During the early 80s, KISS changed their sound to fit the mainstream on more than one occasion with albums like ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Unmasked,’ so their place in the industry also shifted.
To make things right and get back to their raunchy hard rock sound, the band decided to make a drastic change with their new album, which became the concept album that is ‘Music From “The Elder.”‘ The album was meant to take them out from the disco and pop scene however it failed to do so.
Ace Frehley, already frustrated with his place within the band, took the album’s musical direction as a sign and decided to leave. Even though Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons tried to convince Ace to stay, the guitarist was ready to move on from KISS and start his solo journey.
So, after the record was finally released and the guitarist gave it a listen, he knew he had made the right call by saying:
“That was like the icing on the cake when I quit the group. I got the record, I listened to it, and I threw it against the wall.”
‘Music From “The Elder”‘ became the last KISS album to feature Frehley for another fifteen years as he sang on just one song in the entire album called, ‘Dark Light’ and all of his other solos were cut out.
Later down the line in 2018, when asked about ‘The Elder’ during a live chat at Hollywood’s Musicians Institute, Ace was sure that fans wouldn’t respond well to the concept album as he said:
“I would have bet a million dollars that the album was going to fail. I did some great solos on it, and there are some really good songs, but it wasn’t the right record for the time.”
Keep in mind that Ace did work together with the band on the follow-up album ‘Creatures of the Night’ and he did reunite with KISS in the late ‘90s, however it didn’t last long as the guitarist didn’t want to deal with the same issues he had faced before and decided to get back to his solo career.
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