An archival interview with Ace Frehley has been released in the guitarist’s memory, and in it the former Kiss man reflects on producer Bob Ezrin’s magic touch. He even credited Ezrin with writing one of his most iconic guitar solos.
Ezrin, once described by Alice Cooper as his band’s unofficial sixth member, has long been known as a hands-on producer. He was the man who convinced the king of shock-rocker to resurrect a misfiring early track and transform it into the satirical political anthem “Elected.” He also persuaded Kiss to get in touch with their softer side on “Beth” — the band’s most successful single — despite protests from Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
But his impact on the glam rock giant’s music didn’t end there. On Destroyer, the 1976 LP on which “Beth” also featured, Ezrin had a big sway on Ace Frehley’s lead playing.
“Bob brought a cohesiveness and a sound that we didn't have before,” the guitarist told Banger TV in 2010. “Bob is classically trained, and he’d made a lot of hit records before working with us. He had a proven formula, and we had to kind of fit into his formula.”
Ezrin’s own words about his time cutting Destroyer with Tape Op give insights into the kind of ship he ran.
He pushed the band hard, saying “we spent weeks — 8, 10, 12 hours a day — drilling the material until the band was really comfortable,” he said.
“The rest becomes an emotional process,” he explains. “With most of the music made in studios, you don't really hear that depth of emotion. And the recordings where you do hear that depth of emotion are either ones where the band is comfortable with the material and can just feel the songs — play them with all the emotion that they deserve.
“With Kiss, and to a certain extent Pink Floyd, we figured out the parts first and practiced, practiced, practiced — and then we recorded them.”
But when it came to the guitar solo in “Detroit Rock City,” Ezrin played a special and unique role.
“Bob's the one that came up with the solo for 'Detroit Rock City,’ – I didn't write that,” Frehley revealed. “Bob came up with the melody.
“He had some great ideas, and we were able to execute them pretty much the way he wanted us to. It made for a good marriage, and I think it showed a different side musically of where we were prior to that point.”
The solo certainly has Ezrin's signature flair. Paul Stanley and Frehley harmonize a repeating motif that wouldn't sound out of place on his early records with Alice Cooper, like Love it to Death and Killer.
Speaking to Ultimate Classic Rock in 2021, Paul Stanley also revealed the touching backstory to the track, and one that belies the swagger of the finished product.
“Bob Ezrin at the time really wanted us to push ourselves in terms of our lyrics and perspective,” he says. “I remembered that a fan going to our show in Charlotte was hit by a car and died, and I just remember thinking about the idea of somebody traveling to see something that celebrates life, and in the process losing their life.
“So the song became about somebody traveling to a Kiss concert and not making it. It was still championing Detroit, but also memorialized somebody who didn't get there.”
Meanwhile, Gene Simmons has explained why he made Frehley recreate an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo note-for-note on another iconic Kiss hit. And there’s also the solo that Simmons says Frehley stole from the Doors.
