Gene Simmons Blames Ace Frehley’s ‘Bad Decisions’ on His Death

Sometimes, it’s best to just keep your mouth shut. You’d think that’s something Kiss frontman Gene Simmons would’ve learned by now, at his big ass age, but alas, here we are. Simmons did an interview with the New York Post where he said some victim-blamey shit in poor taste. According to him, late Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley made several “bad decisions” that led to him passing away back in October, after taking a tumble down stairs in his New Jersey home studio.

The Morris County Medical Examiner, who handled Frehley’s passing, confirmed that his manner of death was ruled an accident. A CT scan of his head shown many contusions, bone fractures, hemorrhages, and bleeding in his brain, along with many bruises to his body. The medical examiner’s report also said Frehley had a stroke in the process.

Now, enter in Simmons and his dumbass statement. He told the New York Post:

“He refused [advice] from people that cared about him — including yours truly — to try to change his lifestyle. 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. The saddest thing — you reap what you shall sow, unfortunately. It breaks my heart.

“Peter Criss, our founding drummer, Paul [Stanley] and myself went to the funeral, open casket. It was just heartbreaking. Saddest of all perhaps is that Ace just couldn’t stay alive long enough to sit there proudly at the Kennedy Center and listen to — I can’t even tell you who’s going to come out … really impressive people, just to say how much KISS meant to them. What can you say — sad.”

Sure, Simmons and other people in Frehley’s life likely warned him of what could happen if he kept up his lifestyle, but to say that falling down stairs wouldn’t kill someone—mind you, Frehley was 74 at the time of his passing—is just stupid as fuck. The strong gust of wind could take a 74-year-old out, so imagine what stairs could do.

It seems like Simmons might know how harsh his views on Frehley are, because while on last month’s “Kiss Kruise: Landlocked In Vegas,” he seemingly had an internal argument with himself while answering a question about what he’d do differently in his career if he had the chance:

“If I have any regrets, it’s that I sometimes — and I think we all go through this — wish we were smarter and better at trying to help Ace and Peter have better lives. All of us are guilty of it, and so am I — ‘I don’t want to start an argument. Let’s just continue doing the tour,’ because you want to get through it for selfish reasons because it’s working and the chicks and the money and [so on], and you don’t want to ruin anything. [In the] meantime, somebody who might be your brother is ruining their life by bad decisions. I think this goes to your friends, your lovers, your family members — I wish I would have practiced more tough love and been more in the face of people that we cared about… Tough love is a good idea in my opinion with your children, with the people you love, with the people you care about, with the people you work with. It’s not going to be a popular thing — you’re going to argue about it — but in the long run, you’re going to be helping that person hopefully change their life.”

Not wanting to start an argument means you know something you just said is on some bullshit, but whatever. At least it was rooted in his want to help, but gosh let him rest without blaming him for his tumble.

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