Ace Frehley is dead. The American musician died on October 16, 2025 aged 74 years. As a spaceman and lead guitarist for KISS, Frehley made rock history. He wasn’t just known for great riffs and solos, but also for wild stories and the odd slip-up. We dedicate ourselves to seven anecdotes from the wild life of Ace Frehley.
1. The perfume rush
It is well known that Ace Frehley was not averse to alcohol – and the musician never made a secret of it. In the mid-seventies, a bizarre scene occurred during a limousine ride that is still recounted in KISS circles to this day. Frehley was frustrated because there was no alcohol to be found. When someone jokingly remarked that perfume also contained alcohol, Frehley is said to have taken the remark literally – and drank an entire bottle on Ex.
“He said perfume contains alcohol, so it must work,” Gene Simmons later said with a laugh. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the car will then spend days searching for Chanel No. 5 smelled. Looking back, Frehley himself called it “the most expensive high of my life.”
2. The Chaos Interview on The Tom Snyder Show
The most infamous Ace Frehley interview of all time took place on October 31, 1979 on the NBC talk show Tomorrow with Tom Snyder. KISS performed with a full line-up – Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. Right from the start it was clear that someone wasn’t completely sober.
When Snyder teasingly asked him: “You’re kind of like a spaceman?”, Frehley’s spontaneous answer came: “No, actually, I’m a plumber.” What followed was minutes of laughter – Frehley giggled, Snyder laughed along, Peter Criss arched with fun, while Simmons and Stanley sat there, petrified.
According to Louder Sound, the interview was an embarrassingly funny TV moment that still has cult status today. Frehley later explained: “The plumber thing came completely out of nowhere. I didn’t plan it. Why something like that popped into my head – I have no idea. Probably because of all the substances I was taking at the time.”
3. The Nazi prank in Japan
However, not all of Ace Frehley’s escapades were something he was later proud of – such as the one with the Nazi uniform. The year is 1977: KISS are on tour in Japan, the band at the height of their fame. According to Classic Rock, Frehley, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss bought old Nazi uniforms from a store for fun – supposedly as props. Later that night, apparently drunk, they knocked on Gene Simmons’ hotel door and, according to “kissfaq,com“Shouted Nazi slogans.
Simmons, whose mother had survived the Holocaust, opened it – and was horrified. In interviews, Simmons and Frehley later confirmed that the moment was deeply uncomfortable for everyone involved. Frehley explained years later that he “didn’t think” and “deeply regretted” the joke. “In hindsight, I’m sorry. It probably brought back negative memories for him. But when you’re in the middle of things, sometimes you don’t realize that you’re doing something that could hurt someone. I would like to officially state that I don’t believe in Hitler or his ideology or anything he stood for,” Frehley said later in an interview with MTV.
4. The Lakeland Electrocution
December 12, 1976 is also legendary in KISS and Frehley history. At a concert in Lakeland, Florida, Ace Frehley suffered a severe electric shock on stage when he touched a metal railing. He was thrown to the ground and was briefly paralyzed. However, just half an hour later he returned to the stage – as if nothing had happened – and finished the concert.
Frehley dealt with the incident in the 1977 song “Shock Me,” which appeared on the KISS album “Love Gun.” It was his first vocal contribution to a KISS record – and one of the songs that ultimately made him a legend.
5. The 1974 car accident
The year is 1974, when KISS released “Hotter Than Hell.” At this time, Frehley’s alcohol consumption was already reaching alarming levels. While drunk, he caused a serious car accident in the Hollywood Hills.
“One night I got drunk and was driving around in the Hollywood Hills. I drove faster and faster around the same block until I lost control and crashed into a telephone pole. I think I tempted fate. I got out of the car and hit my head. I ran back to the hotel and knocked on my road manager’s door with blood streaming down my face. He said: ‘Oh God, what happened to you?’ I said, ‘I wrecked a car.’ One of many – it was like the beginning of a saga,” quoted KissTimeline.com.
In the photos for the album, Frehley was only allowed to put make-up on the uninjured side of his face – this is clearly visible on the cover and in the booklet. The accident is now seen as a symbol of the phase in which Ace Frehley’s genius and self-destruction were inextricably linked.
6. The dangerous makeup
Of course – Ace Frehley’s silver spaceman makeup was absolutely iconic. But once it almost cost him his sight. The story goes that after a show in Paris, Frehley celebrated extensively with champagne with a friend and finally fell asleep without washing off the make-up.
“I woke up and my eyes were swollen shut because of the silver that hadn’t been washed off – it’s made of metal powder. I was blind,” Frehley later said. In a panic, he sought out a doctor who could help him. But for a short time, Frehley thought he would never see again. His trademark was not only spectacular, but also dangerous.
7. The thing about different shoes
The first impression counts – even at a band audition. In 1973, Ace Frehley introduced himself to Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons to become guitarist for KISS. And he appeared in an outfit that you won’t soon forget: two different colored sneakers. “There was a guy running in with one orange sneaker and one red sneaker,” Gene Simmons later recalled. “I thought a bum off the street had gotten lost – but he had a guitar with him.” How the story ended is well known: Frehley auditioned, excelled – and became the guitarist for KISS.
8. The DeLorean escape from the police
In 1983 – shortly after leaving KISS – Ace Frehley raced in his silver DeLorean (from the car Back to the future) through White Plains, New York. He was drunk and didn’t have a valid driver’s license. Loud Wikipedia and Rock Soldiers-Biographies he caused a rear-end collision – and when the police wanted to check him, he feigned cooperation, accelerated and fled. A short chase ensued, which ended with Frehley being caught and arrested for drunk driving.
9. Excesses in Dimebag Darrell
Ace Frehley confirmed in several interviews that he never missed a party. His encounter with is particularly legendary Dimebag Darrell from Pantera. Loud Metal Sludge and Loudwire The two spent an excessive weekend in Dallas – between Dimebag’s house, his brother Vinnie Paul and their strip club “The Clubhouse”.
That night, as Frehley later said, “everything escalated a bit.” At some point he was having fun in the company of a prostitute – very drunk and in a high spirits – while Dimebag and his girlfriend were in the room and laughing. “I was so drunk that I didn’t even care,” Frehley later recalled.
10. Missile accidents
Pyrotechnics were simply part of Ace Frehley’s business – sometimes with unforeseeable side effects. Once, he said MusicRadarhe fired one of his guitar rockets on stage – and it shot past Gene Simmons by a whisker. “It flew right past his head – that could have ended badly,” Frehley later laughed.
But things didn’t always end well. His legendary rocket guitar was also equipped with smoke bombs – and one of them ignited too early one evening. The explosion melted the heat-resistant material of his costume to his leg. “I really burned my leg back then,” recalled Frehley. “The damn stuff was stuck to my skin.”