Any fans wanting to see Ace Frehley take part in KISS’ upcoming farewell tour need to hope that his former bandmates will allow him to ‘take back’ his iconic ‘Spaceman’ character.
Iconic rockers KISS recently announced to the world they’re gearing up to embark on their final world tour and wave goodbye to their fans for the last time.
Of course, many fans have been wondering what this final tour will include. Some, including Ace Frehley seem to be hoping it will be reminiscent of the band’s tour in the mid-’90s, which saw the original KISS lineup reunite for a world tour.
While Ace Frehley recently joked he would take part in the farewell tour “for the right price”, the band’s original guitarist has now stipulated he’d have to completely take over from Tommy Thayer if he was to appear.
Talking to Vintage Rock recently, Frehley spoke out in regards to his potential role in the upcoming tour.
“Getting involved with KISS on the road would take precedence over what I’m doing with my band. But the only way I would seriously consider it is if I took back my make-up and costume and my character — which I designed,” he explained.
“Tommy Thayer is not a bad guitar player, but he basically just mimics everything I wrote, and tries to imitate my persona. He’s been doing it for 15 years. But the reality is I’m the original guy. And nobody can really copy the way I play guitar.”
Of course, while Ace Frehley did indeed invent his ‘Spaceman’/’Space Ace’ stage persona and makeup design, current guitarist Tommy Thayer has been occupying that role since 2002. However, Frehley noted that he’s not exactly sure about the legality of Thayer’s usage.
“My attorney told me that I licensed it to them,” he explained. “That’s all I can say. They may deny it, but he told me, ‘You didn’t sell it to them.’ But what are the ins and outs of the licensing deal, I’m not 100% sure of. I think I licensed it to them for perpetuity…does that mean forever, or something?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlSFmotba2I
Ace Frehley also expressed his desire for original drummer Peter Criss to take part in the farewell tour (even though Eric Singer has occupied his ‘Catman’ makeup design since 2004).
“I think it would be great if Peter was involved,” Frehley explained. “Obviously, at this point in his life, he wouldn’t be able to do a two-hour show. But I can see if we worked out a situation where Peter came out at the end and did three or four songs — sang ‘Beth’, did ‘Black Diamond’, and a couple of others, I think that would be fun.”
As we’ve noted before though, there definitely doesn’t appear to be any bad blood between the members, with Frehley joining Gene Simmons on his recent tour to Australia. So at this stage, it seems like we might just need to sit back and wait and see if KISS’ farewell tour will be doubling as a reunion tour as well.
Check out KISS’ ‘Beth’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlZ7mTL4jRY
