Eddie Van Halen Wanted To Join Kiss
Gene Simmons says that he turned down the guitarist
Classic Rock reports that Simmons revealed on Nikki Sixx's radio show that Eddie Van Halen had asked him in 1982 whether he could be the man to replace Ace Frehley, who had just left the band.
"So I take him to lunch across the street and he actually tells me: ‘I want to join Kiss. I can’t take Roth – he’s driving me nuts. We’re not getting along. I’ve got this sound in my head that I want Van Halen to do, and Roth doesn’t want to do it, and we’re just getting to a point where he’s believing his own hype.’
"I remember feeling proud of what I said. I said: ‘Don’t do it. Stay with the band you started. There’s no role for you – you’re too big. You cast too much of a shadow to be the guitar player in Kiss.’
"And he went back and he was miserable for the next 20 or 30 years. But it would never have worked. Not even close.”