SCOOP: Trump, Kennedy Center to bestow rare posthumous award to KISS guitarist
Ace Frehley will join only Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead and Glenn Frey of the Eagles as artists to receive the award posthumously from the Kennedy Center.
President Donald Trump and the Kennedy Center are poised to make history with a rare posthumous induction of an all-American music industry icon into the prestigious circle of Kennedy Center Honors.
Ace Frehley, the co-founder and lead guitarist of KISS, was poised to receive the center’s honor this year alongside his fellow bandmates, but tragically died after a sudden fall.
After the Kennedy Center announced plans to honor Frehley and his bandmates this summer, the guitarist called the plans “a dream come true that I never thought would materialize.”
Following his death, tributes immediately poured in for Frehley from across the music industry.
John 5, the Mötley Crüe guitarist, remarked that one of the last things that Frehley ever said to him was how “excited” he was to attend the Kennedy Center’s prestigious awards ceremony.
“One of the very last times I talked to him — it was right before his first fall,” John 5 said. “And we were talking, and what he said — he was so happy, he was so excited about the Kennedy Center Honors. He was just so over the moon about this. And what he told me is he was so excited that the president said his name and said it correctly. At this point of his life, he was over the moon. He was so happy.”
Gene Simmons, who spent decades jamming with Frehley, also invoked the significance of the Kennedy Center Honors to Frehley and to others.
“Our hearts are broken,” Simmons wrote. “Ace has passed on. No one can touch Ace’s legacy. I know he loved the fans. He told me many times. Sadder still, Ace didn’t live long enough to be honored at the Kennedy Ctr Honors event in Dec. Ace was the eternal rock soldier. Long may his legacy live on!”
Both Trump and Ambassador Richard Grenell — the President of the Kennedy Center — have prioritized promoting American values at the Kennedy Center since they took it over earlier this year. When KISS’s award was announced, the bandmates eagerly invoked that mentality.
“KISS is the embodiment of the American Dream,” Simmons said at the time. “We are deeply honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honor.”
While Simmons is poised to accept the honor without his longtime bandmate, Frehley will join only Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead and Glenn Frey of the Eagles as artists to receive the award posthumously from the Kennedy Center.