Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley believes he’d have died if he’d remained in the band after 2002.
He bowed out for the second and apparently final time 13 years ago – and he says he’d realised he was on a “collision course.”
Frehley tells Australia’s Today show: “When I left there was a sigh of relief. I just thought I was going to end up being a statistic.
“By the grace of God I’m here today, clean and sober eight years. Life’s never been better.”
He says of beating the bottle: “The first year or two is hard” – but it’s better than being the person who “was looking at being in trouble with the law for drunk driving and all that crazy stuff.”
The original Kiss lineup gathered for their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction last year, but the truce didn’t last long. Paul Stanley later called the 1990s reunion a “fiasco” and separately described Frehley and drummer Peter Criss as “flat tyres.” Frehley accused Stanley of being “one of the sloppiest guitarists out there.”
The current lineup of Kiss headline this year’s Download festival at Donington on June 12-14.
