Ace Frehley thinks that the Kiss avatars are "not rock and roll" and "geared towards children"

(Image credit: Paul Brannigan)

“Kiss Army, your love, your power has made us immortal!” Paul Stanley's digital avatar boldly proclaimed as the New York hard rock legends introduced "a new Kiss era" via a striking short film at the climax of their spectacular final show at Madison Square Garden on December 2.

Created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and financed and produced by Pophouse Entertainment, the Swedish company behind the hugely successful ABBA Voyage experience housed in a custom-built arena in East London, the Kiss avatars represent "the beginning of another road" the flesh-and-blood Paul Stanley told the MSG crowd on the closing night of the quartet's epic End Of The Road tour.

“What we've accomplished has been amazing,” Stanley added in a post-gig statement shared on the band’s website, “but it's not enough. The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are. It's exciting for us to go the next step and see Kiss immortalized.”

Ace Frehley, however, is not convinced by the prospect of Kiss 2.0 extending the band's 50-year career.

In a new interview with German rock radio station Rock Antenne, transcribed by Blabbermouth, the band's former guitarist dismissed the band's new bold digital future as "not rock and roll."

"I don't get this avatar thing that they're gonna do," he admitted. "I saw some of it on a video on YouTube last night. It kind of looked like it was geared towards children. And it's not rock and roll. I get up on stage without backing tracks, plug my amp into it, plug my guitar into a Marshall and go. That's it. It's always been that way and always will be."

Watch the film screened at Madison Square Garden below:

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.