https://rollingstone.com.br/musica/adeus-ace-frehley-o-spaceman-do-kiss-que-nos-conectou-e-nos-manteve-nas-alturas/

The world is raising a glass of ice-cold gin in honor of the legendary Ace Frehleythe space guitarist from Kiss. Frehley He died last Thursday, the 16th, at the age of 74, due to complications following a fall. If anyone represented the archetypal 1970s guitarist, it was him — the planet’s space cadet Jendell. He embodied the “comic book superhero” side of the band, with his silver makeup, platform space boots and unpretentious charm of someone who didn’t care about anything. But his sound was pure rock power — his Les Paul blasting through an amplifier Marshall in the insane soils of “Shock Me”, “Strange Ways” and “She”.The most beloved native son of Jendell is coming home.

Kiss has always been about mystery — and no one had more of that than Ace. In a band of sensible businessmen, he was the real wild one, the guy who truly lived the motto “rock and roll all night and party all day”, spreading chaos wherever he went. Ace defied death several times, whether driving his DeLorean against the Bronx River Parkway at 160 km/h or finding the Ghost in the Park. THE Kiss It was made up of mythological characters: Paul Stanley like the Starchild, Gene Simmons as The Demon, Peter Criss as The Catman. But the Spaceman it was just his.

“I eat, sleep and breathe my character,” he said Ace the Rolling Stone in 1977. “It’s my fantasy to go to another planet. When I’m 40, interplanetary travel will be common. No one will want to talk to me at that age, anyway. Stardom is a temporary phase. You become a candidate for a mental institution when you believe that what you are will last forever.”

He certainly didn’t imagine a future in which he would still be famous almost 50 years later: “I’m going to be on Mars. To hell with it. This planet won’t even exist in 50 years.”

Paul Daniel Frehley grew up in the Bronx and had his mind blown at age 15 when he saw the band’s first show. Who in the United States. He joined the other three members of Kiss after responding to an ad in the classifieds Village Voice. “Looking for solo guitarist with style and skill,” the text said. “No wasting time, please.” Ace It definitely didn’t waste anyone’s time. He was only 21 years old, still living with his parents in the Bronx, but he already exuded charisma — the kind of kid who gets the nickname “Ace” at 16. His mother drove him to his audition. Kiss. They shook their heads at his style of clothing — but “style and skill” were never an issue for this guy.

Ace became a cult figure among young people in the 1970s with his rockstar pose on the cover of Alive!the album that made the Kiss burst. At that time, the band was still selling few records and barely staying afloat, but the cover photo showed them as larger-than-life superheroes, dominating the audience below the stage. The cover made them stars — perhaps even more than the album itself. Ace occupies the center of the image, knees bent, the guitar Gibson hanging very low, while Gene and Paul pose on both sides. (The Catman It’s almost hidden in the smoke.)

The members parade confidence on the cover of Alive! — although the photo was taken in an empty theater in Detroit rather than at an actual show. Kiss. As I said Gene Simmons: “If you look closely, you will see that the Ace He’s holding the guitar upside down.”

But that pretty much sums up the star power of Ace — he didn’t need the guitar to be on, or even in the right position, to invoke his charisma. Space Ace and assume the role of agent of cosmic chaos at the heart of Kiss. (It’s fitting that there was no real audience on the cover of Alive!the most famous “live” album that no one really believes was recorded live.) He was essential to the way the Kiss inspired bands chic the Motley Crueof the Ramones to the Weezerto dive into fantasy and leave the real world behind. For the Gen X bands — Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine — Ace he was the first guitar hero, the one who told them to follow in his footsteps.

Ace wrote classics like “Shock Me”, inspired by a real near-electrocution moment, and “Cold Gin,” inspired by real iced gin. “Shock Me” was the first time he took a chance on the lead vocals of a song from Kiss — a late and modest, but unforgettable debut. In many ways, it always seemed like Ace sang directly to the audience, to the Kiss Army that energized him and kept him soaring. “Your lightning is all I need”, he shouted Ace. “My satisfaction grows / You make me feel at ease / You even make me shine.”

