The second night of the annual “Turkey Jam” in Hudson, Massachusetts, became an emotional celebration of rock history on Saturday, November 29, as host Nuno Bettencourt welcomed a special guest to the stage to honor a fallen legend.
Bettencourt, the guitar virtuoso behind Extreme, was joined by Stryper frontman Michael Sweet at the Hudson Portuguese Club for a high-energy set. The highlight of the evening came when the duo launched into a cover of the Kiss anthem “Shout It Out Loud,” dedicating the performance to founding Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, who passed away last month. You can see videos down below.
The “Turkey Jam” has become a beloved local tradition for the Bettencourt family. Held annually during Thanksgiving week, the event features the “Bettencourt Clan” and various friends performing rock classics in an intimate setting that emphasizes community and togetherness. While the event is known for its loose, celebratory vibe, the inclusion of Sweet for a salute to “The Spaceman” added a layer of poignancy to this year’s proceedings.
For Bettencourt, the tribute was deeply personal. following Frehley‘s death in October at the age of 74, the Extreme guitarist appeared on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” to discuss the profound impact Frehley had on his musical upbringing.
During that interview, Bettencourt coined a specific term to describe Frehley‘s unique musical gift: “simplexity.”
“Listen, Ace came from a very sort of — I call it ‘simplexity’. It’s not simple and it’s not complex. It’s simplexity,” Bettencourt told host Eddie Trunk. “You’re in a place where you play the perfect solos, much like you would hear… in ‘The Cars‘ by Elliot Easton — they’re just solos and tasty, memorable things that just happen in songs, which is a lot more difficult to do than the complex stuff. I know that sounds crazy. Everybody thinks you play technical and you play fast, and that’s harder. It isn’t. It takes a lot more courage and it takes a lot more style to kind of tone it down and play what’s right for the song, and that’s what Ace did in Kiss — memorable riffs, memorable solos.”
Bettencourt also reflected on the visual and cultural phenomenon of Kiss, noting that Frehley taught an entire generation what it meant to be a star.
“When we saw Ace and when we saw Kiss, we started learning how it was to perform, how to put on a show, how to be a bit of a guitar [hero] — what a guitar hero looks like; not just a guitar player. And he changed the game in that way,” Bettencourt explained. “Imagine being seven, eight years old, six years old, and seeing this and staring, just for hours and hours staring at the Destroyer album cover, the Love Gun album cover. It was a culture that they were giving us. It was character. What they did really almost shaped your childhood, not just musically, but culturally.”
He added that the bond formed over the band was akin to “religion” for kids growing up in that era.
Despite the sadness of Frehley‘s passing—which occurred shortly after the death of Ozzy Osbourne—Bettencourt urged fans to focus on the guitarist’s incredible legacy rather than the tragedy of the loss.
“It is sad when somebody passe[s] — Ozzy and now Ace, especially — but, man, think about it for a second. How incredible, what a miracle it’s been a run that Ace has had?” Bettencourt said. “To do what he’s done and to party like he partied and to be able to do the music and to contribute the music that he’s gonna have that’s gonna live decades and centuries after he’s gone, it’s quite a run, man. It’s a great run.”
Bettencourt is currently supporting Extreme‘s latest studio album, Six, which was released in June 2023 via earMUSIC.
Video courtesy: Steve’s Concert Corner
