The rock ’n’ roll world’s legendary losses

The Moody Blues’ bassist John Lodge, 82, and Kiss lead guitarist Paul “Ace” Frehley, 74, died within a week of each other in October—Lodge of unreported causes (though he’d had a stroke in 2023), Frehley of complications from a head injury sustained during a fall. Their passings brought to an end any hopes that the legendary bands to which they’d belonged would ever reunite.

How legendary? Counting compilations and live albums, the Moody Blues earned eight gold and six platinum certifications and placed a dozen singles (the enduringly ethereal “Nights in White Satin” chief among them) on the Billboard Top 40. Kiss (whose name, incidentally, is not an acronym for “Knights in Satan’s Service” or anything else) earned 16 gold, seven platinum, and three double-platinum albums, dinging the singles chart nine times with songs both mellow (“Beth”) and loud (“Rock and Roll All Nite”). The group’s platinum album total reaches 11 if you include its members’ simultaneously released 1978 solo LPs, and their hit singles count reaches 10 if you count Frehley’s cover of Hello’s “New York Groove.”

At the time of their deaths, Lodge and Frehley had recently completed solo tours and were planning to tour again. Frehley’s passing felt especially poignant, occurring as it did just seven weeks before he, along with Kiss’ other founding members, was to receive Kennedy Center medals for his contribution to America’s performing arts.

One needn’t endorse the hedonism for which much of Kiss’ music was a soundtrack to support such recognition. For over 50 years, the band set continually escalating standards for rock ’n’ roll showmanship. Frehley’s “smoking” Gibson Les Paul guitar alone became iconic.

Lodge cut a simpler figure. The Moody Blues’ early predilection for concept albums and (relatively) philosophical lyrics got them labeled “progressive rock,” but by the ’80s they’d become a sleek, no-nonsense hit machine, powered in part by such Lodge compositions as “I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)” and “Sitting at the Wheel.”

Frehley left Kiss in 1982, rejoined in 1996, and left again in 2002. At the time of his death, he’d been sober for almost 20 years. But, as detailed in his autobiography No Regrets, he’d spent decades fueled by alcohol and cocaine. Lodge, on the other hand, avoided rock excess. When asked how, he credited his lifelong Christian faith.

Frehley died on 10/16 and called his final album 10,000 Volts. Lodge died on 10/10 and called his touring group the 10,000 Light Years Band. History records more exact coincidences. But, as the October-born Paul Simon (he of “in the naked light I saw 10,000 people, maybe more” fame) once sang, “When numbers get serious, you see their shape everywhere.” R.I.P.