ACE FREHLEY's Next Collection Of Original Material Will Be Released In 2021

Ex-KISS guitarist Ace Frehley says that he is working on a new collection of original material for a 2021 release.

Earlier today, Ace took to his Facebook to share a picture of him with his girlfriend, and he included the following message: "Just want to say Hi to all my fans, since it's been a while. Hope you're all healthy, happy, and safe... I've been working on a new studio record for next year, since all my concerts have been postponed. Here's a pic of Lara and I at a friends house yesterday, enjoying the beautiful Jersey weather. See you all soon!"

This past April, Ace told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation" that he has been using the coronavirus downtime to work on "new material for a studio record." He explained: "Because of this virus, everything has been pushed back," he said. "The release of my 'Origins Vol. 2' [the sequel to his 2016 collection of cover songs that inspired him] has been pushed back to the fall. I don't wanna be too idle, so I decided to start recording my next studio record. What the hell?"

According to Ace, "Origins Vol. 2" was "done months ago" but there is no concrete release date yet for the effort.

"We're talking about the end of the summer," he said. "We might put out a single earlier than that — during the summer. We're talking about probably not till September. But that can change. Don't quote me or anything. First it was the summer, then it was the end of the summer. Last I heard it was September. Everybody's worried about their health. Health comes first, because without your health, you've got nothing."

Frehley's latest album, "Spaceman", was released in October 2018 via eOne. KISS bassist/vocalit Gene Simmons co-wrote two tracks on the disc, "Without You I'm Nothing" and "Your Wish Is My Command", the latter of which also features Simmons's bass playing.

It was previously reported that "Origins Vol. 2" would feature guest appearances by Lita Ford (on THE ROLLING STONES' "Jumpin' Jack Flash"),CHEAP TRICK's Robin Zander (on HUMBLE PIE's "30 Days In The Hole", former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick (on Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression", ROB ZOMBIE's John 5 (on BEATLES' "I'm Down" and CREAM's "Politician").

Last year, Frehley 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."