Exactly WHO is paying for Ace Frehley’s band?

[ParaDime77]

While I’m certain Ace’s guarantee is sizeable for his market, there is no way the band he has is working for cheap giving the lifeless goof they are supporting. Plus, there’s no way the band is playing anything bigger than a theater. Who is the money man behind keeping Ace out on the road?

The guy looks like he is made out of Wax.
https://youtu.be/OTOg9oDFMX0?si=Yuc0Eo8jsZI74Eq6

[PBFSUCKS]

While I’m certain Ace’s guarantee is sizeable for his market, there is no way the band he has is working for cheap giving the lifeless goof they are supporting. Plus, there’s no way the band is playing anything bigger than a theater. Who is the money man behind keeping Ace out on the road?

The guy looks like he is made out of Wax.
https://youtu.be/OTOg9oDFMX0?si=Yuc0Eo8jsZI74Eq6

They probably don’t make as much as you are thinking. Also, they used to have one more guy in the band. what are their options? Maybe rejoin Gene again.

[Stinky McFister]

E One putting him out on the road?

[Jason Jennifer Leigh]

Gene is suppose to use a new band … we’ll once again get to hear him at every show say “We haven’t practiced this, we have no idea what we’re playing”.

[Jason Jennifer Leigh]

10,000 Volts is a lot better than the first time.

[Fletch]

Different drummer than the guy they had (Matt) too.

[keyofgee]

it's some of the guys in rock n roll residency. Probably Nashville's biggest tribute cover band.

[mrspeedgene]

What's the cost? A grand or 2 at most per show? In on of the Gebert books he had a contract for the Comet and if I remember right the guarentee for ACE then was 20 grand with ACE taking 10 and all merch. The band splitting the rest. It's not "KISS" money but if it's all you got? These guys are working musicians. A 10 or 20 date run could make their year. I'd go play a 20 date tour for a grand a night in my pocket.

[mrspeedgene]

.

[Stinky McFister]

What's the cost? A grand or 2 at most per show? In on of the Gebert books he had a contract for the Comet and if I remember right the guarentee for ACE then was 20 grand with ACE taking 10 and all merch. The band splitting the rest. It's not "KISS" money but if it's all you got? These guys are working musicians. A 10 or 20 date run could make their year. I'd go play a 20 date tour for a grand a night in my pocket.

Any overhead involved: roadies, travel vouchers hotels and meals?

[mrspeedgene]

What's the cost? A grand or 2 at most per show? In on of the Gebert books he had a contract for the Comet and if I remember right the guarentee for ACE then was 20 grand with ACE taking 10 and all merch. The band splitting the rest. It's not "KISS" money but if it's all you got? These guys are working musicians. A 10 or 20 date run could make their year. I'd go play a 20 date tour for a grand a night in my pocket.

Any overhead involved: roadies, travel vouchers hotels and meals?

Booker pays hotels & has some food, I would be suprised if they had more than ONE crew member. Most guys at their level I have seen load in are carrying their amps and drums only. The venue supplies backline and local club rats for set up. many times lately have seen the acts themselves setting up stage gear.

[maninblack]

Playing gigs like this aged 72. Is he in financial dire straits?

[BernieTaupson]

Owes the IRS “a couple hundred grand”, he let it slip recently. Guy is a fucking moron.

[maninblack]

I knew he owes that, but hasnt he got any equity or money to pay it?

[Stinky McFister]

It's gotta hurt. Knowing all the wealth G and P have. He must've realized the the poor decisions he's made throughout his life at this point....
Or then again, as others have mentioned he could just be a moron..

[NeonKnite]

When he fired Richie Scarlet and the rest of his band and hired Gene's backing band, he mentioned in an interview after raving about their playing that "these guys are a lot cheaper than my last band too."

[FreddyFender]

A 10 or 20 date run could make their year. I'd go play a 20 date tour for a grand a night in my pocket.

They ain't making a thousand a night.

[keyofgee]

A 10 or 20 date run could make their year. I'd go play a 20 date tour for a grand a night in my pocket.

They ain't making a thousand a night.

prolly making scale.

[mrspeedgene]

A 10 or 20 date run could make their year. I'd go play a 20 date tour for a grand a night in my pocket.

They ain't making a thousand a night.

