KISS frontman Paul Stanley slams the band’s original guitarist, Ace Frehley, in a new interview with Guitar World.
“What we had at the beginning was magical,” says Stanley in the magazine’s April cover story. “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!,” he continued. “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.”
The bitterness felt by Stanley and Gene Simmons over the end of the group’s original lineup – which also featured drummer Peter Criss – is making headlines again as KISS prepare to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame next month.
Although Frehley and Criss have maintained sobriety for a number of years, Stanley and Simmons continue to recall bad memories of years of substance abuse by their former partners, and have shut down any KISS performance at the Rock Hall induction.
KISS released a statement explaining their decision (read it here) after Frehley broke the news on Eddie Trunk’s radio show (details here) and Criss released a statement of his own (here).
On April 10, KISS will be inducted into the 2014 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame at a ceremony in New York, along with Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt.
See also:
KISS never had any plans to reunite for Rock Hall induction
KISS tops the hennemusic Hot 10
Anthrax guitarist supports KISS not playing Rock Hall induction
KISS: Paul Stanley memoir recommended by Motley Crue bassist
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