Ace Frehley, the founding lead guitarist of the hard rock band Kiss, passed away earlier today. He had been suffering from bleeding in his brain which resulted from a fall he took in a studio.
Paul Daniel Frehley was born in the New York borough of The Bronx, the youngest of the three children of Carl Frehley and the former Esther Hecht. Carl was from Pennsylvania and was the son of Dutch immigrants. Esther was from North Carolina and was of German descent. Ace's parents, brother and sister all played piano, his two siblings also playing acoustic guitar. He started playing guitar at age 13. His high school friends started calling him "Ace" because they thought that he was "a real ace" at getting dates.
During his teenage years, Frehley played in a series of bands, dropped out of high school, later returned and got his diploma, and worked several short-term jobs. In 1972, he joined guitarist Paul Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons and drummer Peter Criss to form a new band, which they would name Kiss. Frehley designed their double-lightning-bolt logo, with some touching up from Stanley. When the band decided to paint their faces and wear costumes for their live performances, Frehley came up with a design that would become known as the Space Ace and later The Spaceman.
Frehley sang his first lead vocal on the song Shock Me, on Kiss's sixth album Love Gun. In 1978, all four members of Kiss released eponymous solo albums. Frehley's contained the hit single New York Groove, written by Russ Ballard of Argent but originally recorded by the British band Hello. He stayed in the band until 1982, later formed his own band Frehley's Comet, and recorded several solo albums. He rejoined Kiss for its reunion tour in 1996 and stayed with them until 2002, afterwards resuming his solo career.
Frehley is survived by his wife Jeanette, his daughter Monique, his brother Charles, his sister Julie Salvner, and several nieces and nephews.
As mentioned above, Shock Me was Ace Frehley's first lead vocal for Kiss. The song was inspired by his nearly being electrocuted during a concert in Lakeland, Florida.
Last year, Frehley released his last solo album 10,000 Volts. Here's the video for its title song.
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