Additional Coverage:
- Gene Simmons Reveals the Heartbreaking Story Behind Ace Frehley & Peter Criss Leaving KISS (parade.com)
Formed in 1973 in New York City, KISS quickly rose to fame with founding members Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. Renowned for their high-energy music and striking glam rock personas-the Starchild, the Demon, the Spaceman, and the Catman-the band became icons of the 1970s rock scene, delivering enduring hits like “Rock and Roll All Nite,” “Beth,” and “Detroit Rock City.”
Throughout their more than five-decade career, KISS experienced numerous lineup changes, with Stanley and Simmons remaining the only constant original members. The 1980s marked a significant shift not only in the band’s appearance-when they famously set aside their signature makeup-but also in personnel. Both Frehley and Criss departed multiple times due to struggles with substance abuse and creative conflicts, ultimately leading to buyouts by Simmons and Stanley.
Reflecting on the band’s history in an interview shared on September 3 by The Moynihan Report, Gene Simmons, now 77, addressed the complex legacy following Ace Frehley’s passing in 2025. He acknowledged the emotional impact of the lineup changes on fans and candidly discussed the challenges the band faced.
“Ace and Peter handled it for a few years, and then they were in and out of the band three different times,” Simmons said. “It breaks the heart of fans.
For me… If I tell the truth, you know, you have your mom and dad and your mom turns to the kids and says, ‘Your dad’s not at home. I threw him out because he’s a drunken loser and he doesn’t show up on time and he doesn’t go to work and all that stuff.’
The kids are heartbroken. And they start hating mom, ‘How could you say those things about dad?’
Even though it’s true.”
Simmons emphasized that KISS, like any band, operated as a business, with owners expected to contribute their part. “Money’s got to come from someplace,” he said.
“Life is business. People don’t like that.
This rock and roll world is filled with losers. It’s tough for me to be honest and stuff.”
He also touched on Peter Criss’s attitude toward his departure, noting that Criss often saw himself as a victim rather than taking responsibility. “Peter’s always considered himself a victim.
‘They ganged up on me and look what they did to me,’ and stuff like that. Instead, if you’re really cured and everything, you look in the mirror and say, ‘It’s my fault.
I used, I didn’t do my work, and I was complaining instead of being grateful to be in one of the largest bands that has ever existed.’”
Simmons revealed that Criss currently earns “very little” from KISS, explaining that both he and Stanley bought out Criss and Frehley, choosing to pay musicians a salary to perform in the band.
Addressing the difficulty fans face with these changes, Simmons reflected on Frehley’s departure years before his death: “It’s heartbreaking, but not everybody’s designed in their DNA to run a marathon. Some people just, you know, short race and they can do well for that, but they can’t do it. Ace told me to my face when he was leaving the band, ‘If I go out on tour again, I’m going to kill myself.’”
In earlier remarks on the Tetragrammaton podcast in 2025, Simmons expressed sorrow over how Frehley and Criss’s time with KISS concluded, acknowledging their foundational role. “I’m still sad about Ace and Peter, who even today can’t enjoy the fruits of their labor,” he said.
“They were equally as important as Paul and myself in the formation of the band and those first few years-there’s no question about it. It was a four-wheel-drive vehicle.”
Paul Stanley also weighed in on the departures, calling their removal a difficult but necessary decision. “They were instrumental in what we created as a team, but they became impossible and intolerable, on more than one occasion necessitating their removal,” he said in 2012.
“At some point, you just lose tolerance. It’s ultimately disrespectful to the fans to not give them what they deserve.”
The story of KISS’s evolution underscores both the challenges and the enduring legacy of one of rock’s most iconic bands.