Stardom worked like this for Ace — he was a live wire, overloaded, sometimes burning, with the fans as his power source. He didn’t seem to want to exist offstage. The others could take off their makeup and go back to real life (at least in theory), but Ace I was a rockstar all the time. He needed the audience’s electricity as much as the audience needed him—young people wanted his glamorous glow and reflected it back. No one in the band celebrated like Acea self-destructive whirlwind famous for drinking a bottle of perfume thinking it might have alcohol in it. He was one of the great characters in the world of rock, with his high voice and unmistakable laugh that sounded like an “ack!” of a choking dragon. Like his bandmates, he was an unlikely but faithful friend to the guys in Rush — one of rock’s most beloved and unlikely duos. How did you tell Geddy Lee at Rolling Stone: “We used to get high on the Ace Frehley in the hotel room and made him laugh.”

You could always tell when it was Ace who played the solo — by the bursts of mad noise in “Strange Ways”, “100,000 Years” or “Calling Dr Love.” As he told Rolling Stone in 2014: “Page, Clapton, Hendrix, Townshend, Beck — all I did was copy their solos and twist them, and voilà, you have a guitar style.” Part of the mystery of Ace was how cool it sounded when Paul Stanley said his name — especially in Alive II! He always seemed ethereal, otherworldly, even more disconnected from reality than his peers — he seemed to see the world sideways, whether musically or visually, with his staggering posture and awkward gait. But he was also a born comedian, as is evident in the classic interview with Kiss 1979, still with full makeup, in The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. The laugh of Ace it’s as abrasive and insane as his guitar; as he explains to the presenter: “I think this outfit explains itself.”

In 1978, Kiss accomplished one of the most legendary (and megalomaniac) feats of the decade: four solo albums released simultaneously, one by each band member, all on the same day. To everyone’s surprise, Ace stole the show with his album, thanks to the success “New York Groove”. It is one of the crown jewels of the repertoire of Kiss — a small, vibrant song by Russ Ballard who had already reached the Top 10 in the UK with the glitter-pop band Hello. But it gained a new glow with the touch of stardust from Ace. Every detail of “New York Groove” sounds elegant and grand — the striking chorus in the stomp-stomp-stomp rhythm, the elastic guitars, the cha-cha swing and his vocals full of presence, proclaiming: “It’s going to be ecstasy! This place was made for me!”

For a guy who said he was insecure about his voice, Ace He exudes confidence, parading around town with a handful of dollars and dangerous women chasing him. It’s an anthem about New York on the level of Sinatra and Biggie. It’s no wonder it’s a stadium classic — it plays on Citi Field every time the Mets win. And there’s something beautiful about the fact that Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley never stopped arguing about which of his solo albums sold more — although it is undeniable that his Ace left a greater mark on history. (To be fair, the Gene was also excellent, with the near-hit “Radioactive” and his sweet version of the ballad Disney “When You Wish Upon a Star”, in addition to the caricature of him dripping blood on the vinyl label.)

Ace left the band in 1982 — shortly before the Kiss take your leap of faith, taking off your makeup and starting a great comeback with hits like “Lick It Up” and “Heaven’s on Fire”.He continued with the project Frehley’s Comet and returned to Kiss in 1996, on the reunion tour with makeup back — a smashing success. His last performance with them was at Winter Olympics 2002, in Salt Lake City. “My problem is that God has given me too many gifts,” he told Brian Hiattfrom the Rolling Stonein 2014. His memoir was called No Regretsbut later he admitted he had some, planning a sequel: “The working title is Some Regrets.” He continued making music until the end — with his 2024 album, 10,000 Volts — and remained true to himself: the unshakable Space Acewith its unique blend of extraterrestrial glitz and Bronx grit. This place was made for him.

Fly forever, Spaceman.

• Ace Frehley

• homage

• kiss

• spaceman