and said, Listen, we really have to work out our problems with each other and talk through it, bury all the old hatchets and get rid of all the old demons. Because kids are going to pick up on it if we're just going to get up there and do it for the money. We gotta do this because we want to do this, and have fun doing it. It's going to be a two-year tour.

How did you guys sit down and get rid of all those old demons?

Frehley: Me and Peter got rid of our demons a while ago. That was a big stumbling block towards the end. We all struggled with demons whether it be chemicals or alcohol or groupies. We all have our vices.

What were the New York shows like for you?

Frehley: It was really fun for me because my daughter was sitting in the front row. I walked over to her and gave her a high five. She just turned sixteen. She was at the Garden for the first two shows. And Sebastian (Bach, Skid Row vocalist and Kiss buddy) was body-guarding her the second night right in the front row. The second show she decided to sit in the front row and he was giving people the elbows going, "Don't fucking push her, this is Ace's daughter!" I got a lot of vicarious pleasure out of watching her. She was real proud of me. It was special too when Paul said "This is our hometown." It just made it that more special and exciting for me. Things couldn't have gone any better than they did.

Would you have foreseen 4 nights at the Garden?

Frehley: I thought we'd be able to do three which would have matched what we did in the past at the height of our popularity in the 70s. But to do four...Doc McGhee (current Kiss manager) actually told me we could have done five but we couldn't get the room. It was booked for something else. We could have sold another one.

So it says that you're bigger than you were at the height of your popularity?

Frehley: Yeah. It's pretty bizarre without even a hit record out or anything.

Did you think the tour would get this big?

Frehley: I knew it was going to be big, but I didn't know it was going to be THIS big.

After the Unplugged taping, what happened next?

Frehley: Gene approached my manager because, at the time, Peter and I were touring together and my manager George Sewitt manages Peter also. George was on the road with us, and he and Gene started negotiating it. Gene, Paul and George are responsible for the reunion tour.

When did you first plug in and play together?

Frehley: it wasn't until we were signed, sealed and delivered, contracts were signed. Gene and Paul and Peter live on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast. It wasn't until I flew out and got into the rehearsal studio and plugged in my Les Paul and just started to jam on the old songs. But we knew. They knew Peter and I had been playing together. They'd heard tapes and they knew we had our shit together.

Did it take a while for all of you to get together on the old material?

Frehley: It took a while for me to relearn some of my guitar solos because some of the solos I wrote when I was a little spaced-out. A perfect example, the solo on a "100,000 Years." I would never write a solo like that today. I'm saying to myself, "God, I wrote this fucking solo. It's wacky." Some of the solos I'm saying "Wow." My head was in a different place that day. I wanted to be able to reproduce the solos pretty much like they were on the record. I can see the kids faces when I play the solos note for note. They really get off on it. Above and beyond rehearsing we were working out with personal trainers to get in shape for this very physically taxing tour. We were working out five days a week, doing photo sessions, press, preparing merchandising. I designed the morph at the end of "Black Diamond" that comes up on the video. I did that on my Mac.

What's it like on tour for you now as opposed to the 70s?

Frehley: In the old days I'd get up and crack open a beer. Now I'm drinking coffee. I've got three computers in my room. One's rendering animation, and I've got my laptop checking out some data and finances.

So you spend your off time with your laptop and not at the bar?

Frehley: Spending time in my room, with my friends. I fly my friends out, my daughter out. She'll spend some time with me on the road. Sometimes Peter flies his daughter out. My daughter and his daughter grew up together, so they're good friends. They can go out shopping in the afternoon and hang out together and have a good time. Last time Peter and I played the House of Blues, Jenilee, his daughter, ended up sleeping over in our suite with Monique. They ended up sleeping out on the balcony covered up in blankets. I knew they were out there smoking cigarettes. I figured, let them have their fun. They hadn't seen each other in a while.

You and Peter still have a close bond, then?

Frehley: Peter and I have always stayed close throughout the years. Peter left the group first, then I chose to leave the group in '83. It took 9 months of negotiations with attorneys to work out that settlement. Then there were hard feelings. Paul, Gene and I didn't really talk too much after that for a while. I concentrated on my own band, Frehley's Comet.

