Ace Frehley Talks ABout The Time He Punched Tommy Thayer

At the end of KISS‘s original farewell tour in 2001, guitarist Ace Frehley says he punched then-tour manager Tommy Thayer, who would later succeed him in the “Spaceman” role after the band decided to continue.

“That’s really out of character for me,” Frehley said during a “live conversation” at Hollywood’s Musicians Institute on September 25. “What happened was, we had an ongoing rule on tour that there’s no women allowed in the dressing room. When we’re getting ready, we don’t want anybody… we don’t even want guys in there. We had a standing rule that no girlfriends or anything are allowed in the dressing room.

“I had a girlfriend with me — a model from Canada, and, of course, she always had to wait outside,” Frehley continued. “When Shannon [Tweed-Simmons] and Paul‘s [Stanley] wife came on tour, they just pranced into the dressing room. I let it go — I didn’t make a big deal out of it. But now, this is the last day of the tour in Australia. Everybody has left the dressing room. Paul, Gene [Simmons] and Peter [Criss]… was Peter there, or was it Eric [Singer]? It’s not important to the story. They had all split, so my girlfriend was standing outside, and I said, ‘Hey, honey, come on in. Nobody’s here.’

“Five minutes later, Tommy Thayer comes walking in and goes, ‘Ace, you know the rule — no women in the dressing room.’ I go, ‘There’s nobody here. It’s the end of the tour.’ He started being authoritative with me, so I gave him a shot. I got aggravated. I guess the Bronx boy in me came out.”

Frehley — whose new solo album, “Spaceman”, will be released via eOne on October 19 — first left KISS in 1982. He rejoined in 1996 and parted ways with the band once again in 2002 after the conclusion of their first “farewell tour.”

He says he has not been approached to take part in the band’s upcoming “One Last Kiss: End Of The Road World Tour”.