What was the last song Ace Frehley ever played on stage?
The rock ‘n’ roll community and music enthusiasts across the world were dealt a heartbreaking blow when Ace Frehley recently passed away at the age of 74.
Not to take away from Kiss’ run during the 1980s and ’90s, but the bulk of their most memorable tunes were recorded when Frehley was the band’s lead guitarist.
It’s no coincidence that his departure from the group also marked a major transition in their identity since the new lineup gave up the face paint that was and still is central to the Kiss brand. Most people don’t even know that they spent nearly one and a half decades with their faces completely exposed, going back to their trademark look only when Frehley rejoined for a few years in 1996. The point here isn’t that he was solely responsible for their most memorable work, but that he seemed to have been the secret ingredient who brought out their best version.
While Kiss did indeed carry on in Frehley’s absence, his DNA will forever be all over their most popular work. As a result, he was always present in spirit even when the band performed with a different guitarist for all those years without him. His initial departure from the group was mostly over creative differences, so he continued making music on his own just as the others did.
His first solo project was released as part of the Kiss brand while he was still a member, while the next two were published under Ace Frehley’s Comet. He ultimately accepted that his name carried a whole lot of weight just by itself, so he went on to unleash seven more studio records as just Ace Frehley. At no point did he ever budge from fulfilling his purpose, with his final album arriving just last year.
Though it all, the legendary rock star kept touring and delivering his music to fans all over the world. Of course, his work with Kiss couldn’t be forgotten despite how great he was by himself. Privy to his fans’ needs, his concerts would typically include a blend of original solo material as well as picks from his time with the iconic group. Toward the later stages of his life, however, Frehley’s setlists were made up almost entirely of songs he conceived with his old group.
The veteran played his last show just one and a half months before he died in mid-October. On September 5th, 2025, he took the stage for the last time at the Uptown Theater in Providence, Rhode Island. The hour-long performance featured a total of 12 songs, nine of which he recorded with Kiss. In addition to an isolated guitar solo, a Comet’s song plus a cover of Russ Ballard’s ‘New York Groove’, he shredded his way through a list of Kiss blockbusters, from ‘Deuce’ to ‘Detroit Rock City’ to ‘Shout It Loud’, which could easily pass off as a greatest hits tracklist if bundled together. To wrap up the explosive set, he belted out the classic ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’ in all his splendour. Though it is indeed sad to accept that he’ll never do so again, that was undoubtedly the perfect goodbye from him.
Less than a week after his passing, Frehley was laid to rest at a private memorial in New York City. The other three founding members of Kiss – Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Peter Criss – were all there. It might not have been the big reunion fans had hoped for, but it’s a touching reminder that, when all’s said and done, the music they made together still meant more than all the drama.
That same day, the Morris County Medical Examiner in New Jersey revealed that no autopsy was conducted on the guitarist following his demise. His case is now under investigation, as the body is set to undergo an external examination as well as a toxicology screening. Not long before the news of his death became public, Frehley was reportedly on life support due to a brain bleed he suffered back in September. For that reason, he was forced to cancel the remainder of his tour – that’s what it took to keep the natural-born rockstar from performing.
