ACE FREHLEY: PAUL STANLEY Is 'One Of The Sloppiest Guitar Players Out There'

In the October issue of Metropolis Nights magazine, legendary KISS guitarist Ace Frehley sits down with celebrity journalist Chaunce Hayden and opens up about his relationship with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow below.

Chaunce Hayden: Recently, in Guitar World magazine, Paul [Stanley] said that you had lost a lot of your guitar skills and what a shame it was. How does that make you feel?

Ace Frehley: "I didn't read that, but I think that's hysterical. For Paul to try and say something negative against me as a guitar player? Come on! He should listen to himself playing live. He's one of the sloppiest guitar players out there. He's more worried about jumping around and pointing his finger. That's been the problem since the beginning of KISS. We all used to yell at him for making so many mistakes. I would try and cover for him. So for him to take a shot at my guitar playing…. Is he out of his mind?"

Chaunce Hayden: Vindication?

Ace Frehley: "Like I said, any of my critics now look foolish. That includes Paul and Gene and whoever else is on the bandwagon. They like to call me a drunk and a drug addict and everything else under the sun. The fact is I'm now enjoying eight years of sobriety as of yesterday. I continue to follow that road and put one foot in front of the other. One day at a time I get through it. It's really disheartening for people to continue to badger me and call me a loser just because I made some mistakes in the past. We should put that to bed. That's ancient history at this juncture. My body of work has stood the test of time and I know what I'm capable of doing. One thing Paul and Gene can never say about me is that in concert I always came through and delivered."

Chaunce Hayden: How do you feel about the new football reality show Gene and Paul are putting together for the AMC channel?

Ace Frehley: "I think they should put more time in the studio and maybe they would make better records. [Laughs]"

Chaunce Hayden: There was a rumor that you moved out of your house because you claimed it was haunted. Fact or fiction?

Ace Frehley: "That was true! I was living with my fiancée and we had to move out. She was pushed down a flight of stairs and a lot of things happened to me. I felt like I got punched in the face while up in the attic. Things were always flying around and moving. My fiancée is very psychic and she sees aberrations all the time. I don't see them, but she does. She's that sensitive."

Chaunce Hayden: We talking about ghosts?

Ace Frehley: "I don't know what they are. They could be inter-dimensional people or spirits that haven't found their way. But there's definitely something out there. I've experienced too many weird things to discount that something out there doesn't exist besides us."

Speaking to Guitar World magazine earlier in the year, Stanley stated about the musical working relationship he had with Frehley during KISS' early days: "What we had at the beginning was magical. Not because we were virtuosos. Magic in rock and roll isn't dependent on virtuosity. Ace and I played great together. But in my mind, it's a crime what Ace did. He threw away incredible potential and talent. The Ace I played with when the band first started out was a comet. And not [Frehley's late-Eighties band] FREHLEY'S COMET! But he was burning bright and really had the ability — and this would rub him the wrong way — to be a real contender. But he stopped practicing. He got involved with a whole lot of things that really diluted and diminished his craft. I saw that comet grow dim."

"Space Invader", the first new solo album from Frehley in five years, sold around 19,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 9 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on August 19 via Entertainment One Music (eOne Music).