Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

San Diego singer alleges Gene Simmons groping, sparks new war with Ace Frehley

Rachael Gordon was telling the Reader about music biz sexism long before she met Gene Simmons
Rachael Gordon was telling the Reader about music biz sexism long before she met Gene Simmons

According to a Facebook post by former Kiss guitarist and current San Diegan Ace Frehley, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons “groped my wife and propositioned her in Los Angeles at the Capitol Records building behind my back.” Frehley's wife is local singer Rachael Gordon.

Frehley originally left Kiss in 1982, returning in 1996 for a costumed reunion tour. He left again in 2002, though he has since recorded with both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and performed with them in October 2018 on a Kiss Kruise.

However, recent public statements made by Simmons about Frehley's alleged past history with Kiss sparked the lengthy Facebook rebuttal from Frehley. “The icing on the cake was when you groped my wife and propositioned her in Los Angeles at the Capitol Records building behind my back, when I was trying to help you out at one of your ‘Vault Experiences’ which I only found out about several weeks later…she was planning on pursuing a suit against you, but I told her to call it off.”

Alleged Gordon groper Simmons at the taping for Kiss Alive III

Before Gordon met and married Frehley, she was a lifelong local singer who experienced a moderate hit record in Germany and coverage in the German Rolling Stone mag. “I started doing shows with a group called the Sleazybeats,” she once told the Reader. “We played covers and originals, and we did a birthday song to Phil Spector on a tribute album.” That track, "Phil Spector's Birthday," was co-written by Gordon's local Sleazybeats bandmate Sandra Castillo and produced by San Diegan Gar Wood (Hot Snakes, Night Marchers).

Sponsored
Sponsored

“I’m known as a pop singer, and my first records were very bubblegum, with a ’60s and late-’70s sound. I guess I could describe those as a mixture of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy and Blondie, though I kind of went into more of a country pop thing, much like Buckingham Nicks or early Linda Ronstadt...seventies music had a big impact on me, especially stuff like Heart, which can go from acoustic to Zeppelin in no time. The Runaways were a great one, and Joan Jett’s solo stuff. AJ Croce is my brother-in-law, so definitely him, and my dad was a musician too. He played with a few San Diego bands in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Her dad's local groups included O.D. Corral and the David Bradley Band. The sister she mentions being married to AJ Croce, Marlo Gordon Croce, passed away in July 2018 of a rare and sudden heart virus.

During Rachael Gordon's music career, she released a vinyl EP on the Spanish Snap! Label and appeared on a few compilation albums before Sounds of Subterrania released her debut album, produced by San Diego's Richard "Blitz" Livoni of Comanche Moon, who has also written music for her. Her other songwriters have included the aforementioned AJ Croce, as well as Frank Barajas of JuJu Eyeball, and as a singer she has recorded tracks with classic-rock survivors Foreigner. As a solo act, she's been backed by a rotating roster of notable locals, including Bart Mendoza (the Shambles), Hector Penalosa (the Zeros), Joel Kmak (the Beat Farmers), Mike Kamoo (Static Halo), Ron Silva (the Hitmakers), and Ray Brandes (the Tell-Tale Hearts), who has also worked with Frehley.

Despite the all-star accompaniment, Gordon told the Reader that gender can still be a problem with promoters. “It’s very hard to get someone to stop looking at your ass and listen to what you’re saying…believe it or not, it’s still considered pretty wild to be a girl fronting a rock band. Occasionally you’ll see a girl fronting a punk band, but that doesn’t count.”

Gordon's sophomore album was released in Japan, collecting all of her pre-debut album recordings along with three new tracks. Many of her releases feature photos shot by San Diegan Sandra Castillo. Other than collaborating with Frehley, she's maintained a low musical profile since the turn of the 20th century, although she did appear at San Diego Poptopia in 2000 with Jason Falkner, Beachwood Sparks, and others. For awhile, she was doing duo shows around town with partners like Bart Mendoza and Ron Silva, as well as occasional full band performances. "It depends on who's in my backing band. I've played Java Joe's and the Casbah and the Adams Avenue Street Fair. I also did the KUSI morning show, and a bunch of shows in LA."

Asked about her worst gig, she said “It wasn’t great being called a ‘Nancy Sinatra wannabe’ in a San Diego Union-Tribune review — I think the worst was when I was forced to sing the Mary Tyler Moore theme at a coffeehouse.”

In 2013, it was reported that Gordon was living in north San Diego with rock's most famous space Ace, for whom she wrote lyrics for his 2014 solo album Space Invader, despite having once declared in a Reader interview that “I hate science fiction.”

She also said, when asked to reveal something about herself that few would know or guess, that “I like running out into the ocean and swimming at night alone — in my birthday suit or whatever I’m wearing — just to get my head together, because it feels good. Then I’ll get out and lay in the sand and drink whiskey. It makes me feel like there isn’t anything I can’t do.”

