Ace Frehley’s opinion on Eddie Van Halen

Before Eddie Van Halen turned the guitar world upside down in the late ’70s with the release of Van Halen’s debut album, there were many guitar players in the United States who influenced a whole generation of musicians. One of them was Ace Frehley, a founding member of KISS, who was extremely important to the band’s sound as their lead guitarist and also wrote and sang classic tracks like “Shock Me.”

The two guitarists had the chance to meet each other before Van Halen even had a record deal and throughout his career, Ace gave his opinion on Eddie.

What was Ace Frehley’s opinion on Eddie Van Halen

Ace and Eddie were good friends and the KISS guitarist admired him greatly, but the first time he met him and the band he had no idea who they were and had a really funny reaction. “We befriended them (after Gene saw them playing in a club), they showed up at a couple of our rehearsals. I’ll never forget saying to Paul: ‘Who are these fucking idiots here?’ You know (laughs). Ed is an amazing guitarist, I mean, I can’t even attempt to do some of those solos he does,” he told Chris Jericho in 2025.

Over the years, many fans have pointed out the possibility that Eddie was inspired by Ace’s playing and he said it could be true but it was Van Halen who perfected the tapping. “Before Van Halen became famous, Gene discovered them. But all I can tell is when I was doing my guitar solo at Madison Square Garden, before they became famous, Eddie was down in the pit watching every fucking move I made.”

He continued:

“But you know, I did it with the pick (In Kiss’ live version of ‘Shock Me’), I didn’t do it with my finger. Eddie probably got some ideas from me just like I got ideas from other guitar players. But he perfected it, I mean, there’s no way I can play some of the solos that he pulled off,” Ace Frehley said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

Although he was a fan of Eddie, he didn’t like his guitar solos that much because they didn’t always have a melodic side to them.”I have always been into players who are powerful but who wrote guitar solos that would repeat a line or lick two or three times. Like I said, I look to write solos as songs inside of a song. That’s what a guitar solo is to me.”

“The best solos are the ones you can sing. I love Yngwie Malmsteen and Eddie Van Halen, but after their solos, you’re often going, ‘What the fuck just happened?’ For me, it’s about melodic and simple stuff. I understand melody; I don’t need 500 notes between each bar. I’m a blues-based guitarist, and that’s the methodology I always go back to,” he told Guitar World.

After Eddie’s passing, Ace said: “Eddie was a friend of mine. I’m very saddened by his passing away so young in life. My prayers and condolences go out to his family, friends & fans! A great and innovative guitarist. God Bless Eddie. R.I.P.”

Gene Simmons said he made Ace Frehley copy Eddie’s solo note for note in “Christine Sixteen”

Curiously, according to Gene Simmons, the Kiss song “Christine Sixteen” had an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo. The Van Halen brothers played on the original demos of the song and Simmons later made Frehley copy note for note the guitar solo written by Eddie for the song.

“When KISS came back from Japan in the late ’70s, for some reason, in the middle of the night, I couldn’t get to sleep. Jetlag and stuff. So I wound up sketching three songs. One became ‘Christine Sixteen,’ another one was ‘Tunnel of Love,’ and another one was ‘Got Love for Sale.’ Often I’d get in and play all the instruments, but it would take forever ’cause I’m not a great drummer. So I called up the guys. Both Alex and Edward showed up at the studio late at night/early morning, and we cut those three songs.”

“In fact, one take, Edward did a solo on ‘Christine Sixteen’ that was so good I forced Ace to do that solo note-for-note. So the solo that you hear on ‘Christine Sixteen’ is note-for-note the Eddie Van Halen solo from the demo,” Gene Simmons said in an interview with Jeremy White Podcast.

Gene Simmons said that Eddie asked him to join Kiss

Ace Frehley was a member of Kiss from 1973 to 1982, returning from 1996 to 2002. Although the guitarist was credited on “Creatures of The Night” (1982) he didn’t play on the record, being later replaced by Vinnie Vincent. It was around that time that according to Gene, Eddie asked him to join Kiss.

“It happened in 1982, it was when Kiss was doing a record called ‘Creatures Of The Night'”. Eddie told me, ‘Roth is driving me nuts. I can’t take it, I gotta leave. I know you’re looking for a lead guitar player. Do you want me in the band?’ Where Eddie lived, it wasn’t far away. So he got into his Jeep and came to the studio. Him driving that Jeep was the scariest thing in the world. It had no doors and he’d drive at 100 miles an hour. It was insane.”

He continued:

“So he came down and we had lunch across the street. Then he came into the studio and heard some of the tracks. (He) was like, ‘Oh, I really like that!’ (When he talked about joining Kiss) I said, ‘Eddie, a band is worse than a marriage. You’re going to have ups and downs and stuff. But with Van Halen, everything begins and ends with you. It’s all about the guitar. And likewise for AC/DC or Led Zeppelin with Jimmy Page. Those riffs, that’s the backbone of what it is. That’s the sound. It’s a point of view which is not necessarily the point of view of Kiss.’”

“There wouldn’t be room for Eddie in Kiss. It would be like putting Jeff Beck or Hendrix in AC/DC. Hendrix would suck up all the oxygen. He needed just one bass player and a drummer so he’d got that room without a rhythm guitar player there. Eddie was like Hendrix in that sense. He needed a lot of room. With Van Halen it was a lot of room for the guitar player to take up. There just wasn’t that room unless we wanted to gut what Kiss was all about. And Eddie would have taken over.”

Gene Simmons continued:

“Morally, I think I did the right thing, which is telling Eddie, ‘You’ve got to stick it out. No matter what the problems are in the band, you’ve got to hang in there.’ It’s never easy. You take a look at Jagger and Richards, who had their ups and downs, or Lennon and McCartney, who were childhood friends. But you don’t let the band break up, even if it means switching lead singers. And in the end, that’s exactly what Eddie did,” Gene Simmons said. Eddie Van Halen died back in 2020 at the age of 65, Ace sadly passed five years later, in 2025 at the age of 74.