EXTREME's NUNO BETTENCOURT: How ACE FREHLEY Influenced Me As A Guitar Player

During this past Friday's (October 17) "Tribute To Ace Frehley" episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", EXTREME guitarist Nuno Bettencourt spoke about original KISS axeman Ace Frehley who died a day earlier at the age of 74. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "I don't think any of us really prepare to pass away or prepare for people to go. Some religions, like Buddhists do, which I think is a good thing. But the reason I say this is because it is sad when somebody passe[s] — Ozzy [Osbourne] and now Ace, especially — but, man, think about it for a second. How incredible, what a miracle it's been a run that Ace has had? Even getting [to that age] — I hope I get to the age of 74, you know what I mean? And to do what he's done and to party like he partied and to be able to do the music and to contribute the music that he's gonna have that's gonna live decades and centuries after he's gone, it's quite a run, man. It's a great run."

Asked by host Eddie Trunk how Ace inspired and influenced him as a guitar player, Nuno said: "Listen, Ace came from a very sort of — I call it 'simplexity'. It's not simple and it's not complex. It's simplexity. You're in a place where you play the perfect solos, much like you would hear. You hear in [the American new wave band] THE CARS by Elliot Easton — they're just solos and tasty, memorable things that just happen in songs, which is a lot more difficult to do than the complex stuff. I know that sounds crazy. Everybody thinks you play technical and you play fast, and that's harder. It isn't. It takes a lot more courage and it takes a lot more style to kind of tone it down and play what's right for the song, and that's what Ace did in KISS — memorable riffs, memorable solos. But what was more influential, though, as a kid is… We were listening to musicians before and we wanted to play only play guitar and wanted to be guitarists, but when we saw Ace and when we saw KISS, we started learning how it was to perform, how to put on a show, how to be a bit of a guitar [hero] — what a guitar hero looks like; not just a guitar player. And he changed the game in that way. And so did KISS in general. So imagine being seven, eight years old, six years old, and seeing this and staring, just for hours and hours staring at the 'Destroyer' album cover, the 'Love Gun' album cover. It was a culture that they were giving us. It was character. What they did really almost shaped your childhood, not just musically, but culturally. And you don't realize the impact until somebody passes away and you kind of reflect and you're, like, 'Wow.' You go back to listening to those albums and discovering those songs and just what it did to your life. And there was a bond between you and your friends that were all into KISS that was very different than other bands… It would be one of those things where it was religion."

The news of Ace's passing came just hours after TMZ reported that Ace was hospitalized on life support after he suffered a brain bleed when he took a fall in his studio a couple of weeks earlier.

Frehley, whose real name was Paul Daniel Frehley, passed away peacefully surrounded by family in Morristown, New Jersey.

TMZ reported earlier on Thursday that Frehley was on life support. He had to cancel his tour dates and his condition had not improved after suffering from a brain bleed from the fall.

Ace co-founded KISS with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss in New York City in 1973. Frehley appeared on KISS's first nine albums, and returned for the band's 1998 reunion album, "Psycho Circus", only to leave again. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with the rest of KISS's original lineup in 2014.

Frehley first left KISS in 1982. He rejoined in 1996 and parted ways with the band once again in 2002 after the conclusion of KISS's first "farewell tour." Since his departure, guitarist Tommy Thayer had assumed the role of the Spaceman.

Ace Frehley photo credit: Jayme Thornton