During an appearance on this past Thursday's (November 21) episode of "Trunk Nation: L.A. Invasion" on SiriusXM, Ace Frehley spoke about the status of "Origins Vol. 2", the sequel to his 2016 collection of cover songs that inspired the former KISS guitarist. He said: "I have Lita Ford singing [THE ROLLING STONES'] 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'. I have Robin Zander singing '30 Days In The Hole' by HUMBLE PIE. It came out fabulous. It was a lot of fun working with Lita, 'cause Lita's like my sister. KISS and THE RUNAWAYS used to tour together back in the '70s… I have [former KISS guitarist] Bruce Kulick doing a solo on [Jimi Hendrix's] 'Manic Depression'. I have John 5 playing on a BEATLES song, 'I'm Down'. And he did one other song, 'Politician' by CREAM… If you listen to the CREAM version, [Eric] Clapton does a double solo — he's playing two solos at the same time. So what me and John 5 did is, he did a solo, I did a solo, and then Alex Salzman, my engineer, we did a crossfade. So if you listen to the song with headphones on, you hear me going from one side to the other, and John going from one side back. So it's a really interesting mix. If you listen to it with headphones, you'll get a big kick out of it." According to Frehley, one of the most appealing aspects of making an album of covers is the fact that he doesn't have to write the songs. "So all I have to do is kind of make it my own, and maybe change the guitar solo a little, maybe change the arrangement a little, and then get some guest stars. I can knock it out in 30 days." Ace also talked about the delay in releasing "Origins Vol. 2", which was initially expected before the end of 2019. "It was finished a couple of months ago, and now we're just at the process of mastering and sequencing it," he said. "Originally, we were supposed to put it out in January, and now the record company wants to hold the release date till March. I don't know anything about selling records; I just know how to make 'em. So if they say they wanna put it out in March, I say fine. It gives me more time to work on writing new material for my next studio record." Frehley previously told The Weekender that "Origins Vol. 2" will once again feature a LED ZEPPELIN tune, "Good Times Bad Times". He also revealed that he wanted to lay down the vocals for "30 Days In The Hole" himself, but that he "just couldn't cut it, vocally, because [Steve] Marriott's just too good of a goddamn singer. I just couldn't do justice to his vocals," he explained. "But I remembered that I had bumped into Robin Zander years ago at a meet-and-greet and he had mentioned to me that he'd like to sing on one of my upcoming records, so I remembered that and gave him a call. And he killed it as well. He sounds like a young Marriott." Released in April 2016, "Origins Vol. 1" debuted at No. 23 on The Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 16,000 equivalent album units. The CD featured KISS frontman Paul Stanley joining Ace on FREE's hit "Fire And Water"; Slash trading leads on THIN LIZZY's classic "Emerald", Ford singing and playing lead on THE TROGGS staple "Wild Thing", ROB ZOMBIE guitarist John 5 playing guitar alongside Ace on the classic KISS composition "Parasite", and PEARL JAM's Mike McCready playing guitar with Ace on KISS's "Cold Gin". In a 2016 interview with The Aquarian Weekly, Frehley admitted that doing the first covers album was "the record company's idea. To be honest with you, initially, I wasn't that excited about the project, because I had just come off the high of the success of 'Space Invader', which is all originals except for a cover of 'The Joker'," he said. "It was almost, like, 'Okay, I'm going to go through the motions and get this out of the way and then jump into the studio for my next real studio album.' But I've gotta tell ya, man, once I started the process and started remembering the groups that influenced me, narrowing down which songs I thought were going to be best for the record, and then started the recording process; I really started getting more excited about it."
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