Ace Frehley, one of the founding members of hard rock legends KISS, died at age 74 on Thursday, just two weeks after suffering a fall in his studio.
His death in Morristown, New Jersey, was confirmed in a statement to Rolling Stone.
“We are completely devastated and heartbroken,” Frehley’s family said. “In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers, and intentions as he left this earth.”
Frehley was the original lead guitarist of KISS, which got its start in New York City in 1973 with fellow members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Peter Criss.
Their hits include “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Detroit Rock City,” and they were known for their intense stage shows, which included fireworks, smoke, and eruptions of fake blood performed by band members in black-and-white painted faces, platform boots, and black wigs.
Frehley and his bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
He died peacefully on Thursday, surrounded by family, two weeks after the fall that left him hospitalized with a brain bleed, according to TMZ, forcing him to cancel tour dates.
“We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley,” Simmons and Stanley said in a joint statement. “He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part of KISS’s legacy.”
Frehley left the band in 1982, skipping the years when they took off the makeup and had mixed success. He performed both as a solo artist and with his band, Frehley’s Comet.
But he rejoined KISS in the mid-1990s for a triumphant reunion and restoration of their original style that came after bands including Nirvana, Weezer and the Melvins had expressed their affection for the band and paid them musical tributes.
KISS retired from touring in 2023 but was slated to reunite for a special “unmasked” fan event in Las Vegas from Nov. 14–16 to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary. The band’s status for that event is now uncertain.
Earlier this month, KISS bassist Gene Simmons, 76, was hospitalized after fainting and crashing his SUV into a parked vehicle in Malibu – an incident he called a “slight fender bender.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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