WASP leader Blackie Lawless recently slammed Gene Simmons for suggesting the passing of Gene’s KISS bandmate guitarist Ace Frehley was the result of the guitarist’s “bad decisions”.
Blackie Lawless criticizes Gene Simmons
Lawless was disappointed with Simmons’ timing and approach when discussing Frehley’s passing and substance abuse issues.
“That upset me greatly because, hey, I understand that Ace aggravated him over the years,” Blackie, who was Ace’s longtime friend, said:
“I get that. I was there and I saw both sides of the fence. But at the same time, if he wants to do a commercial for drug abuse, wait six months. Drugs are still gonna be a problem six months down the road. My friend’s body is still — [Ace’s] body’s not even cold yet and [Gene is] saying the things that he’s saying.”
Lawless continued: “I got great respect for Gene, but that was totally uncalled for. He did not need to do that. Like I said, drugs are still gonna be a problem six months down the road. If you wanna make a a comment about it then, do it, but don’t do it about this. That was totally uncalled for.”
The host Eddie Trunk noted that Ace always had balance issues and Blackie concurred. “We’d be walking down the street sometimes, and he would literally just crash right into me,” Lawless said.
“We would be in restaurants, go to get up from the table, he’d crash into me. One time we were at Trader Vic’s [restaurant] here in Beverly Hills, and we went to stand up, and I could tell he was, you know, he was losing it. And I went to grab him, and when I did, I hit the table. He ends on top of me, food flies up in the air and there’s these four little blue-haired ladies sitting next to us. There’s food — it looked like something out of a bad sitcom. He’s laying on top of me. He goes, ‘What are you doing?’ I go, ‘I’m trying to help you.’ But that was life with him, because, like I said, he had that problem with his equilibrium in his left ear.”
Blackie continued: “When I would see him, the first question that I would ask him when they would come back from the tour, ‘How many times did you fall down on this tour?’ Because he would do this thing where he would lean back, like he’s doing a limbo and he’s playing guitar, and Gene would come lean over the top of him. His equilibrium would go out, and when that did, his legs would shoot out and it would kick Gene. Gene would fall on top of him, but they would keep on playing. And people just thought, over a period of time, it was part of the show. Gene knew all of this. So to say that for someone who had been as clean as long as [Ace] had been, to blame it on that, that was uncalled for.”
