Ace Frehley, the ex-Kiss guitarist and one of the co-founders of the American Hard Rock group, Ace was an important part of the band’s sound and helped them to make classic albums like “Hotter than Hell” (1974), “Destroyer” (1976) and “Love Gun” (1977). Records like those ones were crucial for them to become one of the best-selling groups of all time with more than 100 million records sold worldwide.
In a conversation during a lecture in Wyndham, Indianapolis back in 2019, Ace Frehley answered fans’ questions. He revealed some artists that influenced him the most and Rock and Roll Garage selected what the musician said about those bands over the years and his connection with some of them.
The 5 bands that Kiss’ Ace Frehley listed as influences
Blues Magoos
Formed in the Bronx, New York City in 1964, Blues Magoos were active until 1970 and became best known for the song “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet”. Ace Frehley was also born and raised in the Bronx, so the Blues Magoos were local heroes for him and also a direct influence on the Kiss guitarist. The band’s frontman Peppy Castro said in an interview with Vanyaland in 2015 that he taught Frehley how to play.
“I taught Ace Frehley how to play guitar. So it’s no wonder how he comes out in ‘Love Gun’ and goes [sings the sound of the opening riff of ‘Love Gun’] and throws that in there a little bit. The Magoos were one of the acts that signaled to him that he could do it. He loved all the greats, Zeppelin and all that stuff. But the Blues Magoos were a little local act that came out from the same neighborhood and said to him, “Hey, if those guys can do it — I can do it!” Then [Kiss] go on to have this groundbreaking amazing career [laughs],” Peppy Castro said.
The curious thing is that the song “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet” is quite similar to Ricky Nelson’s “Summertime”, which was later also an influence to Deep Purple‘s “Black Night”. The Blues Magoos version also can be heard as an influence to Kiss’ “Love Gun” as Castro said.
The Who
Another band that influenced Ace Frehley a lot was The Who, the legendary British group formed by Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon. He had the chance to see them playing when they went to New York City. In an interview with Guitar World in 2024, he recalled that he learned a lot from Pete Townshend’s guitar playing.
“That’s true. I’ve learned from a lot of guys who sound like no one else. When you hear Eric Clapton play, you know it’s Clapton. Jimi Hendrix had his own style as well, and it was very distinctive; Townshend is the same way. He’s the master of chord work. Townshend could play the same chord in a dozen different positions.
“I learned a lot from studying Pete Townshend. A lot of people don’t know that he buried an acoustic guitar under the electric guitar to create a fuller sound. I use that now on some songs. You don’t really hear it that much, but if you pull it out, you miss it because it helps support the song. And he’s the one that really inspired me to mess around with the toggle switch,” Ace Frehley said.
Curiously, during the past decades Kiss started to cover the breakdown part of Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in the middle of their hit “Lick It Up”.
Jimi Hendrix
Like most guitar players from the late 60s and 70s, Ace Frehley was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, who changed the course of guitar playing. He had the chance to be Hendrix’s roadie for a few hours until his crew noticed that Frehley was actually an intruder. He first heard the late legendary American singer and guitarist when he was about 16 as he recalled in an interview with Guitar World in 2014.
“I remember walking around with it all the time (‘Are You Experienced’ album). (So) I brought it to school with me and showed it to everyone. I brought it to band rehearsals. I lived with that album until someone ripped it off at a party. Of course, I went right out and bought another one. My guitar style was modeled after a lot of musicians, and Hendrix was definitely one of them. But even more than the music, what really influenced me was his attitude. The way he dressed, the way he looked. He was so anti-establishment, and nobody wrote music like him. I loved ‘Are You Experienced’ and ‘Purple Haze.'”
He continued:
“(…) And I got a chance to meet him when I was 18. I snuck backstage at his last New York appearance at Randall’s Island. They ended up putting me to work with the road crew. Back then, they didn’t have laminates or heads of security. If you looked like you belonged with the band, they let you go backstage. I had hair down to my waist, lemon-yellow hot pants and a black T-shirt with a snakeskin star on it. So they let me in. But after a while, they were like, ‘Who is this fuckin’ guy?’ But before they kicked me out, they said, ‘Can you do anything?’ And they put me to work setting up Mitch Mitchell’s drums and working on the stage when Jimi was playing. It was bizarre.”
Ace covered a few Jimi Hendrix songs during his career, like “Spanish Castle Magic” and “Manic Depression”. Those versions were respectively part of his covers album “Origins Vol. 1” (2016) and “Origins Vol. 2” (2020).
Cream and Eric Clapton
Frehley has always been a huge fan of Eric Clapton‘s guitar playing and of course, the supergroup Cream was a big part of that inspiration. The power trio formed by Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were one of the bands that gave elements to what would later become Hard Rock.
“Y’know, I can remember as a kid hearing Eric Clapton interviewed. (He was) talking about his solo on Cream’s ‘Sunshine of Your Love’. Clapton said the solo on that song was basically the melody from Elvis’s ‘Blue Moon.’ I clearly remember him saying that the best and most memorable solos are the ones you can hum. I never forgot that. That’s stayed with me my whole life,” Ace Frehley said in an interview with Guitar Player in 2022.
On “Origins” vol.1 and vol.2, Ace also covered a few Cream songs. They were: “White Room” and “Politician”.
