News of Ace Frehley’s passing on October 16 wasn’t just a shock to the Kiss Army, but to rock and guitar communities at large. This was a man who had survived car crashes, police chases, addiction, relapse and two tumultuous stints in the Hottest Band in the World.
The expectation was that the guitarist, affectionately known as “Space Ace,” would live forever… or at least longer than 74 years. If he were going to be taken out, surely it wouldn’t come at the hands of not one but two seemingly innocuous falls in his home studio, right? Wrong. As Frehley told Guitar World in 2024, he had experienced balance issues throughout his entire guitar-playing life.
