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00:00ace fraley passing is on the level of eddie van halen passing ace and eddie they not only wanted
00:06us made us want to become musicians they made us want to become rock stars you know and i think
00:10that's the difference you know kiss kiss made you want to go to the next level rock metal prog and
00:18everything in between welcome to this episode of talking rock with meltdown don't forget to follow
00:24the audio only talking rock podcast on all podcast platforms and now it's time for today's
00:29conversation here's meltdown there he is junior how you doing man good man how are you what's
00:36happening oh we've had better days of course you know it's funny last time i talked to you
00:40ozzy passed away which was just came out of nowhere and uh we talked about this a million times i may
00:47have my my shirt on uh but nice i mean kiss played a huge part in your life uh just tell me your
00:55thoughts about the passing of uh ace fraley so you know so we're yesterday i flew into philadelphia
01:00we're kicking off these uh nine shows here with kings of thrash and as i'm landing and the messages
01:07are pushing through my phone you're the first one who sent through something from tmz about ace about
01:14his health status and he goes dude is this do you have any update is this real so we were chatting
01:19and i started hitting some some friends about it and uh sean drover started texting me uh you know
01:26he and willie g who was mustaine's guitar tech there for a long time you know so we're all still friends
01:32and big kiss fans of course and you know and it was it seemed to be confirmed i said yeah the spaceman
01:37has left us it just hasn't been announced yet so i had to just kind of sit by and wait for the
01:42initial you know for the official uh thing to come out and when the rolling stone article hit
01:47you know then i think i sent it to you right away as well and i mean you know it's just that moment
01:52where you're like you know it's coming you know i saw i saw the news kind of push through that ace
01:57was in the hospital um you know but i was on tour so i didn't dig into the any of it and i was like
02:03oh no you know so ace and i became friends not close friends i mean we have each other's cell phone
02:09i'd usually text him every year for his birthday and me and frank bellow would text him because he
02:13played a solo on our altitudes and attitude record that's right which we were super grateful for
02:18uh clearly our hero you know kiss is the reason i'm even here talking to you you know so from uh you
02:25know for me uh destroyer was the first record i bought i bought it on cassette and i you know kiss
02:31alive right after that and then i went back and you know i i listened to undressed to kill
02:37louder than hell the first album etc you know and i i remained a die hard kiss fan um
02:43in pretty much through kiss alive 2 and then you know i did not buy dynasty of all things um
02:51and then i kind of moved on van halen came into my life and then boston and then i you know i kind
02:57of started getting into you know sticks grand illusion the ramones rocket to russia you know i
03:03started getting into some other stuff you know um but you know those formative years you know i
03:08mean kiss were my beatles and just in the same way the beatles were the beatles for kiss you know
03:13and um you know i love gene simmons bass playing in fact just today i was listening to cold gin and
03:19some stuff on for kiss alive and thinking god this guy he's just a masterful bass player man and uh
03:24while spitting blood and breathing fire and you know doing all the rest of it and listening to ace play
03:30you know ace wrote some great songs you know megadeth we covered uh strange ways during the
03:35euthanasia session uh and that part of that is because gene had actually reached out to us about
03:40putting a song on the kiss my ass album and so i i talked to gene several times he and i were you
03:46know calling each other because dave just said you know have junior deal with it you know so i was
03:50that was kind of in our uh 93 so kind of our countdown heading into euthanasia era um we didn't
03:57put a song in there it was it was just too expensive quite honestly to do it but you know
04:02dave's like tell gene we want to do an ace fraley song i'm like great nice way to make friends you
04:07know but uh you know but uh and of course i love gene right because you know he's the bass player you
04:14know so so you know i've become friends with those guys over the years um and um you know it was great
04:21to see gene officiate charlie and carla's wedding and you know just just all that we are because we're
04:25we're all in the we all share you know if you're in megan and anthrax you know basically metal
04:30allegiance if you will you know we all share the same record collection you know so um you know i
