Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley almost didn’t get the credits for the album he wrote with Steve Brown.
In a recent chat with The Metal Voice, the guitarist brushed off rumors that ‘10,000 Volts’ was mostly written only by Brown. He recalled the conversation between an interviewer and Brown. He said:
“Me and Steve (Brown) work well together. I got aggravated the other day because I heard that people were saying I didn’t write any of the songs on the record and it was all Steve Brown. And then Steve was doing (The Podcast) ‘Three Sides of the Coin’ and he kind of confirmed that (by answering a question on the podcast) ‘How much did Ace bring to the table?’ And he (Steve Brown) goes ‘Well, I pretty much brought about 97%.’”
At least it didn’t end up here. Brown later called the former Kiss rocker and apologized. The rocker explained what kind of a person Brown was:
“I was really shocked when he said that because that’s not the case and I called him up and he apologized to me. He’s a wonderful guy. I love him. You know he was so excited about the record and they were asking some questions that weren’t rehearsed. He had no idea, so you know everybody sometimes toots their own horn a little more than they should sometimes without thinking.”
The two ended up sharing the credits 50/50.
Brown Played Only ‘A Couple Of Solos’
Frehley set the record straight about who wrote what in the album a week ago. Although he is aware of Brown’s abilities, he noted the age difference between them. He said:
“He’s only 50 or 51. I’m 72. So a couple of times he laid down a solo, but he played it like me, in my style, because he studied my style his whole life. As far as I’m concerned, it really doesn’t matter who plays what, you know … as long as the cut sounds great. A couple of them, I thought Steve laid down so well that I said, ‘Let’s just keep it.’ But that’s as far as that goes. I played the majority the guitar solos on the record, absolutely.”
Frehley also thanked Brown for contributing to back vocals:
“Once I realized his talent and his abilities as a writer and an engineer, and as a guitarist, songwriter and singer — you know, he did most of the background vocals on the record, if not all of them. Of course we doubled our vocals, but everybody does that. I mean, Kiss was doing that in the ’70s. That’s a process that’s been going on in rock ‘n’ roll for 40, 50 years.”
You can watch the interview below.