KISS Legend Reveals the One Thing He’ll Always Regret About Ace Frehley

Peter Criss regrets never doing a solo collaboration with Ace Frehley. The legendary KISS drummer spoke to Podcast Rock City months after Frehley, the band’s original guitarist and “Spaceman,” died from injuries sustained from a fall. Frehley died on Oct. 16 at age 74, two months before the band was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Kennedy Center Honors.

“The worst thing was Ace wasn’t there,” Criss, 80, said of the Kennedy Center ceremony. “I really miss him dearly. We were very close… There’s a big loss without Ace.”

Criss, who left KISS in 1980, admitted he regretted never doing a side project with Frehley after he also left the inconic glam band a couple of years later.

Describing his relationship with Frehley as a “rollercoaster ride,” Criss admitted. “I’m sorry we never did an album together. That was a dream of mine, that him and I would do an album together. I’m sorry that never happened.”

While all of the original KISS bandmates—Criss, Frehley, Paul Stanley, andGene Simmons—released solo albums over the years, Criss noted that Frehley was the most prolific.

“Ace did more solo albums than any of us in [KISS],” he said. “He’s done, like, 10, easily, solo albums, more than us. He was working on his new album before his tragic accident, and he was getting ready to go on another tour. He was 74. God bless him. And there’ll never be another.”

During their years together in KISS, Criss felt as if it was he and Frehley against Stanley and Simmons. In 2012, he told the Opie & Anthony Show that after a couple of years in the band, he and Frehley felt they didn’t have equal say in the band’s direction.

“I could start feeling [Stanley and Simmons] wanting the power,” Criss said, per Blabbermouth.net. “The more we were going up the ladder of future and fame, the more it was kind of swaying to Mr. Simmons and Stanley. Ace and I were kind of not getting our musical [ideas] in.”

In 1979, KISS  made an infamous appearance on Tom Snyder’s late-night talk show, Tomorrow, where the band’s divide was apparent as an animated Frehley took over the interview with Criss egging him on alongside him.

“We [Ace and I] finally had a great time in an interview; we finally enjoyed ourselves,” Criss recalled. “I knew how pissed off they [Paul and Gene] were, and that made it even better. Because they didn’t finally get to take over the interview. And I knew we really got them P.O.ed, because we did take over. … And they [Paul and Gene] were furious. And I got a feeling then, we should do this more often, because we got so much feedback from the fans — ‘It’s about time you and Ace spoke up’ — and we enjoyed it so much. “

Criss previously shared that one of his final conversations with Frehley was about KISS’s Kennedy Center honor, which was announced in August.

“He was so excited. He was like, ‘Wow Cat, I can’t believe we’re getting this award!’ I haven’t heard him that excited for a while. He was getting ready to tour again, working on his new album…He was really up,” Criss told Billboard in December. “I got to sit next to Ace’s empty chair, where his medal was. I’m still mourning over him. I can’t believe he’s gone. We were extremely close. It’s been very hard.”

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