04:35think all of us we're texting each other you know um you know so it's it's one of those moments
04:40it gives a moment to just basically we kind of have our own morning and our own sort of little wake
04:47you know amongst all of us worldwide you know us musician guys yourself included you know who are
04:53all you know i hit eddie trunk and don jameson and all the guys you know then and um so yeah
04:58a sad moment for sure you know you realize you know i mean ace fraley passing is on the level of
05:05eddie van halen passing you know he was that influential different guitar player of course but
05:10you know ace and eddie they not only wanted us made us want to become musicians they made us want
05:16to become rock stars you know and i think that's the difference you know kiss kiss made you want to go
05:22to the next level and and and kiss with their manager bill of coin in those early days you know
05:27they created something that was just unreachable you know and and to some degree still is you know
05:32it's what kiss does you know now we've got ghost we got sleep token we got trans-siberian orchestra so
05:38there's artists out there kind of doing you know what what kiss has done of course but you know when
05:43you're the first one doing it and even kiss when they end it ended it was still it was still the
05:49biggest thing out there you know what i mean they're still doing stuff that it's like god you
05:54know only kiss when three guys come down from the ceiling you know on their on their platforms and
06:00they still got the boots and you know the whole thing you're just like i mean there's just no
06:04replacing what they have done for all of us in our lives yeah i uh i was lucky enough i got to
06:09detroit in november of 1995 and in june of 1996 they played tiger stadium and they opened up that tour
06:15when they reformed and yeah god i remember that you know me and marty friedman were in second row
06:20it was 1996 right is that the one you're talking about yeah so 1996 they came through phoenix
06:26and um they played the arena there and of course meganeth had played there a lot so we knew the
06:31the building manager so he got a second row like dead center tickets you know to see to see the the
06:37reunion and and you know we're sitting there you know at this point of course now we're you know
06:41we're experienced professionals as well so it's fun because you know i think marty and i we could
06:46agree it's fun to watch our childhood heroes because you still get that you know we're going
06:51to disneyland like this is you know we're going off to fantasy land yet now we know the wizard behind
06:59the curtain of oz we kind of we know how it's done you know what i mean but they still did it bigger
07:04and better than anyone you know now uh you're playing here uh coming up to the token lounge and also
07:09the machine shop this weekend we'll put all the information in the uh story but uh are you also
07:14playing cadillac yes playing cadillac yes yeah so if you ever you've never seen the cadillac you know
07:21kiss money have you so here's the funny thing october 9th um is the mayor of jackson minnesota the
07:32little town i grew up in you know we did a big coffee store there and everything he decreed that
07:37forever and for always is david ellison day right so i happen to look up october 9th is also the day
07:45kiss was given the keys to the city in cadillac michigan back in what 73 75 74 whatever this was
07:5275 okay i guess i guess it was the kiss alive tour right so back then and um of course we read about
07:59this in all the magazines when we were kids you know so i'm thinking what an awesome day so it's funny
08:04as as we kicked off the tour last week we were eating ribs down at nico mcbrain's restaurant in
08:09fort lotto daryl's celebrating uh david ellison day meanwhile i think up in cadillac was like a whole
08:15kiss yeah you know extravaganza going deservedly so so uh yeah i'm super excited man we you know
08:22we've never been there of course me and jeff young we're the same age pretty much and you know he saw
08:27kiss on the kiss alive tour at hair arena in dayton ohio when he was growing up so we're super super
08:32excited to go um are you going to be able to join us are you going to be able to come up there or not
08:37it's it's like three hours away you know i wanted to go this past weekend then i had computer issues
08:41and i couldn't make it up there but uh right i'm kind of jealous that i've never been up there to
08:46see the the kiss uh monuments so i have to get a journey one day dude i can't but i mean i'm so glad
08:51they just did that you know it's kind of a big kiss week right so between you know the cadillac thing
08:57gene marries carla and charlie benante and then you know sadly this news about ace so it's like
09:04kiss is just everywhere again you know what i mean the you know for better and not so better i guess
09:09but um you know the last time i hung with ace was a year and a half well almost two years ago when
