Gene Simmons says Ace Frehley made an immediate impression when he turned up to audition for the role of Kiss guitarist.
Simmons and 'Space Ace' have had their fair share of public spats since Frehley left the band permanently in 2002. But recalling Ace's audition in the early 1970s, Simmons is fulsome in his praise of the guitarist's ability.
He tells Billy Corgan's The Magnificent Others podcast: "He immediately tore open the doors of what could be, what should be.
"We were in a rat-infested loft, maybe twice as big as this room, with egg crates that we stuck on the wall that still had some cracked eggs. And, of course, at night huge dinosaur cockroaches would come out. Oh, it was horrible. There were no windows and everything.
"But we didn't care. We were doing this thing and we auditioned players. Ace plugs in and starts playing while we're talking to another guy, and I walked up to him and said, 'Buddy, you better sit down before I knock you out. What are you doing? We're talking.'
"He was oblivious that there was another meeting going on, that he had to sit there civilly and wait for his turn. And when he got up, we said, 'Okay, listen, pal, we're gonna do a song called Deuce. Here's the riff. We'll do two verses, bridge. When the riff starts, I'll point to you.
"You've heard it enough, and you do a solo based on the riff.' He said, 'Ah, okay.' And he talked like that. And we're going, 'Boy, he's a weird guy. He's got one orange sneaker, one red sneaker. Just pigeon-toed and all.
"'Oh, boy, this guy is gonna be…' And then he dug in. And his head, like he's on stage, just that rubbery thing. And Paul and I looked at each other, 'Wow!' And you don't know what you're looking for, but you certainly know when you hear it and see it. And… it just kind of happened."
Kiss performed their last ever show at Madison Square Garden on December 2 as part of their farewell End of the Road tour – a performance of which Frehley insists he was not invited to.
The band later revealed that they will be continuing their legacy as digital avatars.
Frehley released his latest solo album 10,000 Volts last year.
