History & Biography The Kiss guitarist founded his 'solo' project while still with the NYC glam rockers. Hiring well-respected studio musicians and song writers (the Russ Ballard-composed New York Groove hit the Billboard top 20), Frehley was already well on his way when he had to retire from Kiss in 1983 due to drug addiction. He had also been involved in a near-fatal car accident in the same year. The band was initially simply named Comet.
His subsequent records languished in the Billboard 200 and with band members revolting the man was out of action until the next Kiss marketing blitz. Frehley had also dropped the Comet configuration after two albums. The band also released a live EP called Live + 1 in 1988 which was taped at a Chicago show. Loaded Deck was a sampler, which also featured several unreleased tunes.
Frehley joined the reformed original line-up of Kiss in 1996, but was again out at the turn of the century. Frehley reportedly owed thousands in back taxes and had lost his house in 2013. Years of mutual animosity with Kiss followed until the release of Space Invader, which sold approximately 19,000 copies in the United States Of America in a week and landed at position Number 9 on The Billboard 200 chart.
Frehley had earlier announced the reason his first solo album would take four years to appear was because having been under contract with Kiss, he would be obliged to pay that band royalties! In an interview with SROMaginc.com former bassist Anthony Esposito expressed his feeling that he was tossed and dissed by Ace given the former man’s lack of involvement with the latter’s new album, Space Invader. Frehley was touring the USA in November. When bassist Greg Chaisson left Red Dragon Cartel Anthony Esposito replaced him. Ace Frehley announced a number of US shows for the winter and spring of 2016. Ace Frehley was admitted to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania due to exhaustion and dehydration following his concert on April 15th 2016 at the F.M. Kirby Center. Frehley collaborated with Paul Stanley on a cover version of Free's Fire And Water, which appeared on the guitarist's covers' album, Origins Vol. 1. released that year.Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley appeared together on September 20th 2017 for The Children Matter benefit concert to support the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Simmons subsequently repeated his line that Ace would not rejoin Kiss. Ace Frehley reunited with former Frehley's Comet members John Regan and Tod Howarth for the songs Rock Soldiers and Cold Gin on September 15 in Poughkeepsie, New York. Ace Frehley’s 2018 album Spaceman was out through eOne in the autumn of 2018. He appeared on stage with Kiss’ Gene Simmons for some nostalgia. One-time members Tod Howarth, Richie Scarlet, John Regan (bass) and drummer Steve Werner joined forces in Return Of The Comet in 2018. Ace Frehley played a free promotional show at the Nielsen Dodge car dealership in East Hanover, New Jersey on September 27th 2019. He kept on musing about joining Kiss for its most recent final tour. Alice Cooper and Ace Frehley announced a tour of the USA in September 2021.
Ace Frehley cancelled all his 2022 shows including a European tour due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Former act bassist John Regan died at the age of 71 in 2023. After taking offense at being related to “piss” in an interview Paul Stanley gave to shock jock Howard Stern and demanding an apology or he would release some dirt, Ace confirmed he was called by his former band-mate and told, “Fuck you.” No word on whether Frehley intended to release the promised dirt. Ace Frehley had a new album, entitled 10,000 Volts, which was out through MNRK Music Group in February 2024. Steve Brown, formerly of Trixter and then in Rubix Kube, co-wrote some of it. Frehley told an interviewer that he had not ventured to Europe because he cannot renew his passport. He added that he told the IRS, the United States tax authority, " a couple of hundred" thousand dollars. The band was booked for Monsters Of Rock Cruise in 2024.
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