09:15eddie trunk had his 40-year anniversary of broadcasting the event that he did over at the
09:19house of blues uh las vegas and normally eddie always had his events in the east coast so i could
09:25never be there um but he did this one the west so i was able to get there from where i live in
09:29arizona and um so there was talk of you know me and portnoy maybe you know sitting in and playing
09:36with ace and but ace brought his own band so it was it was fine um but i i got to hang out and have
09:42dinner with ace and um in fact i put that picture up on my on my facebook yesterday and don jameson
09:49was there so we were just hanging out and we had just a lovely conversation it was really great
09:53um just talking about everything from the old you know the old rebel rousing days for both of us and
10:00uh you know talking shop on business and songs and you know kiss stories and megadeth stories and so it
10:06was really it was really really great you know so and then i got to you know stand side stage and
10:11watch him play and you know that new album i i messaged steve brown from trickster i said dude
10:15how did you how did you get ace to play and sing like that the record's great it's like it's to me it
10:22was like is that 10 000 volts was as good as the first ace fraley solo record with rip it out and
10:28everything else so i was said he just said man i just got him to sit down and play guitar and it was
10:33it was not hard at all and so i was just so happy for for them uh i love that record i think that's
10:39a when we were on bass warrior back in march we were driving around europe listening to 10 000 volts
10:43you know kind of just being fans you know as we all are so um yeah it's it's sad news you know
10:50you think about it though 70 was he was what 74 yes i think so 74 ace fraley years you know that's
10:56like you know 77 ozzy osborne years you know i mean these are these are guys that were true
11:02rock rock and rollers in every every sense you know so you know the fact that our our beloved heroes
11:08have been with us this long um you know is is something i think we all should be should be
11:14thankful for as well you know because they certainly gave us a lot yeah don jameson actually
11:18before when i was waiting for you to log in he posted on his instagram about that night and uh
11:23he said that ace looked at him and couldn't think of who he was he's like now where do i know you from
11:26right he goes i think i remember that actually yeah and he's like he's like i'm don jameson i'm a
11:31comedian and i guess they called for an uber and an ace looked at don and said uh let's just tell
11:37jokes for the next 15 minutes you know whatever something like that you know i remember don i remember
11:43don saying some days because ace was telling some jokes and don said he goes you know ace you got
11:47really good timing for a comedian he goes you know as a comedian you know there's sort of a pace and
11:52the cadence of how you tell a joke so those guys are sitting there you know an ace i think was just
11:57a natural born you know uh storyteller and joke teller you know what i mean but yeah those two guys
12:03were kind of bro and down talking shop on comedy you know what i mean so it's pretty fun he was he was a
12:08funny dude and quite a quite a character there's uh there's a lot of people in this business that
12:12i wouldn't consider a character but he was definitely one of them for sure no 100 man he
12:18and he he was kind of the same guy throughout it seems like and uh i mean you know one of the
12:23funniest things about ace you think about his guitar playing and you know there's the hit the
12:26solo the do do do do do do do do do do right out of kiss alive you know and and um and he's he's
12:35got his signature licks as we all do but one of his greatest signature licks didn't require any
12:40notes at all it was the toggle switch on the les paul on the beginning of cold gin yeah
12:46right i mean dude that that lick because it's a lick right and you know even though it's a
12:55mechanical thing dude that that as much as anything defined ace fraley man and just something so
13:02charming and simple like that you know it's uh it just was so so ace you know yeah no doubt uh we
13:10could sit here and talk about ace all day long i'm sure you're gonna be talking about him for
13:13quite a while uh but uh what do you have going on man at the uh the the kings of thrash you got all
13:18sorts of stuff happening as you always do you i i texted you i'm like tell me what you have going
13:23on because i can't keep up with you yeah yeah i sent you back a little itinerary i think well so yeah
13:28so we got kings of thrash dates here is um newark delaware tonight new jersey tomorrow and we're
13:34making our way over you guys in michigan uh coming up this weekend so it's like nine shows over the
