ACE FREHLEY

The consummate showman and KISS's 'Spaceman' guitarist dies aged 74, following a fall at his home

- Words Andrew Daly

Paul Daniel Frehley was born on 27 April 1951 in the Bronx, New York.

He had a tough childhood, leading to him joining a street gang in his early teens. If not for his love for British Invasion players such as Page, Beck and Clapton, life might have been very different for Frehley.

Frehley picked up the nickname 'Ace' during adolescence, reportedly because he was a bit of a ladies' man. What he also picked up was the rock 'n' roll scene, leading him to drop out of school and pursue the possibility of music full-time. By his early 20s, Frehley was a New York City cabbie. It was around this time that he saw a now iconic ad in The Village Voice, which read: “Lead guitarist wanted with flash and ability. Album out shortly. No time wasters please. Paul 268-3145.”

Frehley responded. An audition for the then-unnamed band eventually made him famous after the group was renamed KISS. But before that could happen, Frehley - who walked into his audition on East 23rd Street wearing one red sneaker and one orange – had to connect with his would-be bandmates, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley. He did. And KISS was born.

After joining KISS in late 1972, Frehley designed the band's iconic lightning bolt logo, his Spaceman makeup design, and lent a hand to Stanley's Starchild design, too. These contributions, along with his off-the-beaten-path style, gave KISS the proverbial 'it' factor.

Sadly, this didn't help KISS, who rattled off three records after signing with Neil Bogart's Casablanca label: 1974's debut KISS, Hotter Than Hell from that same year and 1975's Dressed To Kill. While it's true that songs like the Frehley-penned Cold Gin and the sizzling Deuce were classics in the making, at the time people didn't get it.

But things changed after a last-ditch effort to save KISS and Casablanca manifested in 1975's live album for the ages, Alive!. Speaking to