Ace Frehley Preps Solo Album

[Jahfin]

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/articl...t_id=1003707598

Gary Graff, Detroit

Guitarist Ace Frehley, who got sober after leaving Kiss again in 2002, is in the midst of recording his first solo album since 1990, with a planned April release, he tells Billboard.com.

Frehley, who is recording the as-yet-untitled album at his home studio in Westchester, N.Y., aims to have it finished by Feb. 20, when he starts a North American concert tour. He reports he is currently negotiating with "two or three record labels" to put it out but says he'll release it first through his official web site, which is currently being revamped, and perhaps also via iTunes.

"Basically, I'm trying to get back into the mindset I was in when I did my first solo record [1978's 'Ace Frehley']," Frehley says. "That record seemed to have all the elements everybody liked -- a real cool instrumental, a hit single, some real heavy rockers, a nice variety of different genres of music."

Among his favorite new tracks are "A Little Below the Angels," hard rocking "Pain in the Neck," and an instrumental called "Fractured Quantum"

which is a follow-up to his previous instrumentals "Fractured Mirror" and "Fractured Too." Another favorite is "groove song" titled "Genghis Khan,"

which he likens in tone to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." Don't expect to hear any of the new songs at his concerts, however.

"Every show's on YouTube, every song," explains Frehley, who used 12-step programs and a personal physician and therapist care to clean up after he left Kiss for a second time in 2002. "I don't want to play any of the new songs 'cause I don't want to give away anything. I want that magic and mystique of hearing something for the first time when you're supposed to, so I don't think I'm going to play any of [the new songs] until the CD's released."

Instead Frehley will play a set filled with Kiss favorites he wrote, plus material from his previous solo releases. He admits some ambivalence about doing "Cold Gin," " 'cause I don't drink anymore and I don't promote it. But it's such a kick-ass song... I think that me talking about the fact I'm clean and sober and I'm not a party animal anymore is plenty. I can still get away with playing it."