Bruce Kulick, who played on five albums and numerous shows with KISS in the past, recently reflected on his era.

During a recent interview with Loaded Radio, he spoke about the band’s decision to move forward with Tommy Thayer instead of him following Ace Frehley’s second departure. The guitarist revealed: “There were one or two things that KISS did — not a concert, even though once Ace was almost not gonna make it and they made Tommy get the outfit on. [He had a] similar build — tall and thin — and Ace made it to the show. But there were a couple of other things they needed to do.”

“I believe ‘That ’70s Show’—when they were taping, Ace didn’t show up. ’Tommy, get the outfit on.’ And then I think there was a private gig, too, that no one would really know about — one of those things where you go to an island and play for some rich people. And Ace wouldn’t go.”

Kulick, who was part of KISS’s no-makeup era, never wore the signature stage makeup or adopted an onstage persona. He believes bringing in Thayer to replace Frehley after his final departure in 2002 was a better idea.

“If they ever had a thought of me, I think they would have known that that probably would have been a lot harder,” the guitarist noted.

“Tommy was younger, there already, if you know what I mean, working with them. And Tommy, not everybody knows that he was in a tribute band for fun at times called Cold Gin as Ace Frehley.”

Kulick expressed his reluctance to rejoin KISS while adopting Frehley’s Spaceman persona, as he felt it would overshadow his contributions to the band by requiring him to mimic the original guitarist’s style more closely. However, he did feel disappointed that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley did not reach out to him to return for the band’s farewell tour last year.

Speaking to VRP Rocks last October, Kulick admitted, “I was disappointed that I wasn’t involved, but I didn’t expect to be involved. I never got the vibe. I didn’t know about the avatars, okay? That was a very last minute where I only heard a little peep about something unusual happening on the last night.”

“I really wish they would have mentioned all the other players, all the other very important influential people in their career but it was their show, their choice. Not mine,” he continued.

“I know the fans were as well. I got so much feedback that they didn’t understand that but it was truly the last show and they are concentrating in a very big way in this next era of KISS which would be this avatar.”

KISS is preparing to continue performing through digital avatars as part of a $200 million project developed in collaboration with Pophouse and Industrial Light & Magic. Stanley believes that these virtual shows will turn out to be even better than the ABBA concerts in London.