In recent weeks, Frehley has told reporters that what he'd like to do is perform with Kiss on their supposed final tour. That now appears unlikely.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

More on San Diego inventions – Spike Bite and disappearing ink

The scandal of county supervisors at the library
Next Article

Frank Zane has already won

But don’t call former Mr. Universe retired
Rachael Gordon was telling the Reader about music biz sexism long before she met Gene Simmons
Rachael Gordon was telling the Reader about music biz sexism long before she met Gene Simmons

According to a Facebook post by former Kiss guitarist and current San Diegan Ace Frehley, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons “groped my wife and propositioned her in Los Angeles at the Capitol Records building behind my back.” Frehley's wife is local singer Rachael Gordon.

Frehley originally left Kiss in 1982, returning in 1996 for a costumed reunion tour. He left again in 2002, though he has since recorded with both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and performed with them in October 2018 on a Kiss Kruise.

However, recent public statements made by Simmons about Frehley's alleged past history with Kiss sparked the lengthy Facebook rebuttal from Frehley. “The icing on the cake was when you groped my wife and propositioned her in Los Angeles at the Capitol Records building behind my back, when I was trying to help you out at one of your ‘Vault Experiences’ which I only found out about several weeks later…she was planning on pursuing a suit against you, but I told her to call it off.”

Alleged Gordon groper Simmons at the taping for Kiss Alive III

Before Gordon met and married Frehley, she was a lifelong local singer who experienced a moderate hit record in Germany and coverage in the German Rolling Stone mag. “I started doing shows with a group called the Sleazybeats,” she once told the Reader. “We played covers and originals, and we did a birthday song to Phil Spector on a tribute album.” That track, "Phil Spector's Birthday," was co-written by Gordon's local Sleazybeats bandmate Sandra Castillo and produced by San Diegan Gar Wood (Hot Snakes, Night Marchers).

Sponsored
Sponsored

“I’m known as a pop singer, and my first records were very bubblegum, with a ’60s and late-’70s sound. I guess I could describe those as a mixture of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy and Blondie, though I kind of went into more of a country pop thing, much like Buckingham Nicks or early Linda Ronstadt...seventies music had a big impact on me, especially stuff like Heart, which can go from acoustic to Zeppelin in no time. The Runaways were a great one, and Joan Jett’s solo stuff. AJ Croce is my brother-in-law, so definitely him, and my dad was a musician too. He played with a few San Diego bands in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Her dad's local groups included O.D. Corral and the David Bradley Band. The sister she mentions being married to AJ Croce, Marlo Gordon Croce, passed away in July 2018 of a rare and sudden heart virus.

During Rachael Gordon's music career, she released a vinyl EP on the Spanish Snap! Label and appeared on a few compilation albums before Sounds of Subterrania released her debut album, produced by San Diego's Richard "Blitz" Livoni of Comanche Moon, who has also written music for her. Her other songwriters have included the aforementioned AJ Croce, as well as Frank Barajas of JuJu Eyeball, and as a singer she has recorded tracks with classic-rock survivors Foreigner. As a solo act, she's been backed by a rotating roster of notable locals, including Bart Mendoza (the Shambles), Hector Penalosa (the Zeros), Joel Kmak (the Beat Farmers), Mike Kamoo (Static Halo), Ron Silva (the Hitmakers), and Ray Brandes (the Tell-Tale Hearts), who has also worked with Frehley.

Despite the all-star accompaniment, Gordon told the Reader that gender can still be a problem with promoters. “It’s very hard to get someone to stop looking at your ass and listen to what you’re saying…believe it or not, it’s still considered pretty wild to be a girl fronting a rock band. Occasionally you’ll see a girl fronting a punk band, but that doesn’t count.”

Gordon's sophomore album was released in Japan, collecting all of her pre-debut album recordings along with three new tracks. Many of her releases feature photos shot by San Diegan Sandra Castillo. Other than collaborating with Frehley, she's maintained a low musical profile since the turn of the 20th century, although she did appear at San Diego Poptopia in 2000 with Jason Falkner, Beachwood Sparks, and others. For awhile, she was doing duo shows around town with partners like Bart Mendoza and Ron Silva, as well as occasional full band performances. "It depends on who's in my backing band. I've played Java Joe's and the Casbah and the Adams Avenue Street Fair. I also did the KUSI morning show, and a bunch of shows in LA."

Asked about her worst gig, she said “It wasn’t great being called a ‘Nancy Sinatra wannabe’ in a San Diego Union-Tribune review — I think the worst was when I was forced to sing the Mary Tyler Moore theme at a coffeehouse.”

In 2013, it was reported that Gordon was living in north San Diego with rock's most famous space Ace, for whom she wrote lyrics for his 2014 solo album Space Invader, despite having once declared in a Reader interview that “I hate science fiction.”

She also said, when asked to reveal something about herself that few would know or guess, that “I like running out into the ocean and swimming at night alone — in my birthday suit or whatever I’m wearing — just to get my head together, because it feels good. Then I’ll get out and lay in the sand and drink whiskey. It makes me feel like there isn’t anything I can’t do.”

In recent weeks, Frehley has told reporters that what he'd like to do is perform with Kiss on their supposed final tour. That now appears unlikely.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

California Psychics Reviews 2024: Is It a Legit Platform for Online Readings?

Next Article

San Diego pickleball fans growing, but who pays for their courts?

Todd Gloria seen as pro-tennis
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader