In a recent interview with “Guitar Tales” with Dave Cohen, former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley, who has been sober since 2006, discussed his decision to finally step away from alcohol nearly two decades ago. He had begun drinking at the age of 13 and battled addiction issues since the 1970s before a conversation with his daughter persuaded him that he had to stop.
“I can go out and people can have one or two cocktails,” Ace said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “It doesn’t bother me anymore. The first or second year in sobriety, it would have bothered me, but I don’t really get urges anymore.
“After 17 years looking in the mirror and then looking at photos of me 20 years ago when I was all bloated from alcohol, that also gives me the willpower and the strength to stay away from all that junk… I listen to my sponsor. I go to meetings. If something’s bothering me, I’ll go to a meeting and I’ll share it and then I get rid of it. You let it roll off your back and it’s gone, instead of having to take a pill or a drink to get rid of that resentment.”
According to Frehley, his at-times-strained relationship with fellow KISS co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons initially contributed to his drinking problem.
“I had really big resentments against Paul and Gene when I quit the band the first time and even the second time,” he explained. “They used to say I got fired, which is complete bullshit. Both times I left on my own accord, and they would perpetuate the myth that they fired me, which is complete bullshit.”
As for why he thinks Stanley and Simmons were always so quick to downplay his contributions to the band, Frehley said: “There was always a jealousy there. The fact that my solo album, with ‘New York Groove’, was the most successful out of the four. I used to get the hottest girls. I didn’t go after movie stars, though, ’cause that just complicates things. ‘Cause you’re a celebrity, you’ve got another celebrity there and it’s twice as complicated. So I don’t understand why Gene went out with Cher, Diana Ross. It just became harder, if you wanna go do anything. But Gene doesn’t party. So, he’s pretty much in the hotel. And he doesn’t like going out on vacations, he told me. He hasn’t been on a vacation in 15-plus years. But everybody’s different.”
Ace went on to say that Paul and Gene “dragged my reputation through the mud on several occasions. I mean, even recently,” he said. “[More than a year] ago, once they put the tickets on sale for [KISS‘s final show at] Madison Square Garden [in New York City], they were telling everybody that they invited me, Peter [Criss], Bruce Kulick, all the people that were involved with KISS over the years. I was a founding member. And they were telling the fans that we were gonna be there at Madison Square Garden and then Paul goes on ‘Howard Stern [Show]’ and says, well, if me and Peter got up on stage, you might as well call the band PISS, which pissed me off.”
Leave a Reply