Ace Frehley Quotes

• "A friend of mine came in from Australia a month ago and was telling me that you can only stay out on the beach for 15 minutes in the sun because of the ozone layer down there - the hole in the ozone layer. The rate of skin cancer down there has quadrupled in the past five years."
• "A lot of moms and dads are Kiss fans, and they're bringing their kids to the show."
• "A lot of the older critics are ex-Kiss fans."
• "A lot of times, I played bass on songs. Gene plays guitar on some songs."
• "Actually the early days were much more fun than the more recent days. In the beginning We used to wear black leather, and the albums were not overproduced. And the group was very raw and very hungr."
• "All of a sudden we all became millionaires and started to go out with movie stars. Gene wanted to be an actor. That didn't work."
• "America is huge."
• "An actor friend of mine, Mark Chapman, used to play the evil doctor in Swamp Thing for three years on USA network, and a couple other movies - feature films. Made me godfather to his son. Me and him click really well."
• "Anton Fig came up, and Sebastian Bach came up, and we wrote a couple of songs. We rehearsed in just a small rehearsal studio. In the afternoon, we went over to the studio we were tracking in, and we did three or four takes."
• "As long as I know what key the solo is in, I try to kind of empty my mind and not think about anything. I just play without thinking."
• "As long as the end result has the flavor of the band, it's obvious who it is; it doesn't matter who's playing what. I think Psycho Circus is a good record."
• "At one point before I quit Kiss, I was kinda in that frame of mind where things weren't going well at home, and things weren't going well with me, Paul and Gene. We were arguing a lot. I told my shrink, I'm feeling suicidal. He said, Well, then, you better get out of the band."
• "Basically all I wanna do is to play guitar. My new band is fantastic. I can't wait to bring it over here to Norway."
• "Basically, my daughter did what she wanted to do. I wasn't happy about it, but she got through it unscarred. You could drop my daughter off in the middle of Times Square at four o'clock in the morning, and she wouldn't freak out; she'd know exactly what to do. You can't say that about every kid."
• "During the course of the tour, we're just gonna base ourselves out of three or four cities. Y'know, shoot to the airport at three or four o'clock, fly in, do the soundcheck, put on the makeup, do the show. Take off the makeup, shoot to the airport and fly back to the main city."
• "Every time Paul and Gene use my makeup, they have to pay me a royalty check. I think they changed the makeup so they didn't have to pay me."
• "Everything that happens in my life is just like... I feel like somebody's up there orchestrating it. There's just too many weird coincidences that have happened in my life."
• "Finding a good band is Iike finding a good wife. You got to keep trying till you find the right one."
• "For us, it's a lot harder because we have to put on the makeup and the costumes, and hurry up and wait. And then the makeup starts to run, and you're sweating or you're upset. You're trying to eat, the makeup starts to crack, and you gotta re-touch it. It's like, a pain in the ass, y'know?"
• "Having my own studio at home, I can engineer myself. I'm a terrible mixer, though, because I have a lot of hearing loss from over the years. I end up cranking up too much - I make it too bright because that's where a lot of my hearing loss has been depleted from the spectrum that my ear hears."
• "I asked my daughter when she was 16, What's the buzz on the street with the kids? She's going, to be honest, Dad, most of my friends aren't into Kiss. But they've all been told that it's the greatest show on Earth."
• "I believe in fate. I mean, if people are gonna self-destruct, they're gonna self-destruct; there's nothing you can do about it."
• "I believe that the only way that the human race is gonna survive is to start colonizing space and setting up colonies on the moon, and then space stations."
• "I built a 24-track digital studio behind a mirror-tiled wall in the basement where the bar is. When you walk into the basement, you think that's just the basement. And then there's a special hidden buzzer. This door opens up, and then there's drums. And then to the right, there's a control room."
• "I can't even read notes. But I can teach someone how to make a guitar smoke."
• "I can't go to amusement parks, restaurants, anywhere without people recognizing me. Y'know, nine times out of ten, I'm usually gracious enough to give people autographs and stuff."
• "I don't care how much I have to pay for the ticket, I wanna go to the International Space Station!"
• "I don't see this planet being... they're talking about how they're turning around the environmental problems here, but I think it's already too late."
• "I got a lot of great stories about the old days with Kiss. Gene was always getting laid. And we have pictures to prove it."
• "I got a phone call from one of the assistant producers today, and he said that the dailies are just coming out great. But this could be a big movie. I know we shot Millennium, and supposedly Paul got a copy of it and said it looked great. We're all doing cameo appearances on that."
• "I had a feeling it was gonna work out because not only did I enjoy the music and hit it off with the guys, but I was into theatrical rock and was willing to wear makeup and do anything to make it."
• "I had nothing to do with the book. Paul and Gene never consulted me. They just did the book, and legally they are supposed to check with me. But I let it slide. Maybe one day I will do my own book."
• "I hate putting the makeup on when I'm not performing, but it's something I gotta do."
• "I just didn't expect an acoustic version of Rock'n'Roll All Nite."
• "I legally cannot wear the makeup anymore. If I put the makeup on today Paul and Gene would sue me and put me in jail."