Maybe not. The CEO could probably make a more realistic assessment than I could these days as he plays a lot of this style of gig, here there and everywhere with different bands and band members. Honestly, it can all depend on the day of the week, are we playing a midway gig between "big city" gigs, Are we taking anything besides a guitar?

[MetalSludgeCEO]

Nothing in this thread is remotely a reality... most comments and guesses are way off.... in my opinion.

I won't post, what I know, as it's not anyone else's business what the hired guys make, or what Ace's guarantee is...

But one thing I will tell you, is it's a LOT more than what you might think.

All of these bands on tour, are not going out and running through airports every weekend, only to come home "light" in the pocket.

I have seen the comments on here made about my band, and other low-end D-list bands, and for what it's worth, the money is UP in recent years.

I don't play as often as the others, but I know any of these bands on the Casino, County Fair, Theater circuits, are pulling nice coin.

I won't mention names... but most do the 2-3 date weekends, playing Fri. & Sat. in the same general region, and sometimes they add a Thursday in front or a Sunday.

Let's just say, $15-20k is not out of the realm of reality, and over 3 dates, you're looking at roughly $50,000.00! Some of these guys/bands, are pulling $25-30 or more per nite.

That suddenly makes the weekend go up to the $60-75k mark, add on M&G money, and merch... and they could be pushing 6 figures for the weekend!

Especially when it's a "Festival" type event, those monies go up even more... and the County Fair or Casinos, have NO problem paying good money either.

It's NOT a single promoter, who can lose his ass if the show bombs... that's not what these bands are doing...

The County Fair has a built in crowd, and it's County or State funded (when a State Fair)... sponsorship, and they already have a 5-7 or 10 day week blocked out.

The advertisements bring entire families, rides, games, food all day, and a concert each nite... everything from Loverboy, to Pat Benetar to REO Speedwagon or Night Ranger.

The fair does not sell tickets to the show (I guess maybe some it does, but many are part of the event, and it's FREE later that night) and if they have 10-15,000 people walking around all day, and 2,000-3,000+ stay for Night Ranger, or REO Speedwagon, well now you have a huge crowd, more beer sales, and the fair already sucked $50-100 or $200+ out of every person in attendance all day long, so throwing them some music, and the men drink like pigs til 1:am, now they are up to $250-300 per head and the band plays on.

Do that math... 1,000-2,000 40-60 year olds, all day long, eating, drinking, and more... now do the same with 5-10,000 all day... and paying the bands to make the crowd stay late... is a win-win... give them FREE music, and during 2-3 sets, they will buy beer and nachos until they are falling down!

Same with the Casino... if they get 2,000 people to come see Vince Neil and Pearcy, or Warrant with Lita Ford, guess what they all did from 2-5pm after check in at the Casino? Gambled, ate and drank.

Then they watch the show, from 7-pm til 11-pm, and guess what they do from 11;pm til 2-am at close? More gambling, more eating and more drinking.

Casinos can wash $30-40k with NO problem, when you have 1,500-2,000 more people coming down, in addition to the regular gambling addicts.

Quick math says, 1,000 people, at a casino, and with that... let's LOW BALL it, and say every person spends $100.00 for the nite. That is $100,000.00.

Now put together a weekend of similar shows... and it's Slaughter/Great White on Fri nite, and Vince/Pearcy on Saturday nite... now the married couple, gets a room for 2 nights, with a hot tub, hangs around all day, eats, drinks, lays by the pool (orders some more drinks) then dinner at 5-6pm and go get your Black concert shirt on by 7pm.

Most bands fly in and out, band only, maybe 1-2 crew guys, a single tech/roadie guy handles guitars/etc.. and a Road manager (like Jason Green) who handles all logistics, etc... the general backline is supplied at 9/10 of these gigs... pro level drum kit, amp line, etc... ALL requested via the band's contract and Rider.

Even the low end band, like TUFF or BulletBoys or EZN, when we get added to these bigger events, even going on 1st, 2nd or 3rd, the money is up from a club gig.

Think about this... KISS is over... right? They have retired... Peter hasn't done anything in 15-20 years... and oddly, Ace has his best new effort in a quarter century.

