In the 1970s, KISS emerged with one of the biggest and most spectacular rock’n’roll shows on the planet. It included extravagant stage designs, a larger-than-life blinking band logo, hydraulic platforms, levitating drums, fire breathing, explosions, flames, blood spitting, fireworks, and guitars that glowed, smoked, and shot rockets. All of this was delivered by a band wearing make-up and costumes, displaying larger-than-life personas that made them into rock’n’roll superheroes. They had all become seasoned showmen, knowing exactly how to get the crowd going as they served up some of the catchiest and coolest rock anthems this side of the Beatles.
At the end of 1976, they were touring their fifth studio album Rock And Roll Over with Uriah Heep as their opening band. On 12 December, they arrived in Lakeland, Florida. They were scheduled to play the Lakeland Civic Center and it was another sell-out.
The band’s opening song for that tour was Detroit Rock City. The band had a spectacular entrance, where the band would appear on a metal landing above each side of the drums and walk down a stair construction onto the stage amid smoke and fire.
Guitarists Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley usually appeared on the stage left side, with bass player Gene Simmons taking the ramp on stage right. Stanley would usually rush down the flight of stairs confidently and quickly, leaving Ace to take his time.
Frehley is known for having poor balance at the best of times. Ahead of traversing the steps that evening, he grabbed onto the railing so he would keep steady.
The railing was made of metal, and as he found out, this time it was also unearthed. With his guitar being electric, he created an connection. Sparks flew as this potentially lethal situation led Frehley to get electrocuted. Frehley’s hand was locked to the railing for several seconds, but as luck would have it, it shook loose after a short while. At that point, Frehley fell off the platform to the ground a few meters below – a bad enough fall in itself as well.
The platform was next to Peter Criss’ drum set, and his drum tech Chuck Elias was well positioned and saw what was happening. “It happened very fast,” he later said, “right at the beginning of the show and basically right above my head. Ace was standing on top of the stairs. I saw him grabbing the rail and not being able to move, and then eventually hitting the ground. We were up there instantly, but he was stunned more than anything else, which was lucky because it could have been life-threatening.”
The show was promptly stopped as Frehley was carried back to the wardrobe by the crew. After resting for a bit, Frehley felt better. Declining further medical assistance, he told the others that the was fine to go through with the show. Everything got reset, and after a 30-minute delay, KISS restarted the show from the top.
The gremlins were still afoot, as Gene set his hair on fire during his fire-breathing stunt later in the show.
In her book Sealed With A Kiss, Lydia Criss recalled getting a phone call from her drumming husband that night. “I remember Peter calling me and telling that Ace nearly died. […] Peter told me that Ace was on the ground and unconscious for some time, but he eventually came to. I think I downplayed the real danger of the event in my mind, because it seemed odd that he was able to finish the show if it had been such a near-death experience.”
The incident did make the band and their crew think closer about the set-up they were using. Looking for safer (and more practical) options, the band invested approx. $25,000 USD in Schaffer-Vega wireless guitar systems not too long after this incident. Production manager Ken Anderson said, “I was involved with a company called Vela, who had developed some wireless mikes and I explained our problem to them. They understood the situation and had some of their engineers get to work on it. Through a lot of trial and error, we eventually got a wireless system working and the band was quite happy with it.”
The band would also eventually get rid of the staircases, getting hydraulic lifts on both sides of the drum riser to slowly lower the band down from the heavens (or at least rafters).
The experience also led Ace Frehley to write the song Shock Me, which was included on the Love Gun album in 1977. This would be the first time Ace sang the lead vocal on a KISS song.
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