Gene Simmons has one big regret about his years working with his late KISS bandmate Ace Frehley. During the 2025 KISS Kruise in Las Vegas, the legendary bassist told fans he wished he’d been there more for Frehley and Peter Criss during the band’s heyday in the 1970s.
"If I have any regrets, my hand to God, it's that I sometimes — and I think we all go through this sometimes — wish we were smarter and better at trying to help Ace and Peter have better lives," Simmons, 76, said, per People magazine.
“All of us are guilty of it, and so am I," he continued. "‘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 you don't want to ruin anything. Meantime, somebody who might be your brother is ruining their life by bad decisions."
“I wish I would have practiced more tough love and been more in the face of people that we cared about,” Simmons admitted. "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 or you're going to argue about it, but in the long run you're going to be helping that person hopefully change their life."
Frehley, who was a founding member of KISS in 1973, died in October 2025 at age 74 from complications from a fall. Frehley and Criss were known for their hard-partying antics during the band’s early years, and both departed the band in the early 1980s but returned for later incarnations of the group.
Simmons has been vocal about his lifelong decision to abstain from drugs and alcohol. In a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted he was okay with being labeled "the bad guy" in the dismissals of his original bandmates due to their drug and alcohol fueled behavior.
"I am the bad guy," he said. "I won't stand for drunks and alcoholics who get up on stage and consider it their birthright. I consider it a privilege to get up there and arrive on time and be sober, and I'll be an a---hole to anybody who thinks otherwise.”
“Ace and Peter have had a lifetime of being losers,” Simmons said at the time. “And not just with drugs and alcohol. They're losers because of wrong decisions. You sleep in the bed you make. How many chances in life do you get? They were in and out of the band three different times. Why should they get another chance?"
Simmons also claimed Frehley and Criss were “poor” given their bad decisions. “You learn drugs and alcohol don’t mix,” he said in a 2014 interview with the Naperville Sun. “Ace and Peter, who were drug addicts are by today’s standards poor. I’ve never been high or drunk in my life, and Paul [Stanley], I don’t think has either. We are winners. You cannot run a race when you’re high. You won’t win.”
Ace Frehley Talked About His Past Drug Use 9 Months Before His Death
Frehley looked back on his wild life in a January 2025 interview with Guitar Player. He told the outlet that he was never under the influence when it came time to record in the studio.
“For me, it was about going into the studio and getting the work done — and then I’d go party," he said. “When I performed with Kiss, I’d have a couple of drinks, maybe a couple of lines of blow, but the heavy partying happened after the show. I had pride. I wanted to be able to play the solos the way the kids heard them on the record. I didn’t want to disappoint people. I saved the partying for after the show.”
Of the band’s infamous 1979 appearance on Tom Snyder’s The Tomorrow Show, Frehley explained why he and Criss cracked jokes and cackled as Simmons appeared visibly annoyed.
“I was nervous as hell,” he said. “I think I drank half a pint of vodka, and then I did some blow to wake up. …Yeah… it was crazy. But I was crazy back then. Anything went when I was in my 20s. I mean… everybody was doing that s---.”
Criss told NJ.com he quit drugs in 1984. Frehley got sober two decades later. In a 2020 interview with Loudwire, Frehley confirmed he had been sober for 14 years and maintained his sobriety with a support system and “thousands of AA meetings.”
“I can’t be around people that get loaded or do drugs, and there’s no alcohol or drugs allowed in the dressing room when I tour, around the bus,” the KISS legend said. “Even though it’s been 14 years and I really don’t get urges anymore, it’s the smart thing to do.”
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