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Ace Frehley, the lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Kiss, has died aged 74.
The musician died after suffering injuries during a fall in September, his family said in a statement.
“We are completely devastated and heartbroken,” Frehley’s family said. “In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth. We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter, and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others.
The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”
Frehley reportedly fell in his recording studio and hit his head in late September. He was hospitalised for several weeks and put on life support after suffering a brain bleed.
Frehley’s injuries forced him to cancel a concert date in California. Days later, his camp posted on social media that he was canceling the rest of his 2025 tour, citing “some ongoing health issues.”
Born Paul Daniel Frehley in New York City in 1951, he co-founded Kiss in 1973 with singer Paul Stanley, bassist and part-time singer Gene Simmons and drummer Peter Criss.
After news of Frehley’s death broke, Criss wrote on X: “I’m shocked!!! My friend... I love you!”
Kiss released their self-titled debut album in 1974. While critics were cold to Kiss, the band quickly became famous and loved by their fans for their wild live shows and white and black makeup and leather costumes, inspired by the New York Dolls and Alice Cooper. Each member had a different persona, with Frehley being the Spaceman (or “Space Ace”), Simmons the Demon, Stanley the Starchild and Criss the Catman.
In keeping with the band’s theatrical persona, Frehley was known for playing a trademarked, modified Les Paul, which was designed to fill the stage with smoke when he played guitar solos.
The band members’ faces were not revealed for more than a decade; by this time, Frehley had left Kiss, having moved onto a solo career in 1982. He formed a new band, Frehley’s Comet, in 1984 and released two studio albums, but the band failed to take off and Frehley reverted to using his own name for his 1989 album Trouble Walkin’, which featured backing vocals from Criss.
Frehley rejoined Kiss when the original members of the band reunited in 1996 for a hugely successful reunion tour, and stayed until 2002. However, when Kiss took their farewell tour around the world in 2022, Frehley did not rejoin; in his later years he had an adversarial relationship with Simmons, who made several comments about Frehley’s past substance abuse that Frehley objected to.
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready paid tribute, recalling how he first learned about Frehley aged 11, when a friend got a Kiss lunchbox and it “changed my life”.
“All my friends have spent untold hours talking about Kiss and buying Kiss stuff. Ace was a hero of mine and also I would consider a friend. I studied his solos endlessly over the years,” McCready wrote, adding that playing with Frehley at Madison Square Garden was “a dream come true for me”.
“I would not have picked up a guitar without Ace and KISS’s influence, he wrote. “RIP it out Ace, you changed my life.”
More to come
