Particularly in recent years, the Kiss camp—Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley—has exchanged innumerable jabs with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, the band’s former original members, and vice versa.
For those who don’t remember, Simmons and Stanley were in the band the entire time, with replacements, but Criss left in 1980 and Frehley did the same in 1982. Before Simmons and Stanley continued with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer wearing the Spaceman and Catman makeup, a very successful reunion of the original lineup in the late 1990s and early 21st century appeared to work for a few years.
Frehley talked about his relationship with his old bandmates and whether he is still in touch with them in an interview with the Guitar Tales Podcast.
“We can still have polite conversations with one another. Frehley (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar) acknowledges, “If we have to.” “Gene was dehydrated when he fell on stage in South America after becoming ill. Since I still had a tight relationship with Gene, I became somewhat worried. “Gene, are you okay?” I asked him in an email. I read that you passed out.
He replied to me from South America in less than ten minutes, saying, ‘Ace, we were playing in the forest. The temperature was 106 degrees. as well as extremely high humidity. I had lost all my fluids. Additionally, his costume weights about thirty pounds. He claimed that all he really needed was a large amount of Gatorade. He needed to drink more water. Thank God, he was fine after that.
Nobody can take away what the original lineup produced back in the 1970s or how their achievements will endure despite all the nasty taunts between the factions.
“Even when we are all gone, the things we made will endure. I make an effort to ignore the bad and concentrate on the good recollections. We had a great time. In the past, we were pretty close. And we would discuss the things that were bothering us during our weekly band sessions.
However, as I already stated, we all became millionaires as soon as we became wealthy. Everyone began to go in their own direction. Each person had a limousine of their own. Each person had an own bodyguard. Nothing lasts forever, you know.