KISS

Ace Frehley on KISS final tour: "I want to be involved, especially for the fans"

KISS recently announced that they’re going on a farewell tour (again) and the question on many people’s minds is: will Ace Frehley rejoin the band for it? He seems to still have a good relationship with Gene Simmons, with whom he recently played some KISS songs on stage in Australia, and he’s also performing at The KISS Kruise this fall. And according to Ace himself, he wants to be involved.

As Blabbermouth points out, during a live conversation at Hollywood’s Musicians Institute on Tuesday (9/25), Ace said “Hopefully next year, what all the KISS fans really want to happen will happen. I’m hoping. I want to be involved, especially for the fans. It’s not like my dream job, because I’ve done it a couple of times and quit, but I really want to do it for the fans if it’s going to happen.”

As for whether or not he’s discussed it with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley though, “I haven’t been asked,” he said. “I had a meeting with those guys several months ago, and they talked about retiring to me, and that didn’t seem right either.” Here’s more:

Who knows what’s going to happen? I read comments on the Internet, and I fall off my bed laughing. There’s all these people that have all these different ideas of a configuration of what the next KISS tour should be, and it’s crazy — but overwhelmingly, they want me back in the band, I think. That’s what I’m reading on the Internet.

I’m doing fine on my own. My career is on an upswing; I’m having a ton of fun; I like producing my own records. I don’t like anybody standing over my shoulder telling me what to do. I’ve had a lot of freedom, and working with Paul [Stanley] and Gene [Simmons] again, it would be different. But then again, I’d probably make $5 or $10 million, so I might consider that…

Paul Stanley was recently on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, and while he didn’t confirm any guest appearances by former KISS members, he didn’t rule it out either…

“I really can’t say,” Stanley says. “This will be a celebration of Kiss and not any individual lineup or any individual members. I wouldn’t rule anything out but it’s not the crux of what we’re doing… and I’m not being coy either. I don’t want to mislead anybody, really that’s not something that’s been given a lot of thought at this point, the majority of our time has gone into what is the stage going to be, what is the show going to be, and we’re actually in the midst of toying with setlists now.”

While Ace sounds open to reuniting with his former bandmates, Peter Criss announced his retirement from music last year, so a full reunion of the original lineup seems unlikely. Stay tuned…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na_h6giW4oI