KISS guitarist Ace Frehley recently wrapped up a run of shows with his solo project, with the tour coming to a close in Seattle. Frehley used full advantage of his proximity to another famed rock and roller, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, welcoming the guitarist on stage for Kiss’ “Cold Gin” at the Neptune Theatre. 

The moment was surely a benchmark for McCready, who (like KISS) will go into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year, as he wrote about his KISS obsession for Rolling Stone in 2014. 

“There’s a KISS through-line to a lot of the music that came out of Seattle,” McCready says just below a photo of him dressed as Peter Criss for Halloween as a kid. “Ace was their firecracker, their dynamite. He’s what took them overthe top with the feel he put into his leads. I really gravitated towards his vibrato.” 

McCready notes that his lead for Pearl Jam’s anthem “Alive” is drawn from the band’s “She.” He sums up, “They were the Beatles to me. They are the reason I started playing music.” 

Watch below.