Customer Reviews

Kiss & Tell (NEW SPECIAL EDITION)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Ace Frehley, if this book is to be believed, is quite a bad seed. Fan of KISS or not, the book is a good read. Why? Because we love to read .... Tabloid articles and gossip rags make big money. So, if you want a lot of unsubstantiated dirt on Ace, pick this book up.

Personally, I think the authors forget how bad they make themselves look by writing the book. They come off as whiny and childish. What do I care if Ace treated you like dirt? You hung around with him for years so you must have liked him a little. Anyway, it's a mindless, fun read.

I've been a KISS fan since there was a KISS and I was a young adolescent. After reading this book I remain a die hard KISS fan. Both Gordon and Bob did a good job putting the stories in this book together. All I got out of it is that Ace is human, liked to joke around (like most of us), and unfortunately didn't take the best care of himself. That's his problem, not mine. I still love him for what he represents and the music he helped create. I'm glad I read it and you will be too whether you are a KISS fan or not.

You get a rare inside look at Ace Frehley that is both entertaining and sad. His drug \ alcohol addiction ruined what would have been a stellar career. Same with Peter Criss. Not too much about Kiss as a whole, but a good look at Ace during the worldwind of fame and how he dealt with it. Worth a read. Don't waste your time with part two of this title.

As far as trashiness goes, the dirt that's been dug up on Kiss isn't as extensive as it probably should be, given their legendary status on the road. And the problem with this book isn't the stories within; it's the stories it fails to tell.

People should be warned that 90% of it deals with Ace Frehley specifically, and therefore should not be mistaken as a Kiss 'primer'. I bought it on the assumption that it was about degredation amongst all four band members, not just Ace. While I realize that most of the craziest stories WOULD be about him and Peter, I was disappointed that it didn't have a more even-handed delivery of the entire band.

Much of it is amusing, and there's plenty of repulsiveness within. And closeness or not, regardless of the authors' current disdain for Ace, they too are making money off the Kiss name, and shouldn't be taken as seriously as others might warrant.

"Kiss and Sell", by C.K. Lendt, is a much better book about the band for those who really care. This one is for completists only.

Being a long time fan of Kiss and especially Ace Frehley I was curious to read it. If all this is true and not embellished, Ace seems to have no respect for friends, family, bandmates or fans. It is hard to believe that someone could live like this and survive. Truth or not it was a good read with lots of laughs. I still enjoy Ace Frehley as a musician and I am sure there are a lot of good qualities about him that did not make the book.

At least the authors of this book admit their sins through out the various stories narrated. They fully aknowledge the fact that were two of Ace Frehley's Party buddies. The stories told here are somewhat funny (If almost shooting one's toe and being high all day could be considered funny) but especially instructing. Except for the co author's constat statement that Ace always had a way of making him do things he didn't want to (like he had no mind of his own) the book is a lesson on what excessive fame and money can do to a person. Is a must read for fans and non fans of Kiss, and goes to show you that the Kiss reunion HAD to be for the money, for there's no other way some one like Paul And Gene can tolerate guys like Ace or Peter; and if this is what comes with fame and fortune, thank God i've neve made it with my band.

The author has some major problems with Ace Frehley obviously. The author seems pretty angry and this is how he can jump on the KISS bandwagon and make some quick cash. Hey, I bought it for the trashy stories too. Who am I to complain? Still, if you are a KISS fan and are tired of the books that detail boring tour itineraries, this is the book for you.

