![\"Ace](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ace-frehley-gene-simmons.jpg\")
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Gene Simmons<\/a> has taken back the comments he made about former\u00a0KISS<\/a>\u00a0bandmate Ace Frehley\u2019s death, admitting he \u201cwas wrong\u201d to make them.<\/p>\n The guitarist and founding member of the group\u00a0died at 74 years old in Morristown, New Jersey, on October 16<\/a>. A statement shared at the time revealed that Ace \u2013 also known as Spaceman \u2013 died \u201cpeacefully surrounded by family\u201d following \u201ca recent fall at his home\u201d.\u00a0An investigation was then launched into Frehley\u2019s death<\/a>, and\u00a0the results of a medical examination have since been shared, ruling his death an accident<\/a>.<\/p>\n Simmons\u2019 controversial comments came when n Sunday (December 7), \u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0presented this year\u2019s Kennedy Center honourees \u2013 among them KISS,\u00a0Sylvester Stallone<\/a>\u00a0and Gloria Gaynor \u2013\u00a0with medals for their lifetime of contributions to American culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors, where Frehley was inducted posthumously, Simmons told the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>that \u201cbad decisions\u201d led to his fatal fall, seemingly implying that substance abuse might have played a role.<\/p>\n \u201cHe refused [advice] from people that cared about him \u2013 including yours truly \u2013 to try to change his lifestyle,\u201d he said. \u201cIn and out of bad decisions. Falling down the stairs \u2014 I\u2019m not a doctor \u2014 doesn\u2019t kill you. There may have been other issues, and it breaks my heart.<\/p>\n \u201cThe saddest thing \u2013 you reap what you shall sow unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n Simmons has now apologised for what he said. Writing on X on Wednesday (December 10), he said: \u201cOn reflection, I was wrong for using the words I used. I humbly apologize. My hand to God I didn\u2019t intended to hurt\u00a0Ace\u00a0or his legacy but upon rereading my words, I see how it hurt everyone. Again, I apologize. I\u2019ve always loved\u00a0Ace. Always.\u201d<\/p>\n On reflection, I was wrong for using the words I used. I humbly apologize. My hand to God i didn\u2019t intended to hurt Ace or his legacy but upon rereading my words, I see how it hurt everyone. Again, I apologize. I\u2019ve always loved Ace. Always.<\/p>\n \u2014 Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) December 10, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Frehley and Simmons had a notably rocky relationship, with Simmons in 2019 claiming that Frehley was fired from the band for his substance abuse, while Ace argued that he was 12 years sober by then and\u00a0quit\u00a0\u201cof my own free will, because you and Paul [Stanley] are control freaks, untrustworthy and were too difficult to work with\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last month (November 15), the\u00a0surviving members of KISS paid homage to him during their first \u201cunmasked\u201d show since retiring from touring<\/a>. Ahead of the show, electric candles were handed out to the audience, and upon taking the stage, Paul Stanley asked the crowd to lift them in the air and take a moment to \u201cthink about somebody who is at the foundation of this band\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about Ace,\u201d he said. \u201cWe certainly had differences, but that\u2019s what family is about. Why don\u2019t we take a moment [and] think about him looking down on us\u201d from the fictional planet \u201cJendell, probably\u201d, which Ace often referred to as his home. \u201cLet\u2019s have a moment for Ace.\u201d<\/p>\n Following Frehley\u2019s passing,\u00a0a Change.org petition<\/a>\u00a0was launched in an effort to\u00a0convince NASA to award the guitarist with honorary astronaut status<\/a>. The petition \u2013 started by a fan named Kathryn \u2013 has since received over 3,000 signatures and counting.<\/p>\n The post Gene Simmons walks back remarks on Ace Frehley\u2019s death: \u201cI was wrong\u201d<\/a> appeared first on NME<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gene Simmons has taken back the comments he made about former\u00a0KISS\u00a0bandmate Ace Frehley\u2019s death, admitting he \u201cwas wrong\u201d to make them. The guitarist and founding member of the group\u00a0died at 74 years old in Morristown, New Jersey, on October 16. A statement shared at the time revealed that Ace \u2013 also known as Spaceman \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 21:29:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n