John Regan, who played with Ace Frehley‘s band Frehley’s Comet between 1984 and 1990, passed away on April 7, 2023. Before his passing, the bassist gave an interview to Metal Edge and looked back on working with Frehley.
Metal Edge recently reissued John Regan’s interview, where he talked about the first time he met Ace Frehley, who he thought wasn’t easy to deal with. The bassist explained his role in Frehley’s Comet, revealing what Ace needed from people around him.
Regan recalled:
“Ace was always good to me. He wasn’t always easy to deal with, but we connected as friends first, and the music part came later. I didn’t know it then, but I took on a sort of caretaking role later on in the Frehley’s Comet days. And I get why… Ace needed people around him that would encourage him to keep it together. So, that’s what I tried to do from day one.”
On the 1988 album he recorded with Frehley’s Comet, ‘Second Sighting,’ John Regan said Ace Frehley came with numerous challenges, and they did their best to come up with a good album. He said:
“I think we did the best we could given the state of things, you know? I’ll tell you this – it wasn’t easy. Ace was Ace, and with that comes all sorts of challenges. Tod and I did our best to make a good record, but it wasn’t received well. But was it the right record? I don’t know if I can answer that. I guess the sales say it wasn’t, but it was the record we could make then. We did our best to keep something we all believed in afloat. We did it for each other as much as for Ace. I have no regrets.”
Regan recorded the bass tracks and backing vocals for Frehley’s Comet’s 1988 album, ‘Second Sighting.’ During the recordings, Ace Frehley had health issues and was struggling with substance abuse, so Tod Howarth had a bigger role in the album with his singing and songwriting.
In a 1990 interview with Rave-Up Fanzine, Ace Frehley recalled the days they were working on ‘Second Sighting’:
“I didn’t have much new material, but Tod had written many songs. We were working under a limited time frame, so I just let him sing half the songs. Plus, I was sick with bronchitis during the recording sessions, so I wasn’t involved with it as much as I should have been. Basically, it didn’t come out like an Ace Frehley record. It came out like an Ace and Tod record. Unfortunately, many of my fans weren’t thrilled with it.”
Ace Frehley recently announced his upcoming tour dates on his website. His tour will kick off on June 30, 2023, and will conclude on August 26, 2023.