Timing has worked out for him big time, that song is great, and he is the ONLY guy from classic KISS who is still touring or available... so the KISS ARMY will have to get their fix, and I bet this summer and this year in general will see a significant and much larger imprint made by Ace Frehley... he's already getting more press in the last month or two than in any recent year.

It's like when Motley retired, and the only way to get your Crue fix, was to go see Vince solo, same applies here with Ace!

$tEvil

[MetalSludgeCEO]

While I’m certain Ace’s guarantee is sizeable for his market, there is no way the band he has is working for cheap giving the lifeless goof they are supporting. Plus, there’s no way the band is playing anything bigger than a theater. Who is the money man behind keeping Ace out on the road?

The guy looks like he is made out of Wax.
https://youtu.be/OTOg9oDFMX0?si=Yuc0Eo8jsZI74Eq6

"""""""""""""""""Who is the money man behind keeping Ace out on the road?""""""""""""""""""

To answer this directly...

Not sure what you mean by, "Keeping Ace out on the road?"

I don't follow him, but... most of these bands, are doing select fly dates... fly in to a region, and play 2-3 shows and back home everyone goes.

Usually, but not always, the idea is, example is to Fly into Chicago, and get in a rental Van and go play Rockford, Madison and Milwaukee, then back to O'Hare and fly home.

The next weekend, fly into Dallas, and play Ft. Worth, Austin and say Oklahoma City, then fly home.

Most of the time the agent puts together a weekend, that is in the same general region, with short drives (1-3 hours in between) but of course there are times when they fly each day.

We did this in Australia, and it was and is, very taxing... we played Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and then Sydney, flying each day. And the Sydney show was on Saturday, and everyone flew home on Sunday! It was pretty brutal if I am being honest... and there is little time for error, or anyone getting out of line... one F#ck up can offset the whole thing.

Also... when you ask that... "Who is the man"... are you insinuating there is an investor, or someone sinking money into him? My guess is, there is not... no way.

That kind of thing is for a young band, an up start... I myself put some money into VoJ when I took them on, but also knew I could get it to a certain point, and work it til it was in the green... and it did that and then-some!

No band at this stage in their career has anything of the sort... all of these artists are self-contained, most don't even have managers, and handle all in house.

Warrant is run by Eric and Jerry, with select guys doing select things for the band. Skid Row is Snake and Rachel, Slaughter is Dana and Mark, and Great White is likely Lardie and Kendall... and so on.

All or most have an official agent, that books their shows, but this person just books the show... how everything is handled, to get there (flights, rental cars, hotels), that is all on the band.

And... often, the promoter, who books the show, includes not only their gear for the night, but Hotel rooms, dinner, catering and perhaps Car service for pick up at airport, or to and from shows, is also included. Especially if only in town for that night, and they're flying the next day, then the band will most likely NOT get a rental vehicle.

But, if they are going from gig 1, to gig 2, to gig 3, by car or van, then they rent it and return it when they fly out.

Quick example... when TUFF did Rocktember in Minnesota, and then Wisconsin Dells (with Queensryche), we ALL flew into Minneapolis, and varying times, (yes ALL flights booked and scheduled by us... Me from LA, T from PHX, and Billy/Chase from CLE) then we got in a large SUV, and drove the hour plus north to that town where Rocktember was.

The next morning, we all had breakfast, got in the SUV, and drove 3-4 hours to Wisconsin... did the show, then Sunday morning, drove back to Minn (3 hours) returned the car, and everyone went to their respective gates and flew home.

There are a lot of details to sort and organize, and many of these bands deal with similar, as not all members live in the same city or state, or part of the country.

Warrant is one of them... Crane is in the Valley by me, Eric in Texas, I think someone is in Orange County (maybe Joey?), and maybe even a Vegas (Jerry when he plays) or other. All coming in from different areas... and this takes team work... everyone has to bend, stick and move to be on the same page.

$tEvil

[Jason Jennifer Leigh]

I remember Ace saying his current band are cheap.

[itdoesntmatter]

A 10 or 20 date run could make their year. I'd go play a 20 date tour for a grand a night in my pocket.

They ain't making a thousand a night.

$766

[mrspeedgene]

And... often, the promoter, who books the show, includes not only their gear for the night, but Hotel rooms, dinner, catering and perhaps Car service for pick up at airport, or to and from shows, is also included. Especially if only in town for that night, and they're flying the next day, then the band will most likely NOT get a rental vehicle.



