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| | Description | THE MUSIC, THE MAKEUP, THE MADNESS, AND MORE. . . . In December of 1972, a pair of musicians placed an advertisement in the Village Voice: “GUITARIST WANTED WITH FLASH AND ABILITY.” Ace Frehley figured he had both, so he answered the ad. The rest is rock ’n’ roll history.He was just a boy from the Bronx with stars in his eyes. But when he picked up his guitar and painted stars on his face, Ace Frehley transformed into “The Spaceman”—and helped turn KISS into one of the top-selling bands in the world. Now, for the first time, the beloved rock icon reveals his side of the story with no-holds-barred honesty . . . and no regrets.For KISS fans, Ace offers a rare behind-the-makeup look at the band’s legendary origins, including the lightning-bolt logo he designed and the outfits his mother sewed. He talks about the unspoken division within the band—he and Peter Criss versus Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons—because the other two didn’t “party every day.” Ace also reveals the inside story behind his turbulent breakup with KISS, their triumphant reunion a decade later, and his smash solo career. Along the way, he shares wild stories about dancing at Studio 54 with “The Bionic Woman,” working as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, and bar-flying all night with John Belushi. In the end, he comes to terms with his highly publicized descent into alcohol, drugs, and self-destruction—ultimately managing to conquer his demons and come out on top. This is Ace Frehley.No makeup.No apologies.No regrets. | |
| | Product Details | | Author: | Ace Frehley | | Hardcover: | 320 pages | | Publisher: | VH1 Books | | Publication Date: | November 01, 2011 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 1451613946 | | Product Length: | 6.12 inches | | Product Width: | 1.16 inches | | Product Height: | 9.12 inches | | Package Length: | 9.2 inches | | Package Width: | 6.1 inches | | Package Height: | 1.3 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.15 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 113 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 113 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 58 found the following review helpful:
 How does this guy have any brain cells left? Nov 03, 2011
By Michael J. Coleman
"canard"
I bought this book because I've been a fan of Ace's since 1975 when I was just 6 years old. The first album I ever bought was "Dressed to Kill". Anyway, this book was an easy read and gives some insight into Ace's personality and work ethic differences between him and the rest of the band. His comments on the other guys are actually fairly minimal. He saves most of his wrath for Gene. Most of it is pretty mild though. He understands his differences between Gene's workaholic/businessman/controlling nature and his won creative/restless/do a bunch of cocaine nature. Ace's upbringing and early life is well detailed here and he got into trouble quite a bit at an early age. He started drinking heavily when he was young and as the timeline of the book progresses so does his drinking and drugging.
On the surface Ace seems like a fun loving party animal, but after a while it is the usual sad story of a man not in touch with his true feelings about life and the reasons for numbing himself out. He's kind of a sad clown in this, but the true musical soul of the band. When he leaves KISS it is because he has grown tired of the grind and the staged nature of their image and show. What he doesn't realize is that he actually needed that structure to live a meaningful life. On the other hand the pressures were too great and he surely would died or killed himself if he had stayed. What is revealing to the outside observer(reader) is that he came close to doing that anyway! He was damned either way. It is nice to see that he has gotten sober. He takes responsibity for most of his actions, but isn't too apologetic about it. I think he sees his former life as some kind numbed out dream state where he just didn't care if he lived or died, he was just on a roller coaster of music, money, sex, drugs and booze. I read this book over a day and a half because I found it engrossing. The bulk of it is from his period in KISS and I wonder if it's just because he cannot remember much of the 80's or 90's. He was extremely messed up at that point. On a dissapointing note, Ace's treatment of women as something other than sexual opportunites leaves a lot to be desired. What is also interesting is he makes no mention of the Kiss and Tell books that so clearly savaged him. He probably just assumes that he was so loaded during those years that most people take it for granted that his judgement was severly impaired. All of that being said, I really have no lower opinion of the man. He's seems pretty honest about his failings and flaws as human being.
27 of 30 found the following review helpful:
 Should have been better Nov 03, 2011
By Eric James Cooper
"ejames43"
This book should have been a lot better. I am a really big fan of Ace (and KISS for that matter) and I was hoping for a lot more insight from the Spaceman. Ace hasn't made it a secret that he needed help remembering a lot of his past due to drug and alcohol problems, and the lack of content in this book is a by-product of that. While it's nice to know where he grew up, how he learned to play guitar, etc, it would have been great to know more about his days in KISS - and to get a better perspective on those years. I have heard the Lakeland, FL electrocution story enough times. I wanted more than that and was disappointed that it wasn't there.
