Ace Frehley, the lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Kiss, has died aged 74.
The musician, who inspired a generation of guitarists and performed on Kiss’ first nine albums, died on Thursday in a New Jersey hospital after suffering injuries during a recent fall, 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!”
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.
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.
His injuries initially forced him to cancel a concert date in California. Days later, the rest of his 2025 tour was cancelled due to “some ongoing health issues”.
After news of Frehley’s death broke, Stanley and Simmons said in a joint statement that they were “devastated”.
“He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part of Kiss’s legacy,” they said, paying tribute to “all those who loved him, including our fans around the world”.
Criss wrote on X: “I’m shocked!!! My friend ... I love you!”
When Kiss released their self-titled debut album in 1974, critics were mostly cold, but the band quickly became famous and loved by their fans for their wild live shows, 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 theatrics, Frehley was known for playing a trademarked, modified Les Paul, which was designed to fill the stage with smoke during his guitar solos. He never took a guitar lesson, saying in a 2009 interview: “I’m an anomaly, I’m an un-schooled musician. I don’t know how to read music, but I’m one of the most famous guitar players in the world, so go figure.”
The band members’ faces were not revealed for more than a decade; by this time, Frehley had left Kiss, having moved on to a solo career in 1982 after feeling conflicted about the band’s direction and struggling with substance abuse. “I was mixed up,” he later said of this period. “I believed that if I stayed in that group, I would have [killed myself]. I’d be driving home from the studio, and I’d want to drive my car into a tree.”
In 1984, Frehley formed a new band, Frehley’s Comet, which released two studio albums but failed to take off. 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 went on their farewell world tour in 2022, Frehley did not join them. In his later years, he had an adversarial relationship with Simmons, who made several comments in the press about Frehley’s past substance abuse.
In 2019, when Simmons claimed Frehley was actually fired from Kiss due to his drug use, Frehley addressed Simmons in a public statement, saying he had been sober for 12 years and that he quit Kiss “of my own free will, because you and Paul [Stanley] are control freaks, untrustworthy and were too difficult to work with”.
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready paid tribute, recalling how he first learned about Frehley at 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.”
Poison frontman Bret Michaels wrote on X: “Ace, my brother, I surely cannot thank you enough for the years of great music, the many festivals we’ve done together and your lead guitar on Nothing But A Good Time. All my love and respect, from my family and myself - may you rest in peace!!!”
Frehley is survived by his wife, Jeanette, and daughter Monique.
