“Upon rereading my words, I see how it hurt everyone. Again, I apologize. I’ve always loved Ace. Always,” the Kiss member said
In a statement following the death of his Kiss bandmate Ace Frehley in October, Gene Simmons celebrated the guitarist, saying, “No one can touch Ace’s legacy.” But in an interview with the The New York Post earlier this week, Simmons made additional comments that he now sees as being counterproductive in his efforts to honor Frehley.
“He refused [advice] from people that cared about him — including yours truly — to try to change his lifestyle,” Simmons said about Frehley, whose cause of death was revealed to be blunt trauma injuries to his head following a fall. “In and out of bad decisions. Falling down the stairs — I’m not a doctor — doesn’t kill you. There may have been other issues, and it breaks my heart.”
Reflecting on the statement in a recent social media post, Simmons issued an apology. “On reflection, I was wrong for using the words I used. I humbly apologize,” he wrote on X. “My hand to God I didn’t intended to hurt Ace or his legacy but upon rereading my words, I see how it hurt everyone. Again, I apologize. I’ve always loved Ace. Always.”
In October, Simmons attended a private ceremony in the Bronx alongside bandmates Paul Stanley and Peter Criss. In a joint statement, Simmons and Stanley referred to Frehley as “an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history.”
Frehley first discovered the band through a Village Voice ad that read: “Lead guitarist wanted with Flash and Ability. Album Out Shortly. No time wasters please.” He ended up playing with Kiss from their inception in 1973 until 1982. He later joined the band for a string of reunion shows in 1996 and departed once again following the conclusion of a farewell tour in 2002.
