Ace Frehley Talks Reconnecting With Ex-KISS Bandmates

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Anti Music

(Gibson) KISS guitar legend Ace Frehley has been talking to Staten Island’s SILive.com about his long-standing relationship with Gibson Les Pauls and he was also asked whether he’ll ever play with KISS again, a question which never seems to go away:

He replied, “It’s been 15 years but over the last two years, I’ve kind of reconnected with Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons]. I reconnected with Paul on the [Free cover] track ‘Fire and Water’ [on Frehley’s own album 2016’s Origins Vol. I]. He actually shot a video with me. So that was a lot of fun and it was good to reconnect with an old buddy.

“And then more recently, I did two songs with Gene for this new studio record that will be coming out. And then I did a [Hurricane Harvey] charity event with Gene in Minneapolis. That was a big success.

“And just a couple of weeks ago, I was with Gene, he invited me to come up to Los Angeles because he was doing an event for The Vault [Simmons’ mammoth box set], and he wanted me to come up and perform with him. And we exchanged some great stories. We had a lot of fun.” Read his comments about his go-to guitars here.

Gene Simmons Reacts to Haters: Not Everyone Likes Jesus Either

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Ultimate Guitar

KISS bass mogul Gene Simmons was asked on the Meltdown show on how he feels about all the people online that clearly dislike him, to which he replied (transcribed by UG):

“Well, that’s okay! I get paid well enough for this. Not everybody likes Jesus, and that’s okay too.

“You can’t please everybody. What are you gonna do? The best thing you can do is run a race, look straight forward and be the best you can be.

“Take it from our military – don’t look over your shoulder and to the side and to the peanut gallery to find out if it’s okay to be you. Just hold your head proudly and say, ‘This is me, take it or leave it!'”

Asked on what his “key to success” is, Gene replied:

“I guess having a right thing at the right place and the right time. And then there’s just plain hard work. And we’re America’s No. 1 gold record award winning group of all time in all categories. TA-DA!

“But like anything else you gotta get up every day and work at it. Ask Mike Tyson, he’s a friend. You can become a world champion and when you sort of stop training and stop looking after yourself some chunk is gonna knock you out.

“So get up every day like it’s the only day you’ll ever have in life and be a champion!”

Ex-KISS Guitarist VINNIE VINCENT Gives First Interview In More Than 20 Years: ‘If The Fans Want Me Back, I Can’t Wait’

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Blabbermouth

Earlier today (Friday, January 19) at the Atlanta KISS Expo 2018, former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent gave his first public interview in more than two decades when he spoke with SiriusXM‘s Eddie Trunk. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On why he decided to attend the KISS Expo:

Vinnie: “We have to thank [KISS Expo promoter] Derek Christopher, because he was relentless. He contacted Mark Nolan, my best friend and attorney. Derek spent eight months unrelenting — aggressiveness but nice. He was a really good guy, and I read his e-mails, I read everything that he’d sent Mark, and Mark and I talked. He said, ‘This guy seems like a really good guy.’ And he was. When we first talked with Derek, I said, ‘I really like him. If I’m going to do this, I want to do this with somebody I like, with somebody who cares.’

“My life became small. I wanted to become as small as I could be. I became very happy, very content. All I do is I play, I write, I record, I take care of my dogs. I have a really private, peaceful life now, and I haven’t had that in a long time. A lot of fans know a lot of things, but they also don’t know a lot of things.”

On whether he has any plans to dispel the biggest misconceptions about him:

Vinnie: “When it’s ready to be told, you don’t want to miss it. We’ve had two book publishers. We’re talking to them right now. It’s a hell of a book. You wouldn’t want to miss it. I read Kitty Kelley‘s unauthorized biography of Frank Sinatra, and I’m not a reader, but I couldn’t put that book down. This will top that book.”

On what he’s been doing since vanishing from the public eye:

Vinnie: “I spent 20 years in hell. The broad strokes were very… they could have been not so broad. They could have been quickly and really amicably could have eliminated 20 years of pain. I would say pertaining to KISS, these are my friends. These are guys I love. I love them to this day. I’ve got tremendous memories that are wonderful. Most of them are. Not always can you have a band and have a certain… I hate this word ‘magic,’ but it is a magic. It’s something you can’t put into words. THE BEATLES had that. THE WHO have it. [LED] ZEPPELIN had it. I always looked for that, and I never found it until I met them. It was something that, ‘This is the glue. This is the ingredients that I never found.’ It was everything you put into a mix that blows up. Good and bad.

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