Before his tragic passing, KISS legend Ace Frehley wasn’t just a rock icon adored by millions — he was the man who quietly saved Chicago Cubs outfielder Ian Happ from losing himself.
It was the summer of 2022, and Happ was in one of the darkest places of his life. His swing was gone, his confidence shattered, and the pressure of playing in Chicago was eating him alive. “I’d wake up every day and wonder if I even deserved to be here,” he later admitted. “Baseball had stopped feeling like joy — it felt like drowning.”
One lonely night in his apartment, Happ stumbled across an old interview of Ace Frehley on YouTube. The rock legend spoke about redemption, failure, and the art of getting back up when everyone’s written you off.
“I made peace with my demons,” Ace had said. “Because you can’t play your best show if you’re still haunted by your worst night.”
That one sentence hit Happ like lightning. He stayed up till sunrise replaying the clip, tears running down his face. “I don’t know what happened,” he said. “It was like someone reached through the screen and pulled me back from the edge.”
Weeks later, Happ reached out — never expecting a reply. But Ace did reply. Not only that, he called him personally. “He just said, ‘Hey man, I’ve been there. You’re gonna be okay.’ I’ll never forget his voice.”
From there, the two built an unexpected bond. Ace became a mentor from afar — checking in after rough games, sending messages like, ‘Keep swinging, kid. The noise doesn’t matter.’ When the Cubs made their playoff run, Ace mailed him a signed guitar pick that read: “For when you hit your next home run — make it loud.”
So when the news broke that Ace Frehley had passed away, Ian Happ was inconsolable. Teammates said he sat in the dugout long after everyone left, staring into the field under the empty lights.
“He pulled me back from the edge,” Happ whispered. “And I never got to say goodbye.”
Now, every time Happ steps up to the plate at Wrigley Field, his walk-up song isn’t random — it’s ‘Shock Me’ by Ace Frehley. The crowd might just hear a riff. But to him, it’s something else entirely — a promise, and a goodbye that never got spoken.