ACE FREHLEY: 'I Never Wanted To Grow Up'

Nicki Gostin of The Huffington Post recently conducted an interview with original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Huffington Post: You write that, in the early years of KISS, it was very much a group effort.

Ace: Yeah, it was a collaborative effort. Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley] have tried to minimize my and Peter's [Criss] contributions. It was all for one and one for all. We were all just trying to put on the best show and come up with interesting ideas.

The Huffington Post: Was there a moment you realized you had to stop drinking alcohol?

Ace: There were several it's just whether or not I followed through with them that was the big question. It took me a while to figure it out. The last one was when my daughter called me on the phone and she did like an intervention with me and after getting off the phone with her, I just said, "OK, that's it. Time to grow up." I never wanted to grow up. Being in the rock and roll business, nobody grows up. Everybody deflects responsibility.

The Huffington Post: You're coddled a bit in the industry.

Ace: You have a cushion. You always have your bodyguard and your manager. You don't have to be responsible for your actions. I'd be driving down the highway doing 100 miles an hour and I'd get pulled over by a state trooper. I'd give him an 8x10 autograph and he'd let me go. You get to feel like you're above the law. You can get away with anything. You're in a safety bubble and then once that bubble's not there anymore, you tumble and fall.

The Huffington Post: I can't believe you hated playing, "I Was Made for Loving You". I love that song.

Ace: I wasn't a big fan of the song to begin with because it was kind of disco and I felt like we were kind of selling out because I'm a hard rock guitar player. Beyond the fact that I didn't like the song, when we performed it live, I had to make that "chukka, chukka" sound during the majority of the song and I used to get cramps in my wrist, to add insult to injury.

Read the entire interview from The Huffington Post.