Ace Frehley Dies After Fall in Home Studio

Guitarist and song-writer Ace Frehley, best known as one of the founding members of KISS, died today after spending several weeks in a hospital. TMZ reported earlier today that Frehley was on life support and didn’t seem to be improving.

Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist for KISS, is hospitalized on life support, and the prognosis is not good … TMZ has learned.

Sources familiar with Ace’s situation tell us … he suffered a brain bleed when he took a fall in his studio a couple weeks ago — forcing him to cancel his upcoming tour dates — but his health has not improved.

We’re told he’s been on a ventilator for some time, and hasn’t gotten better — so, his family is considering turning off support … perhaps as soon as Thursday evening.

A short time ago his death was confirmed by his family who gave a statement to Variety.

“We are completely devastated and heartbroken. In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth. We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter, and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others. The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”

Variety has a pretty good summary of how Frehley got involved with the band that made him a star.

Citing Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the Who as his primary influences, he began playing in bands as a teenager and purportedly acquired his nickname from friends based on his ability to score dates with girls.

He dropped out of high school after one of his bands, Cathedral, began earning money, but later returned and got his diploma. He continued playing and by 1971, one of his bands, Molimo, signed with RCA Records and recorded several unreleased songs for the label. But late the following year, a friend spotted an advertisement in the Village Voice that turned out to be for the lead guitar slot in the embryonic Kiss. Famously, Frehley went to the audition in Manhattan wearing one red sneaker and one orange one. Stanley, Simmons and Criss were dismayed by his appearance but sufficiently impressed with his fiery lead guitar work, and he was invited to join a few weeks later. The band, which was preceded by Stanley and Simmons’ previous group Wicked Lester, dubbed themselves Kiss in January 1973 and soon, inspired by the New York Dolls and Alice Cooper, began painting their faces and crafting outrageous costumes for their concerts…

The band released its self-titled debut album in February of [1974], which featured some future favorites like “Firehouse,” “Black Diamond” and Frehley’s composition “Cold Gin,” that album and the follow-ups “Hotter Than Hell” and “Dressed to Kill,” were only minor successes.

However, the 1975 live set, “Kiss Alive!,” driven by a supercharged version of the song “Rock and Roll All Night,” combined with increasing buzz and memorable television appearances to vault the band to superstardom. Their core audience was teenaged boys, who were delighted by their parents’ mortified reactions to this heavily made-up group of “freaks” with their loud music. The band’s painted faces soon began appearing on jean jackets across the United States, and their iconic logo — with a pair of lightning-bolt “S”s purloined from David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era — on untold thousands of high school notebooks.

People under the age of 45 or so really have no idea what a cultural force KISS was in the mid to late 70s. In the suburbs of Virginia where I grew up, every boy in school knew who they were and, usually, had a favorite song or a favorite band member. Other bands at the time had mystique but KISS had it in spades, partly because of the make-up which meant no one knew what they looked like. 

Long before the internet when the bandwidth for things like bands that 11-year-olds care about was pretty thin, all you had were album covers and the occasional rock magazine or a story on the news. The band, with its crazy make-up, costumes, nicknames and excessive stage shows featuring blood, fire and smoking guitars really did seem larger-than-life. I got KISS action figures for Christmas one year. I dressed up as members of the band for Halloween. They even had a TV movie in which they played their characters as superheroes fighting evil (who had a rock band as a sideline). I never once saw KISS in concert but if you were a boy at the time, they probably found other ways into your life.

In 1978 they came close to breaking up but decided to release four solo albums at the same time instead. Deciding which album you were going to buy seemed like a big deal at the time. It was the talk of the lunch table. I’m sure that was true all around the country.

I bought Ace’s album. And Peter’s.

Ace’s was the best of the four. It produced the biggest hit form those four albums. It was a cover but still it hit #13 on the charts.

Ace himself felt a bit mystified by the band’s appeal to young fans. In 1982 he quit the group, fearing he would end up committing suicide if he didn’t.

And as the group grew more successful in the late Seventies and the band’s audience started skewing younger, Frehley grew uneasy. “We were this heavy rock group,” he told Rolling Stone in 2015, “and now we had little kids with lunchboxes and dolls in the front row, and I had to worry about cursing in the microphone. It became a circus.”

That circus also featured a lot behind-the-scenes battles stemming from Frehley’s drug use, alcohol consumption, and the band’s decision to use session guitarists on some tracks. By 1982, Frehley simply had enough. “I was mixed up,” he later recalled. “I believed that if I stayed in that group I would have committed suicide. I’d be driving home from the studio, and I’d want to drive my car into a tree. I mean, I walked out on a $15 million contract. That would be like $100 million today. And my attorney was looking at me like, ‘What are you, crazy?’”

If you weren’t around at the time the whole thing probably seems inexplicable now, like explaining the Spice Girls to a 15-year-old. So you’ll have to take my word for it, but in the late 70s they really did seem to be the hottest band in the world, certainly for young boys. For some of us who were just the right age at the time this is the end of an era and another sign that we’re getting pretty old.

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons issued a joint statement.

“We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley,” Simmons and Stanley said in a joint statement. “He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part of KISS’s legacy. Our thoughts are with [Frehley’s wife] Jeanette, [his daughter] Monique and all those who loved him, including our fans around the world.”

X is filling up with tributes from rock stars and regular people.

I am so shocked & saddened that this happened to my hero & my friend. I’ve known Ace since 1988 & we’ve been very close ever since then. Ace Frehley changed the world. He influenced millions of people & changed my life. I will miss you my friend.#RIPAceFrehley #RIPSpaceace pic.twitter.com/AXCTxH41aJ

— John 5 🎸 (@john5guitarist) October 16, 2025

Ace Frehley, Eddie, Me in awe…
📸: Danny Clinch

I heard about Ace Frehley‘s passing from Rick Friel who I played with in a band called Shadow. Rick was also the first guy on the bus in 1977 with a KISS lunchbox to tell me about Ace…just changed my life. I got a guitar in 1978… pic.twitter.com/0oULzn0A5H

— Pearl Jam (@PearlJam) October 16, 2025

@ace_frehley Ace, my brother, I surely cannot thank you enough for the years of great music, the many festivals we’ve done together and your lead guitar on Nothing But A Good Time. All my love and respect, from my family and myself – may you rest in peace!!! #AceFrehley pic.twitter.com/Vb5IIPYPxu

— Bret Michaels (@bretmichaels) October 16, 2025

Going to have to get used to my childhood dying a little at a time. Can’t tell you how many nights I spent listening to Ace Frehley & KISS at top volume. pic.twitter.com/dUWyWKYqrL

— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) October 16, 2025

RIP, Ace.

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