KISS Reunites After Ace Frehley’s Death as Gene Simmons Makes Bold Claim
What To Know
- The surviving members of KISS — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Peter Criss — reunited at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors shortly after guitarist Ace Frehley’s death in October.
- Gene Simmons stated that Frehley would be honored with an open seat at the event and discussed Frehley’s struggles with substance abuse, linking it to the circumstances of his passing.
- Despite past tensions, Simmons and Stanley acknowledged Frehley’s irreplaceable role in KISS’s legacy in a joint statement following his death.
The three surviving members of KISS — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Peter Criss — reunited less than two months after the band’s guitarist, Ace Frehley, died at 74 in October.
On Sunday, December 7, KISS was among the honorees at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The trio rocked black tuxedos as they posed together on the red carpet while showing off their medals.
Simmons told reporters that Frehley would be honored with an open seat during Sunday’s events, per the Daily Mail.
Additionally, Simmons, 76, Stanley, 73, and Criss, 79, joined fellow Kennedy Center honorees at the Oval Office to meet with President Donald Trump on Saturday, December 6. Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, and George Strait were also awarded medals this year.
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In an interview published on December 6, Simmons spoke about Frehley’s struggle with substance abuse. He connect the addiction to the guitarist’s fall down the stairs, which caused a brain bleed that ultimately killed him on October 16.
“He refused [advice] from people that cared about him — including yours truly — to try to change his lifestyle,” Simmons told the New York Post. “In and out of bad decisions. Falling down the stairs — I’m not a doctor — doesn’t kill you. There may have been other issues, and it breaks my heart.”
He added, “The saddest thing — you reap what you shall sow unfortunately.”
In 2019, Frehley spoke out against Simmons in a fiery Facebook update.
“Your slanderous remarks about my bad habits over the years has cost me millions of dollars and now that I’m over 12-years sober you’re still saying I can’t be trusted to play a whole nights show!” he wrote, per Variety. “Well that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the last 12-years with different configurations of ‘The Ace Frehley Band’ to you and Paul’s dismay!”
After Frehley’s death, Simmons and Stanley released a joint statement.
“He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history,” they told People. “He is and will always be a part of KISS’s legacy.”