Gene Simmons paid tribute to his longtime KISS bandmate Ace Frehley during Gene Simmons Band’s performance at the 34th installment of the Love Ride which took place on November 9th at the Castaic Lake in Castaic, California.
Gene Simmons pays tribute to Ace Frehley
Gene Simmons paid tribute to late guitarist Ace Frehley before performing “Cold Gin.” Simmons told the crowd that Frehley had passed away and that he, Paul Stanley, and Peter Criss attended his funeral.
Simmons said, “ I wanna take a moment just to tell you that somebody I’ve known for many decades who started the band with us, a guy named Ace Frehley…” After some fans in the audience started screaming out Ace’s name, Simmons continued: “Very sad. Paul [Stanley, KISS frontman] and myself and Peter Criss [original KISS drummer], we went to Ace’s funeral.
He expressed sadness that Ace wouldn’t be present when KISS is honored at the Kennedy Center Honors on December 6, where Garth Brooks will pay tribute to the band by performing “Shout It Out Loud.”
Simmons added, “He sadly passed. And the saddest part of all, besides the pain and suffering to his friends, family, his daughter, his wife, his whole family, is that Ace didn’t live long enough to be with us on December 6th when the president and everybody’s gonna get up there and honor KISS in entering the Kennedy Center Honors.”And the first person who’s gonna walk out there and talk about how KISS changed his life is [country star] Garth Brooks, who’s gonna host a little bit. Then he’s gonna play ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and knock it out of the park.”
Simmons said one of the four stage chairs will be left empty in Ace’s memory, and he introduced “Cold Gin” as the first song Ace ever wrote for KISS.
And in Ace’s memory, we’re gonna make sure one of the four chairs is empty with Ace’s name, because he deserves to be there in spirit, even if he can’t be there physically.”
Gene stated: “So, one day Ace walked in. The very first song he ever wrote we’re gonna do now. It’s called ‘Cold Gin’.”
