Kiss guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley’s new memoir, Face the Music: A Life Exposed, is a tell-all tome that dishes some unflattering mud on his Kiss bandmates. Stanley has been promoting the book tirelessly, including in a well-received Reddit AMA where he was asked questions like:

Q: Did you ever want to punch Gene Simmons in the face?
A: I’m really not a violent guy. But like all great relationships, we have had some moments where I was very angry or frustrated.

Q: Will we ever see a sequel to Detroit Rock City?
A: I have no idea.
Q: How about a sequel to Phantom of the Park?
A: [No response.]

But it was Stanley’s accusations within his book that former bandmates Ace Frehely (guitar) and Peter Criss (drums) were anti-Semites that has raised some eyebrows. Paul Stanley, born Stanley Bert Eisen, and Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz, are both Jewish.

According to the New York Post, Stanley says Ace Frehley owned a collection of Nazi memorabilia. But he also says Frehley and Criss saw Stanley and Simmons as “money-grubbing Jews.”

“Ace and particularly Peter felt powerless and impotent when faced with the tireless focus, drive and ambition of me and Gene,” Stanley writes. “As a result, the two of them tried to sabotage the band — which, as they saw it, was unfairly manipulated by [us] money-grubbing Jews.”

When asked about Stanley’s statements, Ace Frehley laughed them off as just selling books.

“We say good things about each other and we say bad things about each other [in our memoirs], but it is what it is,” he shrugged. “It’s rock and roll. I mean, if all we did was pat each other on the back for every book, people would say, ‘That’s a boring book.’ They want to hear the dirt. I’ve got plenty of dirt.”

Kiss is, at long last, set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Members of the band don’t seem much to care about that either, other than the fact that it will sell albums. Ace says he expects the members to be civil with each other for the ceremonies.

“Believe it or not, every time the four of us get together, even though it’s been a long span of time, we’re still brothers in rock and roll,” explained Frehley. “At least that’s the way I feel. If it’s not going to be that way, I’d be surprised.”

Stanley had some choice words in his AMA about the Rock Hall.

“The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is finally being exposed for what it is. A private club of a few people misrepresenting themselves as the public.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons