Ace Frehley’s former drummer Scot Coogan has come forward with claims about how Gene Simmons influenced Ace Frehley’s decision to fire his entire solo band.
Coogan recounted noticing something unusual happening around the band before the split occurred. He described his suspicions as Gene Simmons began appearing more frequently.
“So, Gene starts showing up. Gene starts showing up. I’m like, ‘Okay, what’s going on?'” Coogan said. “You know, there’s got to be something going on. He’s showing up and then I get the phone, you know, I’m living in Vegas still, you know, so I was flying out every weekend. I was playing with George. I was playing with Stephen Piery. I was playing with Ace. I hadn’t been fired yet.”
Coogan then detailed the moment he learned Ace Frehley had decided to let go of the entire band in order to tour with Gene Simmons instead. He also described how he reacted to the news.
“So the whole band got fired and Ace said, you know, um he said, ‘Scotty, I got to let the whole band go because you know, I’m gonna go do this tour with Gene and I’m going to use his band,'” Coogan continued. “And I was like, ‘Why would you do that? We’re on fire right now.’ I got mad. I got mad and we were just going out to do this really long tour and I told him I want money.”
He went on to describe demanding compensation from Ace Frehley. He recalled the tense exchange that followed, including Ace’s own admission of guilt over the situation.
“I said, ‘You owe me.’ It was like a week before we were going out,” Coogan said. “So I said, ‘You got to pay me something,’ you know, because I was really mad. I was the first one he called and I was pissed. I was mad. And I let him know it, you know. I called him all kinds of names and he goes, ‘I feel like a shoe, a heel.’ That’s exactly what he—I feel like a heel is what he said. I said, ‘Well, you should. You have the best band, best lineup you’ve ever had and you’re going to go play with Gene’s band for a run in Japan in Australia or something.’ What are you talking about?”
Coogan concluded by explaining the financial motivation he believed was behind Simmons’ involvement in the decision.
“Well, Gene talked him into it because he didn’t have to pay for Richie and me and Chris and he said that he would give him his band,” Coogan said.
Coogan’s account concerns a 2018 shakeup in Ace Frehley’s touring lineup. Frehley later told SiriusXM he was moving forward with musicians from Gene Simmons’ touring group rather than retaining guitarist Richie Scarlet, bassist Chris Wyse and Coogan.
The replacement musicians, including Ryan Spencer Cook and Jeremy Asbrock, had performed with Simmons on an Australian tour before joining Frehley’s camp. The connection is central to Coogan’s claim that Simmons encouraged a lineup swap that cut Frehley’s touring costs.
Frehley had said at the time that the decision was not solely about money. Coogan’s new comments offer his account of how the decision unfolded behind the scenes.
