ACE FREHLEY: 'Thank God I'm Clean And Sober Today'

Jeff Maisey of HamptonRoads.com recently conducted an interview with original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

HamptonRoads.com: When the members of KISS set out to make solo albums back in 1978, was there a competitive spirit to see whose album would sell best?

Frehley: "Oh, yeah. Before we all left to do our own records we had a big meeting. I might have read it wrong but the feeling I got from Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons] was... I remember them saying to me, 'Hey, if you need any help on your record don't hesitate to call.' But I perceived it as a condescending comment, like you're going to need help or something. Gene had everybody and his brother on his record. I did my whole record on my own with me and Anton Fig on drums. I guess my head was in a good place at that time."

HamptonRoads.com: What were the best years of KISS in terms of camaraderie?

Frehley: "In the early days there was a lot of camaraderie. I used to room with Gene. We used to stay at Holiday Inns. Paul and Peter [Criss] roomed together. There was a lot of insanity, a lot of girls, a lot of parties, a lot of crazy times. I don't regret any of it, you know?"

HamptonRoads.com: Where did the smoking guitar idea come from in your KISS days?

Frehley: "I came up with the idea one day when I was up in Canada on the road and bought some smoke bombs. I ended up putting one in the volume control compartment of my Les Paul. I knew there was a canal because the wires had to go to the pickups. I figured if I lit off a smoke bomb in there it would have to seep out from around the pickup, and it worked, but it ended up screwing up the volume and tone control. I did that a couple of times, and then I ended up getting together with an engineer, and we routed out the back of the guitar and put in a metal box, and the smoke came out of the guitar pickup closest to the neck, which was actually a fake pickup."

HamptonRoads.com: In 1987, when FREHLEY'S COMET debuted at No. 43 on the Billboard 200 chart, did you feel vindicated?

Frehley: "From the time I had the success with my (first) solo album I knew that I had to leave the group and make my own way. There was a lot more I needed to express both artistically and musically that I couldn't do in KISS, because everybody wanted to sing lead, everybody wanted the spotlight. It was always a power struggle. I was just noticing some (KISS) videos recently that had been re-edited where I don't get as much spotlight as I originally had. It's just stupid stuff like that, you know? My biggest problem was once I got away from them and I got on my own, I was left to my own devices. Being a party animal ended up doing me in for a while."

HamptonRoads.com: Drugs and alcohol brought your career down, especially during your solo years. How were those days for you?

Frehley: "It was a struggle. Thank God I'm clean and sober today. It's amazing how much easier things are without all that nonsense. Ironically, back in those days I used to think I needed it to perform. It actually made things a lot harder. But that's the disease of alcoholism."

Read the entire interview at HamptonRoads.com.