Gene Simmons Suggests 'Other Factors' To Blame For Ace Frehley's Death

KISS's Gene Simmons can't help but wonder if a series of "bad decisions" contributed to Ace Frehley's death earlier this fall, before he could join his fellow KISS cofounders for their Kennedy Center honors.

Frehley died on Oct. 16, a few weeks after a fall at his New Jersey home left him with multiple skull fractures and brain bleed. The Morris County Medical Examiner ruled that Frehley died of accidental blunt trauma to the head due to a fall. A toxicology report was pending.

Speaking to the New York Post, Simmons said he believes there were other factors that contributed to Frehley's death that did not show up in the medical examiner's report.

"He refused [advice] from people that cared about him — including yours truly — to try to change his lifestyle. In and out of bad decisions. Falling down the stairs — I'm not a doctor — doesn't kill you. There may have been other issues, and it breaks my heart," Simmons said. "The saddest things — you reap what you shall sow unfortunately."

Frehley's drug and alcohol issues were well-documented over the years, though he claimed to have been sober for about 20 years prior to his death.

While Simmons and Frehley reconnected numerous times in the years since Frehley's final departure from Kiss in the early-2000s, Simmons (and KISS frontman Paul Stanley) never appeared convinced that the Frehley had given up his bad habits.

Stanley and Simmons' comments about Frehley's addiction problems drew a fiery response from the guitarist in 2019. Frehley accused Simmons and Stanley of "slanderous remarks" that cost him "millions of dollars" over the years.

He noted at the time that he had been reliably performing live with his solo band with no issues for over 12 years, but his former bandmates continued to dredge up his dark past.

Radio personality Eddie Trunk leaped to Frehley's defense, insisting that Frehley was "a completely different guy" from when he was using drugs "and it's really unfortunate that he doesn't get that credit." Trunk conceded that some of Frehley's lasting idiosyncrasies were the result of "residual damage" from his drug problem.

"Ace was the lovable f---up in Kiss. So people love to think he still is," Trunk said at the time. "People look for that. ... People want him to fall of the wagon, they want him to be a mess, or they just perpetuate that he still is a mess because it's more fun that way."

In a 2017 interview with Q104.3 New York's 'Jim Kerr Rock and Roll Morning Show,' Frehley explained that he doesn't like to "preach" about sobriety.

"You gotta learn your own lessons," Frehley said.

(Photo: Getty Images)