In a recent interview with Meltdown, former KISS rocker Ace Frehley confirmed that he has begun working on ‘Origins Vol. 3,’ the follow-up to his 2016 and 2020 cover song collections.
“I’m working on ‘Origins Vol. 3′, ’cause that’s the next record I’m putting out next year in 2025,” he explained during the interview. “So, we’re starting to gear up for that and figuring out which songs [to include on the LP]. I have a long extensive list and we’re slowly whittling it down to which ones we’re gonna track.”
“‘Origins Vol. 3’ will probably be out before the end of 2025. I usually put out a record every year, year and a half, two years now. I have two more albums on my record deal with MNRK Music. And everything’s great,” the guitarist added.
In the second of the first two versions of the albums, the rocker featured cover versions of classic rock tracks. However, making a covers album wasn’t his 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 explained. “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.”
‘Origins Vol. 2′ was released in 2020. It features the covers of The Beatles’ ‘I’m Down,’ Deep Purple’s ‘Space Truckin’,’ Led Zeppelin’s ‘Good Times Bad Times,’ The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ The Kinks’ ‘Lola,’ and The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s ‘Manic Depression,’ among others. A cover of KISS’s 1975 song ‘She’ was also included as a bonus track. Guests on the album included Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander, Lita Ford, and former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.
‘Origins Vol. 1,’ released in April 2016, debuted at No. 23 on The Billboard 200, with 16,000 equivalent album units sold in its first week. The album featured collaborations with KISS frontman Paul Stanley on Free’s ‘Fire And Water,’ Slash on Thin Lizzy’s ‘Emerald,’ Lita Ford on The Troggs’ ‘Wild Thing,’ former Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 on KISS’s ‘Parasite,’ and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready on KISS’s ‘Cold Gin.