{"id":16653,"date":"2025-10-18T10:06:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=16653"},"modified":"2025-10-18T10:06:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:06:49","slug":"david-ellefson-ace-frehley-passing-is-on-the-level-of-eddie-van-halen-passing-he-was-that-influential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=16653","title":{"rendered":"DAVID ELLEFSON: ‘ACE FREHLEY Passing Is On The Level Of EDDIE VAN HALEN Passing. He Was That Influential’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new interview with Meltdown<\/strong> of Detroit’s WRIF<\/strong> radio station, former MEGADETH<\/strong> bassist David Ellefson<\/strong> spoke about the passing of KISS<\/strong> legend Ace Frehley<\/strong>. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET<\/strong>): “Yeah, [that was] a sad moment, for sure. Ace Frehley<\/strong> passing is on the level of Eddie Van Halen<\/strong> passing. He was that influential \u2014 a different guitar player, of course. Ace<\/strong>and<\/em>Eddie<\/strong>, they not only made us wanna become musicians, they made us wanna become rock stars. And I think that’s the difference. KISS<\/strong> made you wanna go to the next level, and KISS<\/strong>, with their manager Bill Aucoin<\/strong> in those early days, they created something that was just unreachable, and, to some degree, still is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued: “Now we’ve got GHOST<\/strong>, we’ve got SLEEP TOKEN<\/strong>, we’ve got TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA<\/strong>, so there’s artists out there kind of doing what KISS<\/strong> has done, of course, but when you’re the first one doing it, and even KISS<\/strong> when they ended it, it was still the biggest thing out there. They were still doing stuff that it’s, like, God, only KISS<\/strong> would [have] three guys come down from the ceiling on their platforms. And they’ve still got the boots and the whole thing. I mean, there’s just no replacing what they have done for all of us in our lives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circling back to Ace<\/strong>‘s passing later in the interview, David<\/strong> said: ?”It’s sad news. You think about it, though. He was \u2014 what? \u2014 74, I think. So 74 Ace Frehley<\/strong> years, that’s like 77 Ozzy Osbourne<\/strong> years. These are guys that were true rock and rollers in every sense. So the fact that our beloved heroes have been with us this long is something, I think, we all should be thankful for as well, ’cause they certainly gave us a lot.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on his friendship with Frehley<\/strong>, Ellefson<\/strong> said: “Ace<\/strong> and I became friends \u2014 not close friends. We had each other’s cell phone [numbers]. I’d usually text him every year for his birthday, and me and Frank Bello<\/strong> [ANTHRAX<\/strong>] would text him because [Ace<\/strong>] played a solo [on the song ‘Late’<\/strong>] on our ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE<\/strong> record, which we were super grateful for. [He was] clearly our hero. KISS<\/strong> is the reason I’m even here talking to you. For me, ‘Destroyer’<\/strong> was the first record I bought; I bought it on cassette. And KISS ‘Alive!’<\/strong> right after that. And then I went back and I listened to ‘Dressed To Kill’<\/strong>, ‘Hotter Than Hell’<\/strong>, the first album, et cetera. And I remained a diehard KISS<\/strong> fan pretty much through KISS ‘Alive II’<\/strong>. And then I did not buy ‘Dynasty’<\/strong>, of all things. And then I kind of moved on. VAN HALEN<\/strong> came into my life, and then BOSTON<\/strong> and then I kind of started getting into STYX<\/strong>, ‘The Grand Illusion’<\/strong>, the RAMONES<\/strong>‘ ‘Rocket To Russia’<\/strong>, I started getting into some other stuff. But those formative years \u2014 I mean, KISS<\/strong> were my BEATLES<\/strong>, in the same way THE BEATLES<\/strong> were THE BEATLES<\/strong> for KISS<\/strong>. And I love Gene Simmons<\/strong>‘s bass playing. In fact, just today I was listening to ‘Cold Gin’<\/strong> and some stuff off of KISS ‘Alive!’<\/strong> and thinking, ‘God, this guy’s just a masterful bass player, man’ \u2014 while spitting blood and breathing fire and doing all the rest of it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Ellefson<\/strong> told Ultimate Guitar<\/strong> that he thought Frehley<\/strong>‘s latest solo album, “10,000 Volts”<\/strong>, was exceptional. “Ace<\/strong> stepped up; he really delivered,” David<\/strong> said. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard from Ace<\/strong> since his solo album in 1978, when they still had the make-up on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I always thought that [Ace<\/strong>] had the best solo record [of the original solo albums from the KISS<\/strong> members],” Ellefson<\/strong> added. “Paul<\/strong>‘s [Stanley<\/strong>] was probably the next right behind it with some good stuff. But Paul<\/strong> was so prolific that anything he did sounded like KISS<\/strong>. Because in a lot of ways, he is the sound of KISS<\/strong>. His voice, his style of writing. And obviously, Gene<\/strong> has his flavor. But I always felt there was this whole other world of Ace<\/strong> that finally once his solo album came out, we heard it. We heard it on ‘Shock Me’<\/strong>, ‘Rocket Ride’<\/strong>, and the solo album. So, ‘10,000 Volts’<\/strong>, I was so happy to hear what a great record that is.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson spoke about the passing of KISS legend Ace Frehley. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yeah, [that was] a sad moment, for sure. Ace Frehley passing is on the level of Eddie Van Halen passing. He was that influential \u2014 a different guitar player, of course. AceandEddie, they not only made us… Read More »DAVID ELLEFSON: ‘ACE FREHLEY Passing Is On The Level Of EDDIE VAN HALEN Passing. He Was That Influential’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16655,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653\/revisions\/16655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}