The Space Ace also shared details about his modified Les Pauls and guitar solos in his classic 1979 interview
It’s seems everyone has a good Ace Frehley story. Gene Simmons has one about the time Ace auditioned for Kiss, on December 8, 1972, in the space above the former Live Bait Bar on 23rd Street in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.
“And Ace plugs in and starts playing while we’re talking to another guy,” Simmons told Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast last February, “and I walked up to him and said, ‘Buddy, you better sit down before I knock you out. What are you doing? We’re talking.’”
In the end, it was Ace who knocked out Simmons — as well as Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley — when he started the audition in earnest.
“Paul and I looked at each other, ‘Wow!’” Simmons recalled. “You don’t know what you’re looking for, but you certainly know it when you hear it — and see it. And… it just kind of happened.”
Frehley’s account jibes pretty closely with Simmons’. But in his January 1979 interview with Guitar Player, he added recollections that lend additional nuance to the story.
At the time it wasn’t Kiss,” he told the magazine. “It became Kiss after I joined the group. Peter, Paul and Gene had a trio and a record deal, and they advertised in the Village Voice. At the time I was unhappy with the group I was working with, and I just thought I would try out for the audition.