Ace Frehley on KISS and His New Memoir, No Regrets

Jason P. Woodbury Phoenix News Times

No Regrets: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir is the new book by legendary KISS guitarist Ace Frehley. Assisted by Joe Layden and John Ostrosky, Space Ace pretty much hits it all: his young years in a gang, his audition to be in KISS (there was a job application), the band's rise, his drug abuse, leaving the band, rejoining the band, and then leaving the band again.

KISS fan or not, it's a fun read. Frehley's voice comes through, and his sense of humor shines through.
Frehley will be in town Tuesday, November 15, at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe. I called him in Chicago, to discuss his book, Gene Simmons, and the KISS' unlikely Lou Reed collaboration -- 30 years before Metallica, you dig?
Up on the Sun: Other than the financial benefits of writing a book, why right now? Why did you feel like it was time to put these stories on paper?
Ace Frehley: People have been have been asking me to do a book for years, if for no other reason than to hear another side of the story. Everyone has only heard it from Gene [Simmons] at this juncture. So you know, we started toying around with the idea in 2008, and finally the right offer came a long, [from] Simon and Schuster/VH1 Classic books, [and they] gave me about six months to do it, and then expanded my deadline by several months. It took me about a year to do it, but I'm happy with then end result, and it seems like everyone else is. I just found out that we're on the New York Times best-sellers list.
Yeah, congratulations on that.
Thank you. I'm thrilled.
So when you were initially told you had six months, did you think you would be able to do it in that time?
Well, I tried. I thought I'd be able to do it, but I have Attention Deficient Disorder, I guess from all the drugs and alcohol, or whatever. I was really struggling the last month, and I had to do some major rewrites with John Ostrosky, but, they extended my deadline, which allowed me to get a hold of some people I hadn't reached. I talked to some of my old bodyguards, family members...kind of opened up the floodgates for more stories and clarification on some points [laughs].

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