Kiss’ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were recently featured in Rock Candy magazine with a brand new interview, where Simmons talked about the relationship they had with former members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
Regarding this, Simmons told writer Andrew Daly:
“On one occasion Ace said, ‘I can’t come down today guys. I’ve got a card game. What were we supposed to do? The answer was we had to get other people. And like Ace, Peter had his demons.
”We all understand or at least suspect what drugs and alcohol can do to you. But you’d like to think that the people around you will prevent you from going down that route.
”Or at least will prevent you from doing a lot of it. That just didn’t happen with Peter. We held out as long as we could, but it got to the point where he was sabotaging the band. The three of us, me, Paul, and Ace, voted to remove Peter from Kiss.”
He added more:
“To Ace‘s credit, the entire time he said that making a record like ”Music From The Elder” was not a good idea. He kept saying, ‘Look, I don’t want to do this other stuff. We should stay being a rock band.’
”In retrospect, Ace was exactly right. But Ace‘s biggest problem was the monkey on his back of drugs and alcohol. By that point, he was gone. There were too many drugs and there was too much alcohol, and it drove Ace to the point of no return. The idea that Ace left Kiss purely because of ”The Elder” isn’t true.”