Ace Frehley’s solo bandmates reveal what the Kiss guitarist was really like

When Ace Frehley played what would be his last show last month, he took the stage alongside a rhythm guitarist who had been with him longer than anyone else in his solo bands: the virtuoso of NashvilleJeremy Asbrock. Together, they detonated classics of the Kiss like “Deuce” and “Cold Gin”, hits from his solo career Frehley like “New York Groove” and the enduring anthem of Frehley’s Comet“Rock Soldiers”.

Asbrockwho had already played in bands like The Shazam and with John Corabi before joining the guitarist Spaceman of Kiss in 2018, he was the rock soldier par excellence. He calls playing with Frehleywho died on October 16 at age 74, from a “dream job” for a superfan of Kiss like him.

“Ace It’s not just my influence. He is the person who paved the way for me when I was four years old. I never wanted to do anything else, and he was the one who introduced me to all this,” he told Rolling Stone. “Some nights on stage were extremely surreal, especially when he was having a really inspired night — he would get into that stance and start doing what only he knew how to do. It was like, ‘Man, this is it. It’s right there, next to me.'”

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In addition to Asbrockthe last solo band of Frehley included the also musician of Nashville Ryan Spencer Cook at the bottom and Scott Coogan on the battery. Irony or not, the group was born from the band Gene Simmons. Asbrock says that they were playing with the bassist from Kiss on a tour of Australia, in which Frehley it was the opening show, when the guitarist asked Simmons if it could “lend” its musicians.

“Gene said, ‘If it’s OK with them, it’s OK with me,’” he recalls. Asbrock. “Later, Gene He called me into the dressing room and told me that the cruise Kiss was coming, and that the Ace was going to invite us to participate. After that we went to Japan with the Aceand he officially called us to be his band. I joined in September 2018 — so I held the position as guitarist longer, continuously, than any other player he’s had.”

Also Nashvillian Philip Shouse played bass in his solo band Frehley between 2018 and 2022, until taking on a permanent position in the German metal band Accept. He, Asbrock and cook are longtime friends and central figures in Nashville’s vibrant rock scene: for years, they ran a weekly event called Thee Rock N Roll Residencya hard rock showcase with surprise appearances from names like Alice Cooper, Lzzy Hale (from Halestorm), Robin Zander (from Cheap Trick) and other musicians from the local community.

Shouse says that going on tour with Frehley it was the opportunity to see the guitarist’s peculiar sense of humor up close. “He was really funny. Really silly, in the best sense. Sometimes it was like, ‘Wow, he’s really from another planet, right?'” says Shouse. “He had a way about him that wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met.”

Just like the friend Asbrock, Shouse credit to Frehley his decision to become a guitarist. “Ace taught me how to play lead guitar. I took lessons and learned scales, but nothing sounded like music to me. Nothing made sense until I heard the Ace — that was in my second year of high school,” he says. “When I heard his solos, everything fell into place.”

Asbrock and Shouse — who also lost his father a few months ago — are still trying to understand the world without “Space Ace“. But Asbrock says fans need to know how much Frehley he was an ordinary guy behind the makeup.

“He was totally human. We had conversations in which he was very vulnerable with me — real conversations,” he says. “Gene wouldn’t call me to talk about things in life. AceYes.”

• Ace Frehley

• Jeremy Asbrock

• kiss

• Ryan Cook