Me too, same age and same tour. I saw them in Seattle.
I’m sorry he’s gone, but here’s the good and the bad. Sorry if it’s too soon:
Good: Frehley was the probably the closest thing to a real musician in KISS. They all made solo albums in the 70s and his was far and away the best among them.
Bad: After removing life support they must have had a hard time determining when brain activity had ceased, because I don’t think there was much to begin with. I read Frehley’s autobiography once when I was feeling nostalgic about KISS and wow, did he come off as a twit. Sketchy childhood aside, he grew into an entitled, vapid moron who behaved like a spoiled kid his whole life.
Say what you like about Gene Simmons being an incredible douche (which he definitely is), but he was also a hell of a hard worker. It must have been very difficult for those two to get along. Maybe they deserved each other.
I saw Frehley’s Comet open for Iron Maiden. I always liked Kiss, at least up until a few weeks ago when they accepted the Kennedy Center honors.
Is there something wrong with accepting a Kennedy Center Honor? It’s an acknowledgment of the band being an icon of American culture.
Yeah…made me feel really old now.
I was never a fan of KISS but they were certainly a big part of the rock scene when I was growing up and this is sad news. Seems he had more time if not for the fall. RIP
It means less now. I’d have respected them a lot more if they’d embarrassed Trump by turning it down.
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/13/nx-s1-5500305/kennedy-center-honors-announcement-kiss-strait-gaynor-stallone-crawford-trump
I was an impressionable 16-yer-old when KISS burst upon the scene. They were my very first concert, back in 1975. 50 years ago. Wait…what?!?
I saw them at Detroit’s Cobo Arena, where and when a good chunk of the “Kiss Alive!” album was recorded.
Does anyone else remember the KISS appearance on Tom Snyder’s “Tomorrow” show? It aired on October 31, 1979. Ace (RIP) could not stop giggling, and his laugh was very, er, animated.
mmm
ETA: I see @SuntanLotion posted the Tom Snyder link.
The link sent me to an ad for an Ace Freeley commemorative black tee. So classy of them at Rolling Stones.
It seemed like they were always touring through Dayton back in the 70’s. Any early followers remember or was part of the Kiss Army out there?
That’s one of my very favorite songs from the late '70s. I have three of Frehley’s songs on my iPhone: “New York Groove,” plus his covers of “Do Ya” (originally by The Move, then ELO), and “Fox On the Run” (originally by Sweet).
I made a tape loop of Rock and Roll All Night, and played it on my college radio show, all night, no breaks.
Now that you mention it, I remember getting Ace’s autobiography from the library, and I gave up a couple chapters in because I just plain old didn’t like the guy.
Those are all great.
I think the first few KISS albums are great, and I know Alive! is heavily edited, but it is a great “live” album. The energy they put out in that stage was amazing.
RIP
Me too, same tour, in St. Louis. That would have made me 14, which doesn’t seem right. I can’t imagine my parents letting 14 year old me go to a concert like that. (Although I did go with my brother and some friends who were a couple of years older.)
I never sttended a concert, but I respect the hell out of their theatrics.
I had a small brain bleed about 20 years ago, due to uncontrolled high blood pressure and/or out of control diabetes. I was in the hospital for about two weeks, and off work for another four, I think. I remember the headache!
RIP, Ace.
The first concert I went to was Kiss in 1976. I was 15.
I just realized this weekend that Ace did New York Groove! I had no idea.
I’ve always liked KISS’ earlier music ( say, their first 5 years ) and I thought two of their solo albums ( Ace, and Paul Stanley ) continued their sound well ( love love loved the crunchy rocker ‘Rip it Out’ ), but after Ace left the band I really came to like his solo efforts: Frehley’s comet and beyond. Good straight-ahead un-hyphenated hard rock. Reading his biography, and some from his friends, yeah, he was definitely a character, to say the least.
Though I didn’t dislike ‘New York Groove, I’ve always found it a bit lame and poppy as a rocker and noticed that the people who liked that song best weren’t really into hard rock.
It was only fairly recently that I discovered that it was actually a cover; the song had been originally done by British glam-rock band Hello in 1975. That likely explains why it wasn’t the sort of harder rock that Kiss was generally known for, but also probably explains why it was a hit – when the four Kiss members simultaneously released those solo albums in 1978, “New York Groove” was the only single from the albums which made it into the top 40.
Oh OK. I knew the song wasn’t a Frehley original, but never knew who actually originated it.
But then hard rock is a niche interest in the music sphere. An underground attraction perhaps, relatively speaking. After all, watery light beer sells in much larger quantities than hoppy IPAs in the US. 
Weird analogy I know.
Giving credit where it is due, New York Groove was written by Russ Ballard who has had a decent career as a songwriter/singer/performer.
For certain, but at that time, Kiss was hugely popular and well-known in the U.S. As a band, they actually had eight singles make the U.S. Billboard Top 40 in 1975-79, though the highest-charting was the ballad “Beth” (#7 in 1976).