In my latest book, Talk to Me: Conversations With Ace Frehley, I collected all of my many interviews with Ace over the years. Plus, all-new interviews with such renowned rock names as Eddie Trunk, Joe Bonamassa, and Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil (among others), to pay tribute to one of rock music’s all-time greats, who passed away on October 16, 2025, at the age of 74.
Also interviewed for the book was That Metal Show co-host and stand-up comedian Don Jamieson. And during our chat, I couldn’t help but ask if he felt that Ace could have cut it as a comedian. Here is an excerpt from the book, in which Jamieson shares his opinion.
“Well, here’s the thing – being a stand-up comic, you have to be very self-disciplined. You have to take the job really seriously. Be deadly serious, to have a lot of fun with it. And I think Ace was a little bit more scattered. The thing that he put all his energy in was playing the guitar. That’s where his focus always went. But if he just wanted to put the guitar down and get up there and do jokes, with a little fine tuning, yeah, he could have been hilarious. Because, hey, at least he would have laughed at his jokes.”
Also in the book, I had the opportunity to ask Jamieson about an infamous TV interview from Halloween 1979, in which the original four members of Kiss were interviewed by Tom Snyder on The Tomorrow Show. During which, Ace steals the show with his joking manner and infectious laughter.
“I go back and watch that Tom Snyder thing at least once a year. It really is like watching a headline comedian do a full set, because there’s even a point towards the end of the interview – it’s about a 30-minute interview – where Ace does have a lull with Tom. But then like, the last couple minutes, he has a flurry of really funny jokes, and he ends strong. That’s like, every comic – you’re killing the whole show, then you have this lull for a little bit, but then you have a few more that you know it’s going to kill them at the end. And you get off stage on the big laugh. And that’s what it was like.”
“Tom Snyder loved Ace so much – to the point where he literally turned his back on Gene and Paul. He wasn’t even looking at them for minutes at a time. And even the director had turned the camera towards Ace and Peter, and you can hear Gene off camera trying to throw one-liners in. But they’re not landing. They’re just all bombing. But every time they would bring the camera back to Gene and Paul, they were furious – this was everything they didn’t want the public to see.”
Lastly, Jamieson recalled a memorable appearance Frehley made on VH1’s That Metal Show back in 2011, which again, displayed his sense of humor, and, unpredictable nature.
“When Ace did That Metal Show, he would always come prepared with something funny, which I always loved. Ace had such a great sense of humor. So, we were interviewing him about how he created the smoking guitar he’s famous for. And he goes, ‘Actually, I have a new invention that I want to debut on your show today.’ Now, our producer did not tell us this was coming, so it was a total surprise. He goes, “You guys know the electric smoking guitar. Well, I got a new thing…the smoking flute.” And he takes out a little wooden flute. He starts playing it, smoke starts billowing out the end of it, and the three of us doubled over in laughter. It was such a priceless moment. And I think Eddie still has that flute to this day.
Talk to Me: Conversations With Ace Frehley is available for sale now, as paperback, hardcover, and Kindle editions.