• "I like Skid Row. Pantera... Rolling Stones."
• "I look at my kid, and one part of me wants to keep her as my little baby. But, y'know, the bottom line is she's 18!"
• "I must say, 95 percent of the Kiss fans that I've met are very patient. As long as I say I'll give you an autograph, just give me some space, they'll wait patiently... that's cool."
• "I never went to music school; I never took a guitar lesson, but everybody in my family plays an instrument. My mother and father both played piano, and my brother and sister both played piano and acoustic guitar."
• "I still keep in contact with all the old guys from my band, y'know? We were very, very close. I'm closer with those guys than I am with Paul and Gene because we had fun on and off the stage."
• "I think experimenting with the things that aren't heavy, I think all kids do that. If your kid's lucky enough to get through it unscarred, you're lucky."
• "I think Gene's still pissed off about it deep down inside that I walked out on them. It's something I didn't wanna do, and it wasn't anything malicious. It was just basically survival. I couldn't go on anymore with them. I just needed to get away."
• "I think most of the people, once you see a Kiss show, you kinda get spoiled because I don't think there's anybody out there that's doing a bigger or a better show than us."
• "I think that's God's plan, y'know? I think having children and stuff forces you to grown up. And even though I'm 47, I still think like a 20-year-old."
• "I think the fans really wanna hear the songs the way they sound on the record."
• "I think we'll survive. And I know for a fact I'm gonna take a ride on the space shuttle before I die, 'cause I've seen it... I've seen it. I get flashes... they're premonitions."
• "I used to be really, really tight with John Belushi. Me and him used to go out and go on three-day binges. I'd leave on a Friday, come back on a Sunday or a Monday. Afterwards, it would take me two days to recover. The last time I spoke to him was two weeks before he passed away."
• "I usually log onto acefrehley.com and go to the chat room, and see what people are talking about or saying about me. That's about it, y'know? I don't go online a lot, 'cause I don't have a lot of free time. Rather than surf the internet, I'd rather be working on an animation."
• "I was recently at a Batman convention. I actually got to sit in the original Batmancar that they use in the movie. That was great!"
• "I went to my friend's house one day, and he had an electric guitar he had just bought with a tiny little amp. I turned the volume up to 10 and I hit one chord, and I said, I'm in love."
• "I work well under pressure. I may bitch and moan, but when I'm under pressure, I probably do my best work. But, y'know, the street kid, I've been backed up into a corner before, and I've had to fight my way out. And I usually did."
• "I'll be able to render things a lot quicker because I wanna do some animations myself for the tour. I did the morphing at the end of the last tour when our four faces morphed from one to the other. I did that on my laptop one afternoon. I love doing morphs. It's so easy."
• "I'll get up there and I'll do my guitar solos in one of those space outfits."
• "I'll never forget the night me, Paul and Gene went to see Alice Cooper at the Garden, and he was doing the Billion Dollar Babies tour. We were just blown away. But, at the same time, y'know, the gears were turning in our minds going, we could do this, but we could do it better. And... we did."
• "I'm a fatalist, y'know? I think I was meant to pick up the guitar; I was meant to be in Kiss; Kiss was meant to happen."
• "I'm back... in the New York groove. I wish I was in New York. I hate LA. I tell ya, though, I like Malibu."
• "I'm just a kid from Bronx who got lucky."
• "I'm more of an isolationist. When I turn on my computer, basically, I'm more into just doing art and animations. In my lifetime, I've probably been on the Internet about 15 or 20 times."
• "I'm much more responsible now. I used to get nervous in my 20s, before I went on stage. I always had to have a couple of drinks or something. And now, when I play, I don't get nervous at all. It's so weird. I play sober and it's just so much more enjoyable."
• "I'm not here to perform. I'm here to sign autographs. You have to wait till I come back with my own hand."
• "I'm not promoting experimentation, but everybody's curious. Until you've experienced something, you don't know what people are talking about. But I draw the line when it comes to hard drugs. I've never experimented with heroin because I have good friends of mine who experimented with it and died."
• "I'm the kinda person, you gotta fight for everything you get. You gotta believe in yourself."
• "I've had 12, 15 car accidents where most people would've been dead 10 times. Driving a Delorian a hundred miles an hour against traffic on a highway, getting away with just a couple of fender benders."
• "I've never read anything about heroin where, yeah, it's a good experience, and you can do it for 20 years and enjoy it, like having a cold beer. It doesn't work that way with heroin."
• "I've recorded 25 or 30 albums. I know that sometimes when you work with producers who are kinda dictators, it doesn't help you make a better record."
• "I've seen flashes of my death; I've seen it clearly. I'm laying in a bed with grey hair, and I got all my family and grandchildren around me; I look like I'm in my 70s or 80s. I know I'm not gonna die young."
• "I've worked with Kiss in the past, walked in stoned all the time. Now, it's a pleasure to walk in sober and be on top of things, to know exactly what I'm doing and be in sync with everybody."
• "If I meet somebody - and let's say they're a ditch digger - I'll treat them the same way I would treat Paul or Gene. I don't see anybody any different. I don't think anybody's better than anybody else."
