Ace, now in his late 60s, has settled down. The binges and parties are memories, most of them told in his warts-and-all biography, No Regrets. At the same time, it's easy for Ace to lapse into talking about his history. When he asks me where I grew up and I tell him outside of Washington, D.C., he spins a tale of a city cop he befriended in the 1980s at a show. They became drinking buddies and the officer eventually joined the Secret Service. Ace later joined him to shoot off some rounds at a Secret Service training grounds.
Nonetheless, there is a routine to rock life that can be as repetitive as an office job. At this point, Ace has fielded every conceivable question about KISS and their possible return, every question about the DeLorean he sung about wrecking in Rock Soldiers, every question about his feelings about Paul and Gene and Peter Criss, every question about KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park. What those questions seem to miss is that the antics are part of the lore, but in many ways, secondary to why people care.
The antics have also passed. Ace has been sober almost 12 years and travels with his fiancée Rachael. Off the stage it’s uneventful life on the road, more about Netflix than hitting bars. “In the partying days I just never got my rest,” he laments. “I would wake up cranky, and I wasn't 100 percent for the audience. Now, I pretty much lay in bed all day, order room service, and save my energy for the gig.”
Ace also remains active as a songwriter and producer. In addition to an ambitious tour schedule both in the states and abroad, he continues to write. Spaceman, which will surface 40 years after his famed solo record, will feature two songs co-written by Simmons and two songs featuring famed drummer Anton Fig, a frequent Ace collaborator. Following the release of the single Bronx Boy in April, Ace has at last debuted a follow-up, Rockin' With The Boys, originally written in the ’70s during KISS’s heyday.
Ace is superstitious about the album and hopes that the exact 40-year gap from his first solo release and the fact that both albums contain nine songs bodes well. "The people that have heard it tell me it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done,” he says.