In May 1983, the guitarist Ace Frehley was driving his DeLorean sports car along the Bronx River Parkway in New York when he was asked to pull over by a police officer. In an intoxicated state, Frehley “sped off”, as the charge sheet later phrased it, reaching 90mph and colliding with four other cars. He was caught, arrested and charged with drunk and reckless driving.
“My licence was revoked, I had to pay a large fine, and I received a bunch of negative publicity,” he recalled, adding: “The other consequence was a court-ordered two-week stint in a hospital detox unit, and some mandatory AA meetings.”