• "If you're interested in becoming a professional musician, you really have to put that before everything else in your life."
• "In the time I had left the group 'til the time I had rejoined the group, I had the luxury of having my own band and calling my own shots, and being the boss. Just working with different people and learning more about the recording process from beginning to end."
• "Keith Richards plays bass on a lot of songs."
• "Like, the zero gravity, it's just like, nothin'. You get better test results. Things happen the way they're supposed to be. Down here on Earth, when we make experiments, we're affected by gravity and pollution, and people that are retarded... power surges."
• "Me and Peter got involved with the album a little later than Paul and Gene; they started pre-production before we came out LA. We came in on the album after a lot of songs had been picked by the producer, 'cause Paul and Gene did demos and stuff."
• "My daughter is so cool. She wants to switch to visual arts next year. I just got her an apartment in Manhattan. I go down there and crash with her, and we just get along great. She's only 18, but she has the brain of a much older woman."
• "My family's great. Very supportive. I got more blessings than - sometimes I feel I don't deserve 'em. But, in the same token, my motto, as far as life is concerned, is to treat people the way I would like to be treated."
• "Once you come and see Kiss, you either love us or you hate us."
• "One of the greatest gifts I've ever gotten is my daughter."
• "One thing I love to do is produce. I've produced a couple of bands. I mean, nothing ever really happened with 'em, but I enjoy getting a young band into the studio and guiding them, and making them feel at ease."
• "Paul plays a couple of solos. I don't remember which solos. Paul did some guitar work, some real cool, cool stuff. He wrote the solo for Psycho Circus, and it sounds like me."
• "People, when they hear about my reputation as being a party animal, and a drunk and drug addict, that's the biggest misconception. People sit down and talk to me, and they realize I'm a very bright individual and can talk just about any subject."
• "People, y'know, they either love us or they hate us; there's no middle ground."
• "Peter told me he'll hang in there as long as there's a demand for it. If this tour is as successful as the last tour - possibly more, because the show is more elaborate. The TV screen is twice the size of the old one."
• "That's one of the reasons Paul and Gene decided to do the reunion tour, because, for awhile, I was out there; I was in the ozone. We couldn't relate to each other. But now, we're both on the same level."
• "That's what Kiss is all about - not just music, but entertainment, y'know? We're there to take you away from your problems, and rock and roll all night and party every day for those two hours you're at the concert."
• "The 3-D is just gonna be an extra added cool thing. But, I mean, even if you're not wearing the 3-D glasses, the show's gonna be bigger and better than it was on the last tour. So, I think we got a home run before we even get started... and I mean that humbly."
• "The bottom line is the Kiss Army is growing by leaps and bounds."
• "The fact that people think I'm a space cadet and I'm not intelligent. Y'know, I can sit down with a professor and talk about quantum physics. I've read all of Einstein's books on the Theory of Relativity, and I'm very proficient on a computer."
• "The first take always has spontaneity. That's the same way I approach guitar solos. I never figure out solos anymore. I basically just have a wing it kind of approach."
• "The guys in my band are good friends on and off the stage. The band members that I have now is probably the best band that I have ever had."
• "The solos I played on the album - on the records - are usually the solos I play. I usually don't change 'em very much or go off on a tangent."
• "They keep burning down the rain forests, and people continue to use aerosol cans and other things that deplete the ozone layer. The hole's getting bigger."
• "They're talking about how making medicine up there, they can make it a lot better. Like, they were talking about making insulin and stuff. Once they start doing experiments up there... they're gonna find a cure for AIDS up there, I guarantee."
• "We're adding a couple of songs. Well, actually, let's start first with the new album, Psycho Circus. I'm gonna follow that up with my guitar solo."
• "We're bigger now than we were in the late 70s when we were peaking."
• "We've always done Beth with the soundtrack and the orchestration. I think that's kinda sacred to the fans when Peter comes out alone and sings to the track."
• "When I have my days off, I like to be with people that I'm not gonna see for awhile."
• "When I was a kid and I used to go see bands, and if you've listened to an album a thousand times, or even a hundred times, and you hear the song and then the guitar player plays a completely different guitar solo, it kinda throws you for a loop."
• "When I was a kid, we didn't have a turntable at our house, so I used to have to go to my grandmother's. And she had one of those old turntables that almost looked like a coffin on legs."
• "When I was doing the Unplugged session,the day after that, I got a premonition. Just for like, three or four seconds. I told Peter, Y'know, we are gonna do a reunion. And it all fell into place."
• "When we first started, the New York Dolls were popular on the New York scene, and they were kinda doing glam rock. Alice Cooper was huge. He was on the cover of every magazine."
• "When you take a shower in space, you have to press the water onto your body to clean yourself, and then you gotta vacuum it off."
• "Whenever I start to really think about what I'm playing, I may play it better musically, but the feeling isn't there."
• "Whenever you become a celebrity, you have to give up a lot of things people don't understand. Being on the road nine months out of the year affects your relationships at home, like your family, your friends, your loved ones. Everything has its price."
• "You're never gonna give your best performance if the producer makes you feel like you gotta do it my way, and blah, blah, blah."