Ace Frehley Forever: Remembering the Spaceman
By RVH
October 17, 2025
In the rock and metal community, we still haven’t healed from the loss of Ozzy Osbourne — and yet yesterday, October 16, 2025, we lost another giant from our leagues: The Space Ace, Ace Frehley.
Paul Daniel “Ace” Frehley, one of the founding members of KISS and perhaps the most storied player in the band’s iconic legacy, left us at the age of 74 following complications from a head injury.
The Spaceman was my favorite KISS member — and the only one I got to interview from the core four — for Dee Snider’s House of Hair Online back in 2009 as Frehley was promoting the fifth of his ten solo albums, Anomaly. It’s been said by most KISS fans that Ace won by a country mile when the band ventured their four solo recordings in 1978. You still hear New York Groove from Ace’s ’78 power-punching album dished as sound bytes on contemporary television, and Rip It Out may be the most kick-ass cut Ace dropped in his entire recording career, KISS and solo.
Despite their omnipresent raunch, KISS had inadvertently become a superhero-level band of titans for the enamored youth of the 1970s. I was one of those kids. KISS was my be-all, end-all band — even through my teens and the non-makeup years. Likewise, I loved the snot out of Ace’s first official solo venture from the late 1980s, Frehley’s Comet.
For all the excesses Ace once struggled with — and the estranged feuding with his former bandmates — didn’t it feel like the man finally won with Frehley’s Comet? I always loved getting Gene and Peter in the old KISS trading cards back in the ’70s, but whenever I got an Ace in my pack, it was as exciting as pulling a home-team player in a baseball card pack.
Ace was kind and chill in the time he gave me, as you’ll read here. This 2009 interview was a moment of joy for me professionally — but even more so personally.
Damn, Ace. Just damn.
Split one final fractured mirror as a galactic swan song into the cosmos, Space Ace.
Frehley Forever.
The 2009 Interview
RVH: Since your self-created label is called Bronx Born, I wanted to go back to your early days before there was such a thing as KISS — when you were growing up in the Bronx. How did you see your potential career going as a youngster once you’d picked up the guitar?
AF: Going back to when I was 15 or 16, I kind of knew I was destined for the big stage. I just knew. Don’t ask me how I knew; I just knew. A friend of mine who was a few years older than me, “Peppy” Thielhelm, he was in a band called the Blues Magoos and they had a big hit on the radio once when I was a young kid called We Ain’t Got Nothing Yet. This guy grew up two blocks from me and all of a sudden when I’d hung out with him a few times and then listened to his song on the radio, I said to myself, “You know, if this guy from the neighborhood can make it, why can’t I?” It didn’t seem that far-fetched anymore, you know?
RVH: I dig how your new album Anomaly kicks off with Foxy and Free and then Outer Space. They rock, they have a lot of bite, and they’re as memorable as anything you’ve ever written. I’d say if you’re looking to get our attention out the gate with this album, you did it!
AF: I just wanted to make the very best possible album. I took a lot of time in the studio and with the mixing process. It came out pretty much the way I envisioned it. I don’t really have any regrets about the way the record sounds.
RVH: No matter what’s happened to you on the outside, you’re still the Spaceman to all of us — and on this album you have Outer Space, Space Bear, Sister, and of course Fractured Quantum. What keeps you in tune with the universe to keep writing in such a cosmic vibe?
AF: You never forget about it. I’ve always been involved with extraterrestrial stuff, and staying in touch with the other side helps me stay in tune with this side, if you can get that! (laughs) Everything isn’t as it seems sometimes — and that’s because it usually isn’t! (laughs)
RVH: (laughs) I’m so glad to see Anton Fig lend you a hand again on this album. That has to be special since he has the Paul Shaffer/David Letterman gig. You’ve had Anton as a constant since ’78, and you know, he’s still one of the hardest hitters on the scene — pick your genre!
AF: One of Anton’s secrets — if you really study his playing — is he just makes a track swing and very rarely does he play on top of the beat. He’s usually playing just a little behind the beat, which is what John Bonham of Led Zeppelin gave to them: that plodding, heavy sound. I wish more drummers today would play that way because it gives more heaviness and it just gives a better groove. Some drummers are always playing on the beat or a little ahead, especially speed metal. They should take note of the way Anton and guys like John Bonham play drums a little behind the beat, which gives it more of a swing — from my vantage point, anyway.
RVH: How special was it doing A Little Below the Angels? I think that song is just adorable, and I thought that it was gutsy of you to have that chat session with your daughter in the middle. Tell us about how you put this song together.
AF: That song evolved after I rewrote it twice. I recorded it once with a drum machine, I recorded it with Anton, and I ended up rewriting the lyrics and the verses completely. In the final version I ended up scrapping the drums pretty much during the verse and the chorus and then popping them in during the bridge. I’m happy with the way it came out. I may release another version down the road so people can hear what it was like hearing the drums from beginning to end. With Pro Tools you have many different options for how you edit a song. I think there’s a positive message on it and it’s pretty autobiographical too, you know?
RVH: (laughs) No doubt! That’s some of your heaviest bloodletting since Rock Soldiers — and maybe even Hard Times before that!
AF: (laughs) Yeah, well, hopefully that means I’m growing! (laughs)
RVH: (laughs) On the flipside, you have your cover of Sweet’s Fox on the Run. You always nail your cover tunes, man — whether you’re talking Do Ya or New York Groove — and I thought this one was on the dime as well. I’ve always thought the vocals on Sweet’s version run very parallel to your own, so to me it’s a natural thing you’d cover Fox.
AF: This gal that does my makeup sometimes for photo sessions, Pam, she came up with the idea to do that song. I mentioned it to a couple of friends of mine, and one of my friend’s wives — who isn’t that knowledgeable about music — he was playing the original version by Sweet, and he said his wife thought it was me! So I guess that’s maybe where Pam got the idea. I was always a fan of Sweet, but I hadn’t listened to their records in a while. It just seemed like the right song at the right time.
RVH: I’ve always felt glam rock has figured into your sound, both in a KISS and solo capacity. At times I feel like Anomaly might be your glammiest-sounding album to date. What is it about the glam sound that’s figured into a lot of your work?
AF: Well, you know, glam rock was a big part of the inspiration of KISS, so it’s always been with me if you’re going to talk about my influences. Yet I have so many other influences too, which I guess are all mixed together. I don’t particularly see the glam rock sticking out that much, but maybe certain people perceive things differently.
RVH: To me, you put the exact care into Fractured Quantum on this album as you did the original Fractured Mirror from the ’78 solo album. This Fractured series on all your solo albums has really become an extensive part of you.
AF: I originally did a bass guitar track and Anton played a live drum track on that one, but I ended up scrapping it. Marti Frederiksen programmed some drums, bass, and guitar, and that’s why the melody breathes; I’m real happy with the way that one turned out. It came out a little less complicated than it originally was, but I think the melody shines through.
RVH: Too Many Faces, along with some of the other songs on Anomaly, are very personal. Given all that you’ve experienced in life leading into this album, do you feel tormented by too many faces — or do you feel the reflection is actually bringing you some peace these days?
AF: I’m not really tormented. People sometimes read a lot more into my lyrics than they should. To me, Too Many Faces is a lighthearted song! (laughs) I didn’t really think too much about the lyrics; I just wrote them. There’s no torment. When I wrote the chorus, I thought about the way I used to look in the mirror when I was putting the KISS makeup on. Mostly I thought about how a lot of different people wear different faces — when some of those faces create different personalities. To me, it’s all of the above! Plus, you’ve heard the term how some people can be two-faced? It happens.
Final Thoughts
From the Bronx to the stars, Ace Frehley was always larger than life — a cosmic conduit of riffs, rebellion, and humor. He didn’t just play guitar; he orbited it, spinning electricity into melody and myth.
Rest easy, Spaceman.
The world will always keep your groove on repeat.
