Ace Frehley Says Paul Stanley Didn't Apologize — but He Did Call to Say "Fuck You"

The former KISS guitarist had given the frontman seven days to apologize for recent comments made on 'The Howard Stern Show'

Photo: Ace Frehley by Kevin Soney (right), Paul Stanley by Raph_PH

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Apr 6, 2023

Well, the clock has officially run out on former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley's window for tongue-waggler in-chief Paul Stanley to make amends for some recent comments. Instead, Frehley got what can only be described as a KISS-off.

Last week, the former guitarist threatened to spill some "dirt" on the band if Stanley didn't apologize to him within seven days for some commentary he made on The Howard Stern Show

When asked about the group's decision to not perform at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2014, producers had apparently insisted that KISS perform with their original lineup: Stanley and bassist Gene Simmons alongside Frehley and Peter Criss, who both left the band in the mid-'80s.

"And at this point, that would be demeaning to the band and would also give some people confusion," Stanley told Stern. "'Cause if you saw people on stage who looked like KISS but sounded like that, maybe we should be called PISS."

Yesterday (April 5) marked exactly one week since Frehley made his mandate known on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk. And it sounds like word did manage to get around to Stanley, but he took a different approach to apologizing.

"I was blindsided by the phone call," Frehley said of his former bandmate hitting his line [via Blabbermouth]. "I figured he was calling me maybe to apologize or at least explain why he said that."

He continued, "But instead of an apology, I got a five-second phone call which said, 'Fuck you, Ace. I'm not gonna apologize,' and hung up. He wasn't even man enough to let me give a rebuttal and explain why I'm so upset or anything like that."

Frehley went on to explain the multiple ways he could confirm that it was definitely Stanley on the line, then said he had ultimately decided not to release the "120-page manuscript" revealing "career-ending" secrets about the band in order to not "sink to their level."

"I spoke to several good friends of mine who are God-fearing people," Frehley explained. "They said, 'Don't ever sink to their level' … So, then I came to the realization that I don't even have to bring up anything that I have hidden away in my attorney's safe deposit box. I can just talk about things that they've said about me in black and white."

They do tend to dwell in the black and white. Frehley, who has reunited with KISS in the past (most recently in 2018 for the KISS Kruise), admitted that he would still perform at the band's final shows this year if they asked him to. He laughed, "I don't really wanna play with those guys ever again after what they've done, but money can change my mind."

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