Phil Ashley, known best for his collaborative work with Kiss, Mick Jagger and Aerosmith, died unexpectedly on July 10 at the age of 65. No cause of death was given.
“We are heartbroken at the passing of Philip Ashley,” his family confirmed. “A loving father, husband & partner, a wonderful friend and passionately talented musician. … We hope to honor his life next year with a memorial service – details to come.
Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley paid tribute to Ashley over Twitter, admitting he was “at a loss for words“.
“My dear friend Phil Ashley has died suddenly. He was a no bullshit, warm and kind soul who I shared so many hours talking with about the value of life, family and music. He played keyboards for many of the greats. The times we won’t have leaves me empty.”
Joe Satriani added: “Our dear friend Phil Ashley passed away last week,” attaching a picture of the two of them with Doug Wimbish and Simon Philips during the recording of The Extremist. “He was a magnificent musician and human being. My deepest condolences to his family. R.I.P Phil, we will all miss you.”
In a past interview with the Kiss Concert History site, Ashley said he had always had an eager interest in music, beginning with the study of classical music as a child.
“I would just jump into different styles,” he said at the time. “I loved classical, I loved rock, I loved pop; and then, by the time I was 16 or 17, I was playing jazz. So, that gives you kind of an idea, I was all over the place, but I always just loved music.”
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Speaking of his close friendship with Kiss – particularly Paul Stanley – he said: “We were always running into each other, whether it was parties or at the bus stop — because he went to school in the city — and I was always going into the city.”
“So we’d always see each other and stop and talk about music. This was our thing, but we weren’t in the same bands because I was doing more of the Allman Brothers type stuff and he was doing a bit more of the hard rock stuff.”
He continued, “I had programmed [Eric Carr]’s syn drums for his solo, and then I eventually did some opening music, but they flew me out and were doing rehearsal.”
The keyboardist later played on 1987’s Crazy Nights, their 1988 single ‘Let’s Put the X in Sex’ as well as two tracks from Hot in the Shade.
“[Stanley is] the only person that I knew as a teenager that I ended up working with so much later on, and that was always a different bond,” he told the site.
“There was a certain friendship there, like when he first got married, I was one of his groomsmen. I did a string arrangement for the wedding that they walked out of the thing for. I think it was ‘Forever,’ so for me Kiss was really this relationship with Paul.”
Check out ‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’ by Kiss:
