Rock and Shock: A Story of Resilience

The music made us jump up and down

My brother and I were fans of the metal glam rock band KISS when we were kids, ages 8 and 10! Photo of little child in an oversized KISS t-shirt by NHN at Unsplash.

I hadn’t listened to the music in ages. But when original member and lead guitarist of the band KISS, Ace Frehley, died last month, the memories of lyrics, melodies and guitar solos came flooding back to me, as fresh as ever. Like a lot of people, I was a fan of KISS as a child back in the 1970’s. There was something about the music—rock and roll—that my child-self found irresistible. I hear the music now, and I feel the music is good ole rock music, uplifting and exuberant. Back in the day, my kid brother and me jumped up and down and sang along when we played the music. We played air guitar and air drums and had a great time. We bought the vinyl records and swapped them for weeks at a time with friends. I remember the music made me feel that life was for me, amazing and full of energy and promise. For some mysterious reason, KISS appealed to kids, especially boys. My school friend, Julio, lived down the street, and we traded albums. I was jealous that Julio had a KISS lunchbox. The band had merch! And, since we were kids, we totally wanted the merchandise, the “action figures,” the lunchboxes, and, of course, the albums. Too young to go to KISS concerts at the time, I only heard about the concert experience: the shows were a loud spectacle with scary clown makeup, big hair and platform shoes, black tight costumes with chains, claws, fangs, sparkle, and, oh yeah, lights and fireworks that fired off their guitars at key moments during the songs. The devoted fans in attendance jumped up and down, sang along, and were known as the KISS Army.

So, it was a big deal when KISS lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died last month at age 74. There have been many tributes from musicians who said Ace Frehley inspired them to pick up a guitar and form a band, members of rock band Nirvana being among these. I listened to recordings of past interviews with Frehley, saw the retrospectives, and read the stories. I came across a story of Ace Frehley getting shocked/electrocuted at a show in Florida in 1976. Not only did he survive that disaster in 1976, he went on to play the whole show that night immediately after getting shocked and temporarily losing consciousness. Just: Wow! This would have been at the height of their popularity. Since I treasure healing and resilience stories of all kinds, I was very intrigued about the details of Ace Frehley’s resilience after getting shocked, and so I felt I had to share.

Here is the story.

Ace Frehley Survives Electrocution and Plays the Show

The two s’s in the KISS logo look like two lightning bolts. I learned this was the design that Ace Frehley came up with, because he had a flare for graphic arts and a fascination with electricity. He had a thing about electricity: his father was an electrical engineer who worked in power plants and was frequently in high voltage situations. In his memoir called No Regrets, Ace Frehley tells a story of how his father avoided getting electrocuted (and dying) one day at work, because he drew the short straw: drawing the short straw meant he was the one to get the sandwiches for lunch that day. His father’s three coworkers died of electrocution that day while Mr. Frehley was out buying lunch for the crew. Mr. Frehley just missed being in this disaster, but returned to the horror of seeing the charred bodies of his dead coworkers getting carried out of the building where they had been working with the electrical wiring that day. The father told this story to little Ace Frehley, then six years old at the time, and said that he had been lucky to draw the short straw! What? How is this is lucky? Little Ace had nightmares of his father dying at work after that. Was his father next? As a result, Ace Frehley, the adult performer, developed a complicated relationship with electricity. It seemed Ace naturally knew that electricity is both powerful but deadly at the same time. It is not unlike fire that can warm you up or burn your house down. Electricity is something to be respected.

At that show in Florida, Ace Frehley was electrocuted at the very start of the night: the stage was wired so the guitars were plugged in, and there was a metal railing along a set of stairs to a platform where, making a dramatic entrance, the band members would descend the stairs to get to the stage below. The wiring was live! Ace had his guitar, which was plugged in to the amplifiers, and he walked down the stairs in his shiny platform shoes, holding the metal rail to steady himself, when… the 220 volts shot through his hand onto his guitar and formed a circuit. He miraculously let go of the handrail as, he said, he saw his life flash before his eyes. Every thought and every experience he ever had came to him in that moment. I imagine that it was thanks to the platform shoes that he lost his balance, let go of the railing, and fell backwards and off the stage platform. Had he fallen forward, he could have fallen completely off stage and into the orchestra pit further below. Letting go of the railing broke the electrical circuit, but he was motionless on the floor. The stagehands rushed to assist him, maybe thinking he was dead? He was on the stage floor and unconscious for 10 full minutes. The crowd began to chant: “Ace! Ace! Ace! We want Ace! We want Ace!” He came to to the sound of the crowd chanting his name. He rose, as if from the dead, and came to his feet. Then, Ace Frehley came back on stage! He went on to play the show. Later, in retelling the story, Ace said he did not have feeling in his hands when he came back after getting shocked, and he had burns on his fingers. But somehow he could still play and perform that night after the accident. In many interviews after the incident, he recounted the story, always laughing and saying he was lucky he did not die and lucky that he got through all his solos that night. The incident gave Ace an aura of otherworldly power and mystery that became part of his SpaceMan stage persona.

The story of surviving and just continuing with the show is amazing in so many ways. Avoiding death by electrocution eerily echoes his father’s “work story” about getting lucky (and not dying) but it also showed that Ace also had a dangerous job not unlike his father's. His father finds a way to continue working at his dangerous job by becoming philosophical and somehow okay with all the risks involved. Work can be dangerous, but living can be dangerous as well. As a performer, Ace finds the courage and energy to get through the show thanks to the adrenaline in his body and his will as a professional. But the fans chanting his name and giving him love and encouragement stand out as a very important part of the story. The feeling in his hands came back after a week, he said, and then weeks or months later he wrote a song called, “Shock Me,” where he sang lead vocals for the first time for the band. A couple of years after that, the bandmembers each put out a solo album, and Ace Frehley’s was the most successful commercially, going platinum. Artistically, Ace said in an interview that his solo album felt like he was coming out of his shell creatively. I remember saving up money from doing chores to buy the Ace Frehley solo album. I played that album a lot, and it always felt like encouragement and exuberance to me.

The moral of the story is, yes, life is unpredictable, and sometimes you get lucky in the chaos and unpredictability that seems to always be floating about. Sometimes, you laugh and find a way to keep moving through the shock and the weirdness. Sometimes people who love you cheer you on. Life cheers you on. That’s what strikes me about the story: the magic of the fans chanting “Ace! Ace! Ace!” I can imagine the chanting was like the potent power of a collective group of people being the voice of life itself encouraging him and calling his life force back into life when he seemed to be hurt and in great danger. I imagine the chanting felt like a special message just for him, but also for anyone in a tough situation:

“You are down only if you believe you are down. Get up and keep going! Get up!”

That’s the moment of power when you feel life energy running through you and feel yourself alive and a part of life, animated by life. A mysterious force seemed to pull him back onto the stage that night. Call it spirit, call it the essence of life pulsing, alive and mysterious, under the hum of electricity, flashing lights, and the great appearance of appearance. It is joy and exuberance. Exuberance finds a way.

Rest in peace and power, SpaceMan, Ace Frehley.