In a new interview with Goldmine, Ace Frehley talked about how Gene Simmons would force himself to write songs.
“Paul and Gene have a certain work ethic that I don’t have,” the guitarist said. “For example, when Gene was living in Manhattan in his penthouse, he told me he’d go into his closet, he had a little amp and a recorder set up there, and he’d write a song every day.”
Ace further recalled, “And I’d say, ‘Why do you force yourself to write a song every day?’ He goes, ‘That’s just my work ethic.’ I go, ‘I can’t work that way, Gene. I can only write a song when I feel inspired.”
“So for example, I’ll go three weeks without writing a song, and then the following the weekend, something would inspire me and I’ll end up writing two or three songs in a weekend,” the rocker shared. “Out of 365 songs that Gene wrote in one year while he was living there, there was probably only a half a dozen songs that we used.”
Having different mentalities on work ethic was also influential in Frehley’s decision to leave KISS. “People say to me why you quit KISS, and I go, well I wasn’t having fun anymore,” the guitarist told Mike Brunn in February. “I am having fun now. When I am not having fun anymore, I will either get a new band or I will retire.”
He continued, “When Peter was in the band, it was a democratic group. And I didn’t even realize it, but when Peter left, I realized I had lost all my power in the band because pretty much Paul and Gene are workaholics and like to do things their way. So, if I don’t like the way something is happening, I get outvoted.”
Frehley also gave an example, sharing, “I was dead set against ‘The Elder’ [KISS’s controversial 1981 LP ‘Music From ‘The Elder’]; I didn’t think it was the right album for the right time. It’s not a bad record; I don’t think our fans were expecting a record like that. And I kept telling him during the recording process, I said, ‘I think it’s a big mistake.’ And, of course, it bombed.”
The rocker’s latest record ‘10,000 Volts’ came out in 2024 and debuted at #72 on the Billboard 200. Frehley’s next album, ‘Origins Vol. 3,’ is planned for 2025.
