Gene Simmons, KISS guitarist shares heartfelt message: “I wish I would have practiced more tough love”

If the is one tinge of regret about his time as KISS frontman, Gene Simmons says he could have been more sympathetic to his bandmates’ substance abuse and addiction issues.

Guitarist Ace Frehley passed away on October 7, the result of head injuries sustained during a fall at his studio. Frehley was a founding member of the iconic rock group in 1973. He and drummer Peter Criss were the only members of the original line-up who were absent for the last live show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2023.

Alcohol, drugs, chicks and crazy nights

Both Frehley and Criss lived up to their rock ‘n’ roll image, fully embracing the hard-partying lifestyle of drugs and alcohol and everything else that went with it.

Criss departed in 1980 and Frehley followed a couple of years later, although both would eventually return for later incarnations of the group.

Simmons has long been vocal about his stance on drugs and alcohol. “I’ve never been drunk, don’t get high, never done y’know rolled up or anything in my nose or anything like that. It’s just my personal thing, my choices in life - you guys do whatever you wanna do,” he told US Weekly’s Christina Garibaldi in 2018.

However, Simmons’ abstinence was totally at odds with the ‘anything goes’ attitude of the rest of the band. And after Frehley’s death, he admits he could have done more to help both of his ex-bandmates.

“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 confessed in an interview with People. “All of us are guilty of it, and so am I - (the attitude was) ‘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.”

Tough love to the people you care about

He concluded, “I wish I would have practiced more tough love and been more in the face of people that we cared about. 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.”

Performing live, says Simmons is a privilege, and musicians owe it to their fans to show up on time and sober: “I’ll be an asshole to anybody who thinks otherwise.”

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