13:40next 10 days and i'll go uh back to arizona for some halloween time and then right after that i've
13:46got two weekends of the alice cooper uh rock and roll fantasy camp yeah you welcome welcome to my rock
13:53camp with with rob halford uh as a featured guest which is great because uh priest and alice are on
13:59tour together right now so doing that and then kings of thrash go to mexico uh for our first trip down
14:05there um and uh so we're doing that and then i go over to europe we've actually got something we're
14:12going to be announcing here in 10 days or so some some dates over there so i guess technically we're
14:17kind of announcing it right now but i've uh got some base warrior dates that'll be coming up
14:22the first week of december um and then um you know from there i'll kind of chill through the
14:28rest of december and then we just announced in january around the nam show we've got the
14:33medal of legion show uh at the anaheim house of blues yep which is always that thursday that first
14:38thursday night of nam um you know so nam i'm not gonna have the coffee booth this year we've done
14:44it the last couple years i just kind of wanted to lighten the load and do do medal legions and just
14:48kind of walk walk the nam floor a little bit and just kind of uh just kind of chill this year a
14:53little bit so i'm sure jam sessions and other things always ramp up around that and and then
14:58kings of thrash is heading to uh to japan in february and um we also announced some uh some canada
15:08shows uh that we're going to be doing in may and in between there's like a whole bunch of other stuff
15:12that's uh to tba to be announced uh here in the in the coming weeks so there's a whole bunch of
15:18other stuff so yeah the calendar's pretty full man it's it's like i'm i'm out here full time
15:23rocking the free world man yeah and uh also within that within all the stuff you're doing you got to
15:28get me on the monsters of rock cruise so that's uh oh yeah that's right yeah yeah you know thank you
15:32for reminding me so in april yeah so jeff scott soto and i just put out a record back in august
15:37yeah called unbreakable um i think a a very good record if i may say so myself um that band really
15:45plugs and plays very very well together um so we have a warm-up show that we're going to do at
15:52whiskey in hollywood on april 9th and we get on the boat on the monsters rock cruise uh out of miami
16:01um that's uh 12 through 17 april 12 through 17 i believe is what that is so um yeah doing that
16:09yeah then then we go to canada with kings of thrash and like i said a whole a whole whole whole bunch
16:15more stuff that'll be announced here in the next few weeks as well so and you still haven't mentioned
16:21you still haven't mentioned getting me on the boat that's number one priority as far as that oh yeah
16:25oh yeah that's right so anyway me and jeff scott soto are going on the boat no no and we will
16:31probably bring our friend melton out so uh no it would be great to have you do you know that's such
16:35a fun you know all the cruises are great you know i've done you know ship rocked and obviously we had
16:40a mega cruise you know we we formed metal allegiance uh on the motorhead the motor motorboat cruise so
16:47you know i've done a lot of these i did the uh two years ago i did a monsters rock cruise it was super
16:52great you know the british lions on there zach wilds uh with black label society night ranger
16:59so you know cool cool mix of you know stuff that we all know right stuff that's you know probably
17:05been on your airwaves and in our record collections you know yeah so we were talking about this yesterday
17:10for a few minutes but last time i talked to you uh you told me about you know standing on the side of
17:15the stage watching ozzy uh back to the beginning and you watched mama i'm coming home and
17:20killed crane said yeah well lemmy wrote that and well in the book the last rights i was telling
17:24you about this um yeah ozzy said lemmy wrote that in under two hours and he wrote three different
17:30versions of it or something i guess yeah way with words and stuff have you had a chance to to to see
17:35the book or anything well you know i i have not i've heard of it i know of it you know max norman
17:40was here on the bus with us uh last week um he came to our show in tampa and and max is a funny guy
17:48man he's you know his british midlands accent and his stories he is funny and you know he recorded
17:53those first well he recorded the first three ozzy records blizzard uh blizzard of oz diary of a madman
17:59and bark of the moon um in fact he even did the first mix of it i didn't i was not aware of that
18:04um and then he did those i think all the ridge farm studios there where max was the staff house
18:10engineer and um we were talking about ozzy stuff and he said lemmy he he said that he thought lemmy
18:18had written quite a bit with ozzy you know they were good friends and obviously mama coming i'm coming
