In the third part of The Metal Voice’s interview series with Blackie Lawless, the W.A.S.P. vocalist talked about his friendship with former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley. He revealed that their long-time relationship started around the same time as the band. Answering a question of whether they were in a street gang together, the singer went on:
“No, let’s put it this way. I can remember him and I collecting Coke bottles to cash in for deposits and going and buying .25-cent beers at happy hours. So that gives you an idea how far it goes back.”
The Two’s First Meeting
In a past interview with the Three Sides Of The Coin podcast, Lawless also mentioned meeting Frehley for the first time at a party shortly before KISS’s official industry premiere at the Academy of Music in New York City, where they opened for Blue Öyster Cult. He recalled:
“I was in a band called Black Rabbit at the time. And we were doing face paint and a very similar type of show. But we didn’t know who they were. We had no knowledge of them. Like I said, they were just getting started.”
Commenting on his connection with the original KISS guitarist, he went on:
“Ace and I started talking, and quite honestly, it was like a meeting of the minds kind of thing. We struck up a pretty strong kindred friendship from the get-go. Everybody has probably had situations where they’d met people, and there was this magnetic attraction. And that’s pretty much what it was.”
The Distance Between Them
On the other hand, at some point, after Frehley decided to get sober in 2006 with the help of her daughter, some distance occurred between the two artists. The guitarist talked about this when he joined Days Of The Dead for a Q&A panel in 2015, saying:
“You know me and Blackie used to be drinking buddies, and I pretty much cut loose all the people I used to drink with for the most part. But, more than that, he’s doing his thing, and I’m doing mine. I completely lost track of Blackie, but we’re still friends, and I’m sure we’ll bump into each other again.”
You can check out the full interview below for more details on Lawless’ thoughts and experiences.
