John Ostronomy, co-host of “Talking Metal” on Fuse and co-author of Ace Frehley‘s “No Regrets” and Jean Beauvoir‘s “Bet My Soul On Rock ‘N’ Roll: Diary Of A Black Punk Icon”, has released “Ostronomy ‘On The Road’ Tour Video Diary (Ace Frehley Tour 2025)”, a 30-minute compilation episode of his new web series “On The Road”, on his Ostronomy TV YouTube channel.
The “Ostronomy ‘On The Road’ Tour Video Diary (Ace Frehley Tour 2025)” takes viewers behind the scenes with John Ostronomy (management) while he is on tour with KISS legend and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Ace Frehley. The episode mixes interview segments with Ace Frehley band and crew members including guitarist Jeremy Asbrock, bassist Ryan Spencer Cook and drummer Scot Coogan, with live tour footage and appearances by special musical guests including Lips (ANVIL),Neal Shelton (AEROMYTH),and Ron Keel (KEEL, STEELER, THE RON KEEL BAND),who performs the KISS classic “Deuce” with the Ace Frehley band during a soundcheck. It also highlights a behind the scenes look at the tour’s travel and hospitality in a light-hearted manner while focusing on Ostronomy‘s obsession with food and cooking, all leading up to his upcoming television project “Cooking Metal”.
The episode is available to watch for free below.
Ace‘s current backing band consists of Ryan Spencer on bass, Jeremy Asbrock on guitar and Scot Coogan on drums.
During an appearance on the February 27, 2025 episode of SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, Ace confirmed that he is working on “Origins Vol. 3”, the sequel to Frehley‘s 2016 and 2020 collections of cover songs that inspired the former KISS guitarist. He said: “I decided to reconnect with my old producer Alex Salzman. So, it won’t be me and Steve Brown,” referencing the TRIXTER guitarist/vocalist who helmed Ace‘s latest solo album, 2024’s “10,000 Volts”. “It’ll be me and Alex Salzman collaborating on that record since Alex did ‘Origins Vo. 1’ and ‘Vol. 2’ and we have a formula that we came up with and it seemed to work.”
Ace continued: “I was listening to the [first two ‘Origins’] records last night on YouTube in my office on my desk. I have a set of Bose speakers, and the albums sound just as good as the new album, ‘10,000 Volts’. So, I’m gonna go back to my old formula with Alex. And maybe I’ll bring back Steve to do the [next all-original] album since he’s a very, very good songwriter and guitar player and engineer as well.”
Asked if he has decided which songs he will cover on “Origins Vol. 3” yet, including whether he will once again do remