Once Upon a KISS Miracle
Hey everyone — Orbit Deen here.
I know I’m a little late with this one, but I wanted to talk about Ace Frehley from the band KISS, who we recently lost. He was one of my favorite musicians of all time.
When I was a kid, KISS was everything. Two of their albums were among the very first records I ever bought with my own money. I can still picture walking into the record store, flipping through the bins, and picking them out—one one month, one the next. That was the beginning of my lifelong love affair with music.
I’m not even sure why KISS hit me the way it did. Maybe it was the sound, maybe the larger-than-life makeup, or maybe it was because of my babysitter, Debbie. She was a KISS fan through and through, and she used to play their albums for me. Before long, I wanted my own—and that was it. I was hooked.
Years later, there was a New Year’s Eve I’ll never forget. At that time, I was walking on crutches and sometimes used a walker, though that night I had my wheelchair with me. There was a guy doing face painting at the event, and I told him I wanted to be Ace Frehley. He painted my face perfectly—the silver, the lightning bolts, the whole thing.
As midnight approached, the music kicked up and the energy in the room started to rise. I decided to stand up, just for a moment, to feel the rhythm of the celebration. The people around me—strangers who didn’t know I could walk a bit—gasped. They thought they were witnessing a KISS-inspired rock-and-roll miracle.
That night stuck with me. Music can make people believe in magic, even for a moment.
Those are my KISS memories.
And I’ll always be grateful for them.
