KISS Manager Believes Ace Frehley Will Show Up on Final Tour
For many years, Ace Frehley has asserted that KISS can’t go on a final tour without him. Despite the many personal issues that have driven a wedge between Frehley and his former bandmates, KISS manager Doc McGhee says Ace will show up on the End of the Road tour at some point.
Frehley departed KISS for the final time in 2001. The guitarist left after the conclusion of KISS’ first farewell tour, though the group resumed touring with Tommy Thayer less than two years after their “final” date. However, a brief reunion took place when Frehley played a short acoustic set with his former bandmates on the 2019 KISS Kruise.
"All the things are possible," McGhee said to Rob's School of Music. "We never say never about anything. We just know that we wanna give the people the best show in the world to go see. And my philosophy for all my bands [has] always been if you're the very, very best at what you do, people will come and see you."
McGhee continues, "Will Ace ever show up? Sure, he'll show up. Peter [Criss] hopefully will show up. Everybody's invited to the party of KISS. We haven't had that many band members in KISS. Since I've been there, there's been four — two different ones — and that's it. But KISS is KISS. So, whether you said, 'Oh, well, I don't think that there could be another 007 [besides] Sean Connery?' Well, there is. There's been five of 'em. People wanna see 007. Mickey Mouse is fucking 100 years old. I think KISS will be one of those things that will go on forever." [via iHeartRadio]
In a 2020 interview with Loudwire, Frehley explained why he believed he wasn’t invited on KISS’s farewell tour. “One of the major reasons I wasn’t invited on the tour was my old girlfriend, who they didn’t really enjoy being around. Supposedly she accused Gene [Simmons] of sexual misconduct. She’s got some stupid videos on YouTube, but I think most of them have been taken down. [The accusations are] completely false and made up. I signed a legal document stating that I didn’t witness anything. I think she was just trying to extract money from Paul and Gene.”
KISS’ End of the Road tour is currently scheduled to conclude in June 2022. See the full list of dates here.