Original Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley has dismissed the band's current line-up as "half a cover band" following a bust-up over who should perform at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

Remaining founder members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley turned down the offer to perform at the ceremony in April (14) when they learned that only the original members of the band had been invited to perform, as current members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer are not being inducted.

Stanley also implied he was not confident enough in Frehley and original drummer Peter Criss' ability to perform, telling Billboard, "Honestly, I don't want to roll the dice and possibly negatively impact on what I personally have been involved in building for 40 years. I have too much invested at this point."

However, Frehley has since hit back at the suggestion, citing a performance with Criss to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Eddie Trunk's rock radio show in October (13) as proof they can still play.

He tells Revolver, "I've been reading stuff on the Internet and Paul and Gene have been insinuating that maybe Peter and myself don't have it anymore, which is a load of c**p. We proved otherwise at Eddie's party, but aside from that, it's very misleading. I think somehow they wanted to validate the current line-up. I don't have a problem with the current line-up. It is what it is - it's half a Kiss cover band."