18:23home was the big one what what what what phil crane told me that i didn't know was we were standing there
18:28in the stadium is that the song was about england mama i'm coming home mama is england and then as i
18:38started listening i was going god okay that would make sense because you know uh you could have been
18:43a better friend to me i've gone that's a weird line to put in a song and then i was thinking okay
18:49maybe you know because both lemmy and ozzy moved over to la they lived in california so maybe they
18:55were thinking about i don't know you know back in their homeland of england so just putting it out
19:02there that if that's true and i have to trust because wit lived with ozzy and sharon for a while
19:06you know wit basically backpacks around the world and just shows up in random places
19:11i remember i remember when we were at ozfest 98 he goes yeah i live with ozzy and sharon like
19:15when since when you know like like i you know i i've been hanging out over there you know so um
19:22he you know he would know of course about something like that but i thought that that was very
19:28interesting twist on that song so um every time i hear it now i think about it more as a patriotic song
19:34rather than you know mama doesn't mean your mom you know what i mean so uh it's it's that kind of
19:41thing no that's uh it's great and i thought about you right away because yeah he wrote he wrote uh
19:46four songs on no more tears and ozzy said in the book he probably made more money off those four songs
19:52the entire motorhead you know publishing rights i'm sure he did yeah i'm sure he did yeah yeah it's uh
19:58well you know and it's funny that you know lenny you know all that he it's funny i was just listening
20:03to uh no sleep till hammer smith yesterday on the airplane you know because that's kind of my groove
20:08you know and i love uh fast eddie clark was such a great guitar player and a cool cool songwriter
20:13cool riffs and just listening to a lot of those lyrics and you know that was kind of my motorhead
20:19sweet spot you know was was you know kind of in that era um but you know you think about lemmy i was
20:26thinking about him as a writer writing with ozzy that you know there's always more to each of us
20:30than just what you hear maybe in our own band you know and then for ozzy to or for lemmy to step out
20:36of motorhead and you know right with his buddy ozzy there's a different mood a different um maybe a
20:43different permission that you can write other stuff that doesn't have to just sound like motorhead you
20:48know i remember that being in megadeth it kind of always had to sound like megadeth because that's what
20:52your fans want you know what i mean you're you're supposed to you know in ace look let's go
20:56back to ace fraley you know as we've seen in these documentaries and you know ace wanted to quit
21:02kiss apparently and go solo and gene simmons i think was the one that said don't quit don't quit why do
21:08we all or the manager somebody said why don't you all four do solo albums that way it doesn't look
21:13like one guy's out going rogue you know so that idea that in at the peak of their career you know
21:19maybe ace was unsatisfied who knows maybe you know that's how we are sometimes in bands you've
21:24you want to spread your wings and do some other things but you're not really allowed to inside of
21:29your band and that's how bands are um that you know so they all did each did solo albums at the
21:35same time which is pretty bold you know um i like paul's album a lot the others i like gene's probably
21:41the next uh mostly see you in your dreams tonight with rick nielsen on guitar i thought that was kind
21:47of cool peter chris's stuff is pretty out of my just out of my wheelhouse musically you know what
21:52i mean so it wasn't so much something that i listened to but ace fraley's you know his solo
21:57album is great in fact the opening track rip it out we me and frank bella we had that in our
22:01altitudes and attitude set list yeah you know that was that was just the the go-to no that's great i was
22:07listening to it say you're right it's it's it's my favorite solo record of the four as well so
22:11yeah yeah well i'll tell you what junior we'll let you split here uh let's see friday you'll be
22:19at the uh at the machine shop and as we post this and then saturday at the token lounge down here in
22:25detroit so looking forward to seeing two nights and then don't forget cadillac on thursday
22:30when you were talking earlier i thought that maybe you were doing cadillac this weekend and i'm like i
22:36might be able to take a ride up there but yeah i don't think i'll talk about that one that's about
22:39three hours away but uh i'm jealous going up there it's gonna be fun i'll tell you all about
22:44it when i see you on friday and saturday all right you got it
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