This is a very sad book. Do not make the mistake I did by buying it. Borrow it from someone or check it out of the library. If, after that, you feel it is something you want in your collection, you can go out and buy it. Yes, there are some pics that are nice to have, but you can probably find them on the net and download them just as easily. The quality of the printing and editing is almost as annoying as the absurdity of the unsubstantiated claims with which the two writers fill page after page. And I am not merely talking about typos. The editors apparently do not know the difference between "there", "their" and "they're" or "its" and "it's", "bear" and "bare". Very sad, indeed. In some places, the typeset is so atrocious that it makes reading the book a chore. Plus, we are treated to little cheesy cut-out pictures of the writers' heads at the beginning of their respective paragraphs (and these two men accuse Ace of being unattractive; clearly a case of the butt-ugly pots calling the kettle black). So, why did I buy the book in the first place? Well, I find Ace Frehley to be a very interesting person, and I guess I just find myself pulling for him to beat everyone's expectations and keep his life on track. Having only just recently gotten into Kiss/Ace, I was hungry to read just about anything. Sadly, Kiss and Tell was one long tale of misery and absurdity. The two writers clearly have no sense of propriety and even less of integrity. As the saying goes, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?" Still, their credibility is so marred by their insistence on lambasting Ace at every turn that after a while, the reader begins to grow bored. The language is also atrocious. It's as if the insertion of profanity is supposed to somehow lend credence to the writers' sense of outrage over how Ace supposedly mistreated them. In fact, I felt that these two got their fair come-uppance; justice was served when Ace severed ties with both men and warned his fans about Mr Gebert's underhanded dealings. No wonder they are both filled with bitterness; years of bandwagoning, and what did it get them? Their just desserts. At the end of this book, an even-keeled reader will come away actually feeling sympathy for Mr Frehly for having been so short-sighted as to have ever associated with the likes of these two nut cases (men who did nothing but perpetuate the very lifestyle for which they condemn Frehley). Once again, borrow or check the book out of the library before buying it. These two men do not deserve to make money off such a piece of rubbish. It's too late for me . . . I already put the money in their pockets. But you have the chance to spend your money on something more worthwhile . . .

At one point Ace Frehley could have ruled the world. With his 1977 solo debut, he could have been a legend outside of KISS. Instead he succumbed to two things; laziness and alcohol. Ace used to be a hero of mine. As a guitar player he's still a big influence on me, but as a human being, even if half of these stories are true, he's been knocked off his pedastal a notch or two.

The stories in here are amazing. Like how he walked through Gene Simmon's hotel room, goose-stepping in a Nazi uniform. According to the book, Ace is a racist who doesn't like 'the two Jews' (Gene and Paul). Supposedly he made the famous KISS logo as a slap in the face to them. Unless you've lived under a rock your whole life, you'll know that the KISS logo features the double lightning bolt SS that the Nazis used.

The funniest story in the book is when Ace sat in a hotel room all night autographing plain white hats. Then he ironed patches onto plain white T-shirts. This was all supposed to be merchandise for an upcoming gig. Well after all his work, no one bought them because they couldn't believe Ace signed them.

The keyboard player and hairdresser who wrote this book come off as a couple of losers themselves though. They hung out with Ace, got the short end of the stick, and are now mad. The hairdresser even claimed he almost killed Ace with a baseball bat when they were kids. Ace escaped injury because he was fast on his feet.

Mr. G.G.G.G. comes off as a whiny wannabe who's keyboard skills did not take him as far as he had hoped. Hey if you lose your job and get your wife all mad at you because you decided to hangout with Ace in Atlantic City all weekend, who's fault is it?

It's a good read, but beware Ace fans. Ace is not the happy-go-lucky, drunken, fun loving buffoon he's portrayed to be. He's a lazy musician with a weird open marriage, and seems to have little respect for fans. How else would you explain a millionaire bitching about not getting a free computer from a young fan?

If I was Ace and owned a mansion with a state of the art studio in the basement, I'd have put out a lot more than four solo albums in 30 years.

"Kiss and Tell" is one of those books that is a guilty pleasure. It's like a train wreck... you want to look away, but you can't. The authors are both former buddies of KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley (albeit during different time periods). They were ostensibly "employed" by the band, but were equally utilized as paid social companions. Frehley is depicted as a physically abhorrent slob who doesn't flush toilets, will have sex with anything that moves, has bisexual tendencies, and lies, cheats, and steals from everyone with whom he is associated. Toward the end of the book we learn that Frehley is suing lead author Gordon Gebert, but that does little to discredit the narrative. No one could make stuff like this up. We learn that Gene Simmons loves the women, especially celebrities, but that he doesn't care for drink and drugs. Paul Stanley, though barely mentioned, is painted as insecure in his romantic relationships. Peter Criss is said to have the worst of the addiction problems, besides which fact he is a terrible drummer. The literary form is informal, the structure meandering, the editing terrible, and I really enjoyed this book.