Ace Frehley — American guitarist, born in the Bronx in 1951 and died in October 2025 — was Kiss's original guitarist and the author of some of hard rock's most recognisable riffs. His character, the Spaceman, was the quietest on stage and the most imitated by the guitarists who came after. Frehley played with dirty phrasing, full of bends and wide vibrato, closer to English blues rock than to the technical precision that would dominate 1980s metal — and it is precisely that controlled imperfection that gives 1970s Kiss its character. Cold Gin, Shock Me, Parasite and Rocket Ride came from him. In 1978 all four members of Kiss released simultaneous solo albums, a commercial move without precedent. Frehley's was the best received by critics and the only one to produce a radio hit, New York Groove — a result that said something about where the band's musical substance lay. He left Kiss in 1982, at the end of the makeup era, returned for the classic line-up's 1996 reunion and left again in 2002. He continued a solo career to the end of his life. Guitarists across generations — from Slash to Dimebag Darrell — have pointed to him as the origin of their wanting to play.
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