For example, Ace just glances over some of the albums in a paragraph or two. I wanted to know more about his working relationship, or lack thereof, with all the band members. Basically, I wanted more dirt and this was the prime opportunity for Ace to share it. He certainly has a right to do that because any KISS fan can tell you that Paul and Gene(especially Gene) have never pulled punches on their opinion of Ace. Instead, Ace makes mention of his love-hate relationship wuth Gene but rarely says anything about Paul. Peter is described as his partner-in-crime, but again, not in a lot of detail.
I thought Ace could have expanded more on the following:
Why was Peter fired?
The Reunion Tour (barely covered for how huge that was)
The Psycho Circus Tour (again - barely covered)
The Farewell Tour (covered in even less detail)
Perhaps Ace was taking the high road? Maybe he simply can't recall the events? Whatever the reason, the lack of detail made for an average book. Nothing special. Too bad.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Interesting read, but very light on details Nov 07, 2011
By David Burke
I'm a huge KISS & Ace fan & was looking forward to more insight into the people & situations that I have read about numerous times over the last 34 years. The book, while enjoyable is a light read filled mostly with random stories of Ace buying drugs, using drugs & crashing cars.
Once KISS really starts rolling a lot of things are skimmed over, for example, the period between Destroyer & the making of Phantom the Park (76-78), the recording & touring of Dynasty & Unmasked, the firing of Peter, the hiring of Eric, the forming of Frehley's Comet to name just a few.
The period between 82 & 95 is sorely lacking in a cohesive chronology or any real detail about his solo career. From reading the book one would think his solo career was pretty successful, but I remember Ace playing in clubs to a couple hundred people by the early 90's.
The KISS reunion years & Peter's & Ace's 2nd departure from KISS are also quickly glossed over. I was really hoping that this would be a substantial part of the book.
If you are interested in Ace or KISS it's worth reading, just don't expect any particularly new revelations about the inner workings of the band.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
No Regrets???? Dec 05, 2011
By B. Israel
I grew up as a huge KISS fan in the 70's. Thought Ace was the coolest. At that time my favorite guitar players were: Ace, Alex Lifeson and Tom Scholz.
Guess after reading this book, I'm a little disappointed in the Spaceman I idolized in the 70's.
According to the book Ace nearly kills himself (and others) while constantly under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The book documents a series of choices by Ace, which directly impacted him, those around him, and his fans....yet he titles his book "No Regrets"??
13 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 You'll regret purchasing "No Regrets" Dec 23, 2011
By Dan
Like many reviewers, I was a KISS fan growing up. I was always in ACE's corner when riffs were publicized about the (2X) KISS break ups. I followed ACE's solo career, even in the darkest days of the 80's. Heck, I still have the "Trouble Walking" CD I bought way back when. Now, setting all "fan stuff" aside, here is an honest review from the eyes of another sober alcoholic -
The enjoyable parts of the book for me were stories of ACE growing up in Brooklyn, including some truly admirable reflections with his family. Cool stuff, because I always idolized the guy while growing up, and it helps fill the gaps. The rest of the text (his adult life) really brings home the fact that this guy is a freaking train wreck.
Cutting straight to the heart of what I find wrong with ACE's message: No Regrets, the book's title, is an awkward, indirect way quoting the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, "We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it." And if ACE was sober long enough to understand the depth of what that really means, he would have / should have written a very different book.
The problem being, ACE fails to express any true remorse for his actions, other than an occasional, "Hey, this is what happened, I'm just being honest...." Story after story of damage done to others [His wife, his kid, his close friends, and other people who just happened to be around...the list goes on] and then excusing it away with other lame stories of being surrounded by "yes men" who basically got him out of every jam. One story in particular ACE describes throwing furniture out of a high rise hotel room, sending it crashing down to the street below. He jumps into bed and pretends to be asleep, while his "henchman" lies to the police about what happened. This guy caused some serious wreckage, and ACE should humble himself a little more before stamping the book with a title like "No Regrets." It's like, "Hey, look at all this cool rock star stuff I got away with all these years and never had to make amends for!" What an ACE-HOLE!
See all 113 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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