Do you see the possibility of this not ending after the tour?

Frehley: Sure. It may go on for four or five years. We may decide to stick together and go off and do our own projects and come back.

Will Kiss record a new album together?

Frehley: I think it's possible. We haven't really discussed it. I think if we stay together more than two years there's a chance we might do a studio album, because, after two years, we would have played all the markets that we wanted to play. At that point I think people will want to hear a new record. After two years on the road our chops will be real tight and we can probably knock off an album in a couple of months. I think it will be one of the best things that we've ever done because we're all better musicians now. I think another reason why we're getting along a lot a better is because we all have kids now. It blows my mind. I remember at the Garden, Gene's kids coming running in the dressing room while we're putting on our makeup calling him Daddy. I remember Gene told me years ago, "I'll never have kids." And all of a sudden he's got two kids running around. It's really hysterical. But people change, you know. I say, never say never. We're taking it one day at a time. Paul said to me, "As long as we're all having fun we should continue to do this." And I agree. As long as the fans want it, I think we'll do it.

How did you decide the set list?

Frehley: We got feedback from fans. We rehearsed probably thirty different songs. We basically kept juggling songs around. I walked in one day with a set list. We basically decided that we were going to start the set with "Deuce" and originally we were going to end it with "Rock N' Roll All Night". That's what we did for the first few shows. We realized that "Rock N' Roll All Night" was such an up, exciting song that we should really save that for the last encore, and end the set with "Black Diamond". I'm sure we're going to maybe switch some songs around. Maybe we'll take a crack at "Talk To Me," that was a big hit in Europe.

Did you all sit down and plan the show together?

Frehley: We all consult each other when it comes to creative things. We're already planning more things 'cause we know when we come back to these same markets, we can't do the same exact show. I have another idea for a guitar effect that I can't give away yet 'cause I want to surprise the fans. But the show's going to get bigger, and better, if you can believe that.

Sort of the flip side of what was breaking the band up before?

Frehley: Yeah. Towards the end everyone sort of went their own way and kind of isolated themselves. There was a time when Paul and Gene weren't talking to each other, and I wasn't talking to anybody except Peter. The only time we'd see each other was when we were on stage. I was miserable. There was a point where we each had our own limousines and we would just leave and do our own thing. And very rarely did we talk to each other unless we had to.

What's it like with the four of you now?

Frehley: Now we go out to dinner together and we'll have lunch together. We have weekly band meetings. Just the other day we had a really good meeting. It was a three hour meeting. There's a couple of things each of has been doing that maybe had been bothering other band members. We kind of hashed it out, almost like a group therapy session. And it was very productive. And that was something that we used to do years ago. We used to have a meeting once a week and clear the air. I think that was one of the reasons why the band fell apart was because we stopped having those meetings. As long as we have the meetings and keep doing what we're doing, I think this thing is going to keep going. I'm having a great time.

What about the controversy about Gene and Paul making more money than you guys?

Frehley: That's a crock of shit. I don't know where that came from. It's poppycock.

How was it the first time you put on the makeup and the outfit again?

Frehley: It was strange. We did that at Gene's house. Once we had all our costumes made Gene said, "Why don't we get together,� 'cause we had a photo session coming up. We said, "Let's just put on our costumes and the makeup and see how we look, and see how it is to do it again." And it was strange because I don't remember what I did first. I remember I used to outline the silver stars. And I didn't remember if I put on the silver first, or the white first. The first couple of times I put on the stars, I made them too big. So what I did was take the solo album cover, and put that up in front of my make-up mirror, and use that as a guideline. I didn't want to make the stars look too big.

How would you sum up the experience of this tour?

Frehley: All I can say is: Thank you to the fans. If it wasn't for the fans we wouldn't be here. The fans are making this possible, not the fact that we decided to do it. 'Cause if the fans don't buy the tickets, and buy our merchandising, we wouldn't be out here. I'd just like to thank the fans for being there for us and not forgetting the original four members and staying by us.