Paul “Ace” Frehley: co-founder of the band “KISS” and his legendary guitar riffs
On a walk through Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, I made my way to the Garden Conservatory mausoleum. There, on the face of a bottom-row crypt, rested a single yellow guitar pick, left for the lead guitarist and co-founder of KISS, Ace Frehley.
Paul Daniel Frehley was born not far from here, in the Bronx, into a musical family. His father, an electrical engineer, played piano, and his older brother Charles became a classical guitarist. Paul received his first guitar as a Christmas present at around age 13 and taught himself largely by ear, playing along with records. The turning point came in 1967, when he saw The Who and Cream in Manhattan and knew this was what he wanted to do with his life.
For the next several years he bounced between local bands and dead-end jobs, still living at home. Then his life changed almost overnight. Two unknown musicians, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, placed an ad in the Village Voice seeking a lead guitarist with flash. Frehley showed up in early 1973 wearing mismatched sneakers, one red and one orange. Everyone found him odd, but once he played, they knew they had found their guitarist.
Frehley’s first run with KISS lasted nearly a decade, from 1973 to 1982,
Ace Frehley created the logo in 1973 with the distinctive bold-lettered K-I-double-lightning-bolts.
and he returned for the reunion years from 1996 to 2002. He created the Spaceman character and designed the band’s lightning-bolt logo, and his smoking, rocket-firing guitars became signature stage effects that fans still remember like me.
KISS in London, England.
The band endured decades of on-and-off disputes, but in 2014 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came calling.
His influence ran deep. Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, Slash, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and many others credited Ace with inspiring them to pick up the guitar.
Ace Frehley died on October 16, 2025, at age 74, after a fall at his home.
Ace’s parents Carl and Esther are also entombed in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx.
As he wished, he was laid to rest in the Bronx where he grew up, close to his parents, in the same cemetery as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and other musical legends like himself.
1951-2025
Thank you for the musical journey, “ACE”.
