Ace Frehley didn’t rock and roll all night on Friday, with the former Kiss guitarist’s show at Jergel’s Rhythm Grille in Warrendale ending shortly before 11 p.m.

But “The Spaceman” showed why countless guitar players derived inspiration from his Kiss heyday, as he and his band took a dive into Kiss classics as well as a few from his solo career.

Frehley played in Kiss from 1973-1982 and rejoined from 1996-2002, with the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

The 74-year-old hit the stage decked out in sunglasses, which stayed on all night, and a black T-shirt and coat — he’d have several wardrobe changes including Hello Kitty shirt and leopard print shirts, while the rest of the band wore matching bedazzled shirts with all four last names on the front.

Frehley opened with the first Kiss song he sang himself, “Shock Me,” as he flicked guitar picks and strummed his Les Paul guitar. The 1974 classic “Deuce” gave Frehley the chance to solo twice before he, bassist Ryan Cook and rhythm guitarist Jeremy Asbrock convened closely at center stage for the conclusion.

For all the shows Frehley’s done in his career, forgive him if he wasn’t 100% sure of where he thought the show was supposed to be.

“I thought we were in Philly. I don’t know,” Frehley said. “Wherever we are, we’re happy to be here. You guys ready to rock?”

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Kiss‘ Gene Simmons has never been ashamed to voice his love for green stuff—no, not marijuana, but cold, hard cash. In a 2017 interview with CNBC, he declared, “Money absolutely buys happiness” and “Money is the fuel of life. Without money, you’re going nowhere.”

However, the other long-time leader of the band, Paul Stanley, does not exactly seem to share his bandmates’ love of money. Or, at the very least, admits it was not what initially fueled his desire to rock and roll all night and party every day.

During an interview with The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan, Stanley recalled his early musical inspiration. And it was not money-based.

“We learned through mistakes and nobody has to take up a collection for us,” Stanley said (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “Our rent is well paid. But you know, the idea of being like, money hungry, or anything like [that], it’s not the case. I’ve always done this, and we’ve always done this, ultimately, truly because of the joy it gives us.”

Kiss’ Starchild then listed several concerts he was lucky to have witnessed first-hand, which inspired him to write music and perform.

“I was so fortunate. I grew up in an era that took us into the next era, but I grew up seeing Jimi Hendrix play for a couple of thousand people, Led Zeppelin, The Who, with Buddy Guy opening in ’69, Humble Pie, Derek and the Dominoes, all these bands. That’s what I love, and that’s what I wanted to be.”

“I never started doing this with the intention, ‘I’m going to be a millionaire,'” Stanley continued. “Back then, a millionaire was like, the Monopoly man. Y’know, ‘Whoa! That’s incredible.’ But it was never about that. It was about — I want to be that guy, I want to be up there. Yeah, I want to be Steve Marriott. I want to preach. I want to be up there preaching rock and roll.”

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A GREAT ITEM FOR YOUNG AND THE YOUNG AT HEART: Nice design and sturdy construction is was you’ll get with this KISS tin storage box. Beefy handle and latches with a fully embossed front cover.

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Another sad loss. Take a look back when KISS met Hulk Hogan at WCW in 1999.

For an era of music that my parents’ friends are keen to tell me was the greatest of all time, I can’t help but wonder why there were so many theatrics. As good as the music was, classic rock in the 1970s and 1980s was littered with the sort of flamboyance that usually compensates for the lack of something. I mean, why else would Kiss feel the need to smear pancake makeup on their faces for every show?

Of course, this is a slightly reductive take that overlooks the simple idea of showmanship, and, during that era, bands and artists were stretching the realms of what was acceptable. So naturally, make-up-fuelled alter egos were a by-product of that.

In fairness to Kiss, while their music didn’t necessarily innovate, their shows did, being the first real band to introduce pyrotechnics to the stage. With music becoming an increasingly lucrative art form and the appetite for live shows at an all-time high, the band realised their budget could alter what was considered normal and deliver something that engaged beyond the music.

Naturally, as innovators in that field, they were the first to realise when it was taken too far. And during one fateful gig, they met their limit. “We had the candelabra on stage,” Gene Simmons tentatively explained, before descending into quite a frightening story.

“Now, somebody thought to get flash paper and fill it with gunpowder and just kind of scrunch it up. I would sort of light it while Paul sang, ‘Do you feel alright’, and throw it over the heads of the audience, and it would explode over their heads and scare them. In those days, fire marshals didn’t know anything. It’s like you could do all kinds of wild and unsafe stuff.”

Rock and roll, eh? Thriving in the days before health and safety had a department and relishing in the mischievous madness of fire. But with all people who play with fire, it’s only a matter of time before something, or someone, gets burned. Luckily, but rather worryingly for Kiss, it wasn’t any of the band.

“I didn’t throw it well. Instead of throwing it above the heads of the audience, this poor guy must’ve been standing on his seat, so he was taller than the other guys standing on the ground. I remember hitting this guy straight in the face. You ever see in those freak houses where you hit the duck and it goes right back down? That’s what it looked like. The thing exploded in front of the guy, and he went down.”

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Ozzy Osbourne, who was born John Michael Osbourne on Dec. 3, 1948, and later earned the nickname “The Prince of Darkness” from his shadowy heavy metal persona, died Tuesday, July 22, after battling a number of health issues over the years. He was 76.

The Black Sabbath frontman was known as much for his indelible mark on the music industry as he was for his larger-than-life personality, be it on stage or in front of a camera while filming the massively successful reality show, “The Osbournes.”

