{"id":230839,"date":"2025-10-17T05:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T05:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/230839\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T05:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T05:59:08","slug":"gene-simmons-rush-tom-morello-more-honor-kiss-ace-frehley-my-first-guitar-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/230839\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene Simmons, Rush, Tom Morello, More Honor Kiss\u2019 Ace Frehley: \u2018My First Guitar Hero\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tributes celebrating the wild, remarkable talent and inimitable laugh<\/a> of Kiss\u2019 guitarist, Ace Frehley<\/a>, were shared by his fellow musicians following the spaceman\u2019s death on Oct. 16 at 74. Frehley co-founded the band in 1973 alongside lead singer\u00a0Gene Simmons, guitarist Paul Stanley, and drummer Peter Criss, playing with Kiss during their Seventies heyday and returning for their reunion in the Nineties. The band\u2019s wild performances, painted faces, outrageous glitter costumes, and pyrotechnic hijinks would cement their place in rock & roll history forever (Kiss was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2014), while their monumental hits like \u201cI Was Made for Lovin\u2019 You\u201d and \u201cDetroit Rock City\u201d would go on to sell tens of millions of records worldwide.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, Simmons and Stanley wrote, \u201cWe are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley,\u201d and remembered their bandmate as \u201can essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history.\u201d They added, \u201cHe is and will always be a part of KISS\u2019s legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

Simmons shared his own, separate tribute<\/a>, as well. \u201cNo one can touch Ace\u2019s legacy,\u201d he said in a social media post. \u201cI know he loved the fans. He told me many times. Sadder still, Ace didn\u2019t live long enough to be honored at the Kennedy Ctr Honors event in Dec. Ace was the eternal rock soldier. Long may his legacy live on!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush<\/a>, who toured with Kiss as an opener for Kiss in the Seventies, looked back at their time with Frehley<\/a> on the road. \u201cBack in 1974, as the opening act for KISS, Alex, Neil and myself spent many a night hanging out together in his hotel room after shows, doing whatever nonsense we could think of, just to make him break out his inimitable and infectious laugh,\u201d wrote the band on Instagram, calling him \u201can undeniable character and an authentic rock star.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearl Jam\u2019s Mike McCready<\/a>\u00a0also mourned the loss of Frehley\u00a0<\/a>after news of his death. \u201cAll my friends have spent untold hours talking about KISS and buying KISS stuff. Ace was a hero of mine and also I would consider a friend. I studied his solos endlessly over the years,\u201d said McCready. \u201cI would not have picked up a guitar without Ace and KISS\u2019s influence. RIP it out Ace, you changed my life. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Morello<\/a>, an obsessive Kiss fan<\/a> who inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, called Frehley his \u201cfirst guitar hero.\u201d \u201cThe legendary Space Ace Frehley inspired generations to love rock n roll and love rock n roll guitar playing,\u201d said the Rage Against the Machine<\/a> guitarist in an Instagram post. \u201cHis timeless riffs and solos, the billowing smoke coming from his Les Paul, the rockets shooting from his headstock, his cool spacey onstage wobble and his unforgettable crazy laugh will be missed but will never be forgotten. Thank you, Ace for a lifetime of great music and memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best of Rolling Stone<\/p>\n

Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes celebrating the wild, remarkable talent and inimitable laugh of Kiss\u2019 guitarist, Ace Frehley, were shared by his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[58808,88,16517,17715,216,58806],"class_list":{"0":"post-230839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ace-frehley","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gene-simmons","11":"tag-kiss","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-paul-stanley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}