'The Roar of L'Amour'

ACE FREHLEY - And why he yelled at me

Taken from a Facebook post the day after ace passed

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My first face to face with Ace was when he played the L'Amour for the first time in March of 1985

I rarely went to the club during soundchecks, I was never that type, but a girl I was seeing was a huge KISS fan, so I got there early for her.

I walk in and put my briefcase in the booth and turn around and NYC legend Richie Scarlett was there. Richie was his other guitarist and gave Ace band a much grittier feel than the stuff Ace put out. It was a very 70s dirty style that I loved.

Richie mentioned he was told to say hi from someone and we hit it off immediately.

While talking with him somehow, I wound up playing a live KISS video I had. I played it only in the booth on a small TV speaker, but Ace came up to the booth and said "shut that shit off" and gave me one of his big Ace laughs.

Later that night I actually played the video for the crowd and let's just say that Ace was not happy at all.

Richie hung out a lot of the night in the booth and between that and Ace coming up and goofing on me, I had a lot of "points" with the girl.

Sandy who was the stage manager at the time came up to discuss how we would bring Ace on and surprised my date by telling her that him and the stage bouncer would walk her on stage and place her in the crowd in front of Ace.

We both said "YES" and Ace and Richie played most of the show in her face ... kinda cool.

Next time Ace played I wasn't there for soundcheck, but at one point in the night he came up to the booth and reminded me "not to play any fuckin KISS" and we talked a bit and he asked where I got the live video because he never saw it before ... that always cracked me up when bands didn't have what I did)

I asked him about Richie no longer being in the band and he said, "none of your fn business" and did his Ace laugh again.

I think he played one or two times again after that and was always nice but reminded me of my fuck up.

Last time I saw him was when White Lion opened for him at Mid-Hudson Civic Center and while I was backstage, he briefly saw me and yelled "you again" and did the Ace laugh and shut the door.

A weird occurrence in 87/88 was once The L'Amour Rocks album came out; Ace was recommended by someone to possibly cover BOYS KEEP ROLLIN' by THE BOYS.

I forget who but I was asked about the song and I explained it was a song the bands singer found from another writer that was redone to fit THE BOYS.

I said I couldn't give permission but could find out and that was the last I heard of it.

It would have been fun to hear his take on our take, but I am guessing Tod Howarth would have sang it (not Ace)

KISS ALIVE was my first real hard rock album I bought.

KISS was a huge part of my life from age 12-17.

RIP ACE

Now let's all play the legendary Tom Snyder interview in his memory

PS: There are other stories, but it's not the time

Chuck Kaye

Ah Yes Indeed

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