Two weeks before his death, Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath to perform at a star-studded farewell show in England, an appropriately dark and electric send-off for one of rock’s greatest legends.

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Kiss has never featured an aquatic figure, a dolphin or shark or whatever. But there is still time.

Some pre-voyage additions have been announced for “Kiss Kruise: Landlocked in Vegas” at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas from Nov. 14 to 16.

Former Kiss band member Bruce Kulick, Stephen Pearcy and Warren DeMartini will perform the best of Ratt. New to the lineup are Sebastian Bach (who is a tireless vocalist, I tell ya) Quiet Riot, Black ‘N Blue, Kuarantine, Kiss tribute bands Mr. Speed and Kiss Nation, School of Rock, comedian Craig Gass and DJ Noiz.

An acoustic Kiss “Kick-Off” set opens the music on Nov. 14. Q&A sessions with Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and Tommy Thayer and the band’s longtime manager Doc McGhee, are set. Other panelists include legendary Kiss producer Bob Ezrin; Lynn Goldsmith, famed KISS photographer; and Kiss Army founders Bill Starkey and Jay Evans.

There is also a panel dubbed “The Future of Kiss,” in which fans get a sneak peek on all that is ahead for the band. I’ll host that one. The future of Kiss, fan events, merch and remastered music. Panel adjourned, rock on.

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“You can go and see Kiss, and you can rock ‘n’ roll all the way down to the pit!” That was Bob Dylan’s declaration in 1979 when he was in the tightest grip of his spiritual phase. The artist had found God, or was claiming God found him and turned him against Gene Simmons.

“Jesus did appear to me as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,” Dylan said of this shift in himself, “There was a presence in the room that couldn’t have been anybody but Jesus”.

This was the start of his late 1970s spiritual phase. For an artist who has been through many eras and iterations, a new chapter came as a surprise to no one. But for Dylan to become so staunchly Christian, it was a peculiar new moment in his life, and then for him to start turning on rock acts? That seemed downright odd.

As his own albums began pivoting towards Christian or worship music, his thoughts on the whole industry became stricter and stricter. “If you want rock ‘n’ roll, you go down and rock ‘n’ roll,” he said, basically declaring the form sinful and dooming its fans to hell with Kiss standing in as the ultimate devils in disguise.

But the connection between Dylan and Simmons is way more complex than that. In the years before this godly phase, the folk star had been openly inspired by Kiss. In the mid-1970s, Dylan’s touring violinist Scarlet Rivera was dating Simmons, so he caught one of the band’s shows with her. After that, he was so transfixed by the band’s makeup that it seemed to directly inspire his own white face paint during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.

Simmons, too, had a deep respect and admiration for Dylan, enduring even when the musician basically called him Lucifer. “Next to Zappa, one of the other pivotal people for me is Bob Dylan,” the rocker said in 2010. He bestowed high praise on him, stating, “There’s certainly no greater lyricist in pop culture. But Dylan is classic poetry to me”.

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Ghost’s Tobias Forge has hit back at Gene Simmons’ assertion that “rock is dead”, arguing that new bands will continue to rise to the top.

The KISS bassist and singer has spoken multiple times in recent years about his belief that the genre is no longer producing major new artists, dating back to comments in 2014 in which he accused record labels of failing to adequately support rock musicians.

In 2021, he returned to the topic, saying that contemporary artists may be popular, but that does not mean they are “iconic”, saying new bands “haven’t taken the time to create glamour, excitement and epic stuff”.

Simmons also pointed his finger at the younger generation of music fans, accusing them of “killing the thing that you love”, despite appearing to be more critical of the streaming model and its low pay for artists.

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Signed by Dale Torborg at the Square Circle Expo 2023 in Indianapolis, IN.  Signed on the clamshell in yellow paint pen.  This is special because he signed his name and “The Demon”.  He usually only signs The Demon.  Includes a piece of ring worn costume that is also signed.  The ring worn costume is part of the pants that were recovered by the Demon in his match versus Norman Smiley in 2000 on WCW Thunder and Dale wore in several WCW matches.  Dale signed this in his hotel room.  See photo of him signing another item from the same signing.  Dale was the Demon wrestler in WCW. Includes or Certificate of Authenticity.  Includes FREE bonus Dale Torborg Burnt guitar pick!

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Kiss was conquering the world during their first go-round in the 1970s, and the band appeared to be more of an equal proposition between all four band members. And as such, each contributed to the band.

However, after Ace Frehley and Peter Criss jumped ship during the early ’80s, it was Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons who solely called the shots for the remainder of the decade, and beyond. But as the ’80s went on, it was clear that Simmons’s focus on the band was getting blurred: due to an acting career in film and TV, launching a record label, managing other artists, etc.

During an interview on The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan, Paul Stanley opened up about feeling betrayed and hurt during a rough period in KISS’s history, when he was left to carry most of the band’s workload while Gene Simmons pursued solo projects. Despite Gene still receiving compensation, Stanley felt abandoned and resentful, admitting the experience was emotionally painful because of their long-standing brother-like bond.

“I felt betrayed. “No secret. I felt that he was leaving me to do the heavy work, but continued to get paid. So, trying to have the best of both worlds: go off and do your own thing, and have the success in any level that there was success and the monetary compensation, which I’m not sharing in, but you’re abandoning ship, and you’re still my partner.”

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Very hard to find poster.  Bruce signed this for us in a private signing in Evansville, IN in April 2022.   He signed these in red paint pen.  Comes with our Certificate of Authenticity.  There are some issues with it. See photos for condition.  Measures 22.5 x 34 inches.

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