A Radio Critic Mocked Ace Frehley and the Widow on His Board. Then Line Seven Played “Parasite”

June 1996, the night before KISS put the makeup back on at Tiger Stadium. On a late-night Detroit radio show, a celebrated critic tells the whole city that Ace Frehley can’t play anymore, while the quiet engineer on his board keeps his voice from breaking, just as she has every night. This is a work of fiction. Ace Frehley is real; Gideon Starkweather, Odessa Pruneda, Jerome Kaszuba, Reuben Pruneda and the events of this story are imagined, built around real details of his gear, his music and his era. Nothing here should be taken as a historical account. Was there a voice on late-night radio that kept you company through years nobody else knew about?