I was 11 years old, and my exposure to music had mostly been the records my mom played in our house – The Sound of Music, West Side Story, etc. Of those, I liked Jesus Christ Superstar the best. The first 45 I ever bought was Dancing Machine by the Jackson 5.
And one day we visited my aunt and uncle, and my cousin Dave played me Detroit Rock City. And the world changed. I bought KISS Destroyer – my first real band album. During my teen years, I was a massive KISS fan.
I play guitar because of Ace Frehley and KISS. Period.
I’ve seen Ace play twice – once in Tampa on the KISS reunion tour, still one of the top 5 shows I’ve ever seen, and then I saw Ace years later in a club in Tampa, which was fun.
When I was learning to play lead guitar, I started with Ace solos, as a lot of us did. I’m not gonna lie – I sort of graduated on to Brian May and Ian Bairnson. There were better players than Ace, but that’s not the point. I think Ace probably influenced more guitar players than almost anyone. He’s up there with Clapton, Page, Hendrix, and Van Halen. He wasn’t the player they were, but he inspired just as many kids. Like me.
Goodbye, Ace, and thank you for inspiring me to pick up an electric guitar, because I wanted to be just like you. But no one was just like Ace. He was one of a kind.
