Gene Simmons Invites Ace Frehley To Join KISS Again Onstage

Gene Simmons greeted former KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley on his 71st birthday and once again invited him to join the band onstage for the ongoing End of the Road farewell tour.

Simmons posted a tweet saying:

“Happy Birthday, Ace. And many more. The invitations still stand. Jump up onstage with us for encores. The fans would love it.”

Since the End of the Road tour began in 2019, there was already some anticipation for Frehley and original KISS drummer Peter Criss to join Simmons and Paul Stanley onstage and make an appearance, but not to perform for the entire shows.

Simmons told Guitar World in 2019:

“Ace and Peter have gotten three chances. They were in and out of the band — fired — three times. For drugs, alcohol, bad behavior, being unprofessional. … So the only reason Ace and Peter were let go the first time, and then the second time and then the third time, is that they weren’t carrying their load. So the short answer to your question is we’d love to have Ace and Peter join us here and there. And if they don’t, it’s not going to be because of us. But they’re never going to be in Kiss again.”

However, after that interview, Frehley fired back at Simmons in a Facebook post and called the singer and bassist,

“an asshole and a sex addict who’s being sued by multiple women, and you’re just trying to sweep it all under the carpet!”

The guitarist also added some claims saying,

“[Simmons] groped my wife and propositioned her in Los Angeles at the Capitol Records building behind my back.”

Frehley also disagreed with Simmons’ version on why he departed from the band. Frehley stated that he quit KISS twice because Simmons and Stanley were “control freaks, untrustworthy and were too difficult to work with.”

While regarding Simmons’ comments about his substance abuse issues, he said:

“[Simmons] cost me millions of dollars, and now that I’m over 12 years sober you’re still saying I can’t be trusted to play a whole night’s show!”

Frehley’s first departure was in 1982, then he rejoined KISS in 1996 for their successful reunion tour and stayed with the band until 2002. In 2017, Frehley joined Simmons’ solo band onstage at a fundraising show for victims of Hurricane Harvey, claiming that their relationship is much better than before until eventually the 2019 feud came.

In a 2018 interview with Juliet: Unexpected podcast, Frehley stated that he would only rejoin KISS onstage if he could reclaim his Spaceman identity from current guitarist Tommy Thayer, saying:

“The only way I would consider coming back is [if] I took over Tommy’s place. He took over my place — a character that I invented. He’s pretty much going through the motions, but the only way I would consider going back is to replace Tommy and regain my throne. Number two, I’d like a big paycheck because I think I deserve it.”