In my newest e-book, Speak to Me: Conversations With Ace Frehley, I collected all of my many interviews with Ace over time. Plus, all-new interviews with such famend rock names as Eddie Trunk, Joe Bonamassa, and Soundgarden‘s Kim Thayil (amongst others), to pay tribute to one among rock music’s all-time greats, who handed away on October 16, 2025, on the age of 74.
Additionally interviewed for the e-book was That Metallic Present co-host and slapstick comedian Don Jamieson. And through our chat, I could not assist however ask if he felt that Ace might have reduce it as a comic. Right here is an excerpt from the e-book, during which Jamieson shares his opinion.
“Effectively, here is the factor – being a stand-up comedian, it’s a must to be very self-disciplined. You need to take the job actually significantly. Be lethal critical, to have numerous enjoyable with it. And I feel Ace was a little bit bit extra scattered. The factor that he put all his vitality in was enjoying the guitar. That is the place his focus all the time went. But when he simply needed to place the guitar down and stand up there and do jokes, with a little bit tremendous tuning, yeah, he might have been hilarious. As a result of, hey, a minimum of he would have laughed at his jokes.”
Additionally within the e-book, I had the chance to ask Jamieson about an notorious TV interview from Halloween 1979, during which the unique 4 members of Kiss have been interviewed by Tom Snyder on The Tomorrow Present. Throughout which, Ace steals the present together with his joking method and infectious laughter.
“I’m going again and watch that Tom Snyder factor a minimum of yearly. It truly is like watching a headline comic do a full set, as a result of there’s even a degree in the direction of the tip of the interview – it is a few 30-minute interview – the place Ace does have a lull with Tom. However then like, the final couple minutes, he has a flurry of actually humorous jokes, and he ends robust. That is like, each comedian – you are killing the entire present, then you’ve this lull for a little bit bit, however then you’ve a number of extra that you realize it should kill them on the finish. And also you get off stage on the massive chortle. And that is what it was like.”
“Tom Snyder liked Ace a lot – to the purpose the place he actually turned his again on Gene and Paul. He wasn’t even them for minutes at a time. And even the director had turned the digicam in the direction of Ace and Peter, and you’ll hear Gene off digicam making an attempt to throw one-liners in. However they don’t seem to be touchdown. They’re simply all bombing. However each time they’d deliver the digicam again to Gene and Paul, they have been livid – this was every thing they did not need the general public to see.”
Lastly, Jamieson recalled a memorable look Frehley made on VH1’s That Metallic Present again in 2011, which once more, displayed his humorousness, and, unpredictable nature.
“When Ace did That Metallic Present, he would all the time come ready with one thing humorous, which I all the time liked. Ace had such an ideal humorousness. So, we have been interviewing him about how he created the smoking guitar he is well-known for. And he goes, ‘Really, I’ve a brand new invention that I need to debut in your present at the moment.’ Now, our producer didn’t inform us this was coming, so it was a complete shock. He goes, “You guys know the electrical smoking guitar. Effectively, I acquired a brand new factor…the smoking flute.” And he takes out a little bit picket flute. He begins enjoying it, smoke begins billowing out the tip of it, and the three of us doubled over in laughter. It was such a priceless second. And I feel Eddie nonetheless has that flute to at the present time.
Speak to Me: Conversations With Ace Frehley is offered on the market now, as paperback, hardcover, and Kindle editions.
