Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning Picks one out six.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey, I've got Martin for you, sir, Welcome to the show.
You do it.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Rock journalist, music critic. He's written two books on Kiss.
We're lucky to have him. It's Martin pop Off. Martin.
Were you aware of how dire the situation was for Ace?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yes, definitely. You know, I know that he had a fall,
and people were talking about this as far back as
I guess the fall is September twenty fifth, But I
kind of knew through the grapevine people that knew him
that things were pretty dire, that it was more than
that was kind of being led on, And I even
ended up having to write an obituary probably two three
(00:37):
hours before you know, work started coming through. So you
know how Facebook works there, you know, people catch on,
there's the rumors, and then it happens.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So yeah, it was very organic this time. To me,
it felt very organic. A lot of other people and
fans were sharing and thinking about him and stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So quite a day. Quite a day.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Martin released Kiss at fifty and twenty twenty three, and
you have an upcoming Kiss book. Did you talk to
Ace for this book?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, it's called Kiss seventy six and it's just all
about nineteen seventy six. But yeah, I've interviewed Ace a
lot of times over the years. We had a magazine
up in here here called up Bravewards and Blady Knuckles,
and he was always available. He always put you at ease.
He you know, he's got that charming, funny laugh that
you don't expect from the spaceman. You know, this this
heroic figure that inspired so many people, you know, and
(01:29):
he was always a nice guy in interviews. He didn't
kind of mythologize Kiss so much, and that probably you know,
annoyed Gene and Paul somewhat, but because he was so
down to earth about it. He just said, look, man,
I just go up there and do what I do.
But he was so beloved for what he did and
so inspiring. And you know, with our magazine just interviewing
(01:52):
so many rock stars over the years, I can tell
you he's got to be I would say twenty times
people said he was the reason they picked up guitar.
It was just so important to these guys that are
of a certain vintage my age, you know, who came
on a lot of them came on with Destroyer and
joined the Kiss Army and stuff, and they just loved
Ace and that whole book that he picked up a guitar,
(02:14):
But they did they do that? They and all that stuff?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Did they do the dry ice fog bomb machine that
he had on his guitar and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
That was cool. That was the really cool thing he had.
And he also people loved that he was like a
Gibson Les Paul guy and he had that sunburst guitar
all the time and it just looked great against his
his cool silver, black and white sort of outfits. Definitely
the best outfit out the love it.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We're talking to Martin pop Up. He's a journalist, music critic.
He's written two books about Kiss. When it comes to
Kiss members solo careers, who was the most successful? I
know Hayce had the biggest hit, but who was the
most successful member of Kiss when they went solo.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I'm glad you brought that up, because what they did
is in nineteen seventy eight, they all did those four
albums and everybody, you know, consensus is that Aces was
the best one, and you think of the songs on there.
He had a hit with New York Groove, which is
a bit of an outlier on it. It's a cover
and it's a little lighter, but the rest of it
was all you know, Storm and Ace rip it outs
beating back to My Baby Snowblind Ozone. People loved that
(03:18):
record way more than any of the other ones, and
I think that shaped on the guys as well. So
that kicked off his career, and then he had Freely's comment.
In the eighties, he had lots of solo albums, and
a kind of cool thing about Ace is that he
ended up being quite prolific later in life, you know,
having these Anomaly, Space Invader. He did these covers albums,
(03:39):
so he was out there right right to the end.
He really did. He was taking lots of records.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Did he really have like a twenty minute long chase
in his Dolorean with the police down in White Plains
in New York? Did that happen?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh? Man, I think a lot of that stuff happened.
I can picture a lot of car crash stories all
along the years. He was the wild man in that
band and the guy who could not be tamed by
Gene and Paul. We know there was a lot of drugs,
There was a lot of booze, but I think people,
you know, appreciated that they did have this, this this
(04:12):
wild card in the band, this unpredictable guy and it
and it gave some tension within the band, But he
was He was in there writing a lot of songs
as well. A lot of the bigger, a lot of
the heavier songs came from Ace. He eventually started doing
lead vocals, which was nice as well. People loved the
fact that Kiss had these four great lead singers, and
Ace was was another one with his very interesting voices.
(04:36):
I call it a good old college try voice, because
he was probably not the best singer in the band,
but he liked the other guys. He had an interesting
voice as well, so he contributed a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
What was Ace's relationship with the rest of the guys
on his way, you know, as of yesterday, where did
he stand with the guys?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, I noticed there have been some statements out there.
I think Gene was a little Paul's getting a little
abuse for a statement he made about something about nineteen
seventy four. He said he was listening to somebody play
in the hotel room next door when they were in
the Hiatt House or something, and he said something about
it I wish that guy was in my band, and
it turned out to be Ace, who was kind of
(05:14):
like a backhanded compliment. People are saying, but Jean said,
Jean said something nice about him, And you know, I
think it was always contentious right to the end, but
it seemed like there was some making peace going on there.
I think everybody's heart sort of softened. You know, Ace,
I could tell when you would interview him, he kind
of seemed apologetic for you know, it might have been
(05:35):
the drugs or the boost. Talking at various times in
the past of some of the you know, live performances
or interactions with the fan, and he realized he was
working on his personality right to the end.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well, Martin pop off rock journalists. We'll look for your
kiss book that's coming out, and we appreciate you jumping
on to talk as freely this morning. Thank you, Sarah.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Well thanks for having me, guys,