$tEvil

Thanks for all that. Good, intersting, read. People are looking at an ACE tour like he's hauling PA and a crew. As well as flying all over the place. It's been a long time since I played this style of gig you are talking about but unless you're a BIG DOLLAR endeavor modern "touring" is not done like most people envision.

The type of thing you, ACE and other acts of this type do is quite different from the "movies".

[TorienRoxxGang]

Ryan Cook used to play guitar, but now is the bassist. Ace downsized when Shouse left to tour with Accept as their bassist. Jeremy is on guitar and Coogie on drums. Coogie usually prefers Ace over Stephen Pearcy so Ace must pay better. All the guys sell picks and sticks which adds onto their take each night. I’m sure they bring some of their solo cds also. Ace does at the most 14 songs and time flies quick.

[schlonginski]

It's all good until Ace screws it up again. It doesn't seem like he is really sober like he says he is.

[BernieTaupson]

He doesn’t drink but he’s off his head on pills. In his adled brain that’s being sober.

Sort of when EVH told everyone he was sober in 95 and couldn’t stop going back to the bottle so he switched to heroin or meth because he thought that would let him get off the booze.

[Fletch]

Ryan Cook used to play guitar, but now is the bassist. Ace downsized when Shouse left to tour with Accept as their bassist. Jeremy is on guitar and Coogie on drums. Coogie usually prefers Ace over Stephen Pearcy so Ace must pay better. All the guys sell picks and sticks which adds onto their take each night. I’m sure they bring some of their solo cds also. Ace does at the most 14 songs and time flies quick.

I think the band is also selling some Rock City Machine Co. stuff at the merch table too.

[MetalSludgeCEO]

Here is the something else that people should understand...

When you are a "hired" gun, in one of these projects, it's a safe bet, that 95% of the time, you are Paid per gig, or Per weekend or Per tour.

If L.A. Guns gets a record deal, it's Phil & Tracii's deal, it's their budget, it's their money, and how they choose to spend it, to record, is their call.

Same applies if they get a merch deal or an appearance fee, whether a Festival. a Cruise or a run of Live Nation dates with Tom Keifer Band.

Their agent, their manager and those 2, decide what to spend, where and how much... and each guy, is often a different scenario... my guess is AVJ is not getting what Coogan gets, or Johnny and that's fair to generalize, based on their contributions and resume... no dis, just facts... there is def a pecking order in all of these camps.

Same applies for Alice Cooper Band, Night Ranger, Bach solo, Vince Neil solo, DLR when he goes out or Pearcy.

It's a hard stretch to say ANY of those guys are on a salary... I'd bet my nuts, 99.99% only collect when there is a gig, other than that... many of these guys have several irons in the fire... same applies to Ace's band... those guys play in other projects, do recordings, cover/tribute bands and some original stuff too.

The exceptions would be... John 5 in Motley Crue... it's a safe bet he's on an annual salary, similarly to what Bruce, Tommy or Eric were in KISS.

And of course, Guns N' Roses guys and girl, it's safe to say their all on a salary of sorts... and if they wanna do other stuff, like Dizzy with HNB, he is running it by management, and the like... to ensure, it's not going to conflict with anything GNR has on their calendar, etc...

There is simply not enough money coming in to sustain, 3-4 or 5 grown men, in their 40's, 50's or older, with families, kids, grand-kids, and the rest... playing MORC, M3 and 30 dates in the summer.

This is also why you see some of these known guys, playing in multiple projects, and it takes a bit of juggling... Crane is a good example, doing a lot of Warrant dates, but also doing Black Star Riders, and he's a guy who has been on speed-dial, to fill in a week or two, with Bach, these All-Star Jams, NAAM, Awards Shows, etc...

Jeremy and a few of the Ace guys the same... they've played with Gene, then Ace, they have that Residency thing in Nashville, and other stuff...

Many of these guys are also married, have kids, a mortgage, and more... so... music as a whole is their life, and all of the side-projects, various tours, and studio gigs, all just goes into the pot to make a living.

Same applies in my world.... some Tuff... some solo gigs... some Sludge... some Shameless... then add mail-order, the label and I am 1 happy camper.

$tEvil