Slash Reflects on Ace Frehley’s Legacy: ‘One of the Great 70s Rock Guitar Heroes’ (Exclusive)

When they first started out in the mid-1980s, Guns N’ Roses weren’t in the same world as KISS. GNR represented the rebellious underground of the Los Angeles scene, while KISS — well, having just removed their makeup and changed band members — were the status quo in hard rock. However, over the years, there’s been a new appreciation for KISS, at least from Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, for Ace Frehley’s stylistic influence. Funny enough, GNR were slated to open for the guitarist’s Frehley’s Comet project as they were rising to fame before…they didn’t.

Frehley, who died in October at the age of 74, and Slash became friends after he left Guns N’ Roses in the 1990s.

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“The funny thing about Ace is that when I was a kid coming up, I couldn’t stand KISS,” Slash says. “The theatrics of it got in the way for me. I just couldn’t. I didn’t buy into it.”

Slash Grew to Appreciate KISS—and Ace

That said, apparently, KISS was interested in a teenage Slash joining the band, coincidentally, when Frehley left. In his autobiography, Paul Stanley wrote that he discovered Slash through his mother, who was a seamstress for David Bowie. Yet, due to Slash’s age, he wasn’t considered for the position, which was probably a good thing since he wasn’t exactly a fan of the band. However, down the road, that view changed.

“As I came to appreciate KISS’s music later, I really came to appreciate Ace,” Slash says. “Then I got to meet him and play with him in the early millennium, and we’ve been friends ever since. I’ve recorded with him a couple of times, and I’ve gotten on stage with him a couple of times. He’s the real deal, one of the great ’70s rock guitar heroes, one of the last of them. It’s sad that he isn’t here. I haven’t even fully digested that yet.”

At VH1’s Rock Honors in 2006, the pair, along with Rob Zombie, former GNR guitarist Gilby Clarke, Anthrax bassist Scott Ian, and Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee, performed KISS’s “God of Thunder.”

However, with age came a new appreciation for Frehley, who, in tributes following his death, it turns out influenced an entire generation of guitarists, including Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, and John 5.

Others Pay Tribute to Frehley

Slash isn’t the only Guns N’ Roses member to pay tribute to Frehley. Former drummer Matt Sorum, who was also friends with Frehley, posted a tribute of his own.

“After the original 4 split he forged on to record solo albums and touring the world,” Sorum wrote. “We crossed paths many times and he had that cool New York attitude of no filter. Was honored to play on his DVD Behind the Player and he also joined me in my Kings of Chaos lineup. So I had some travel time and backstage banter with him. The real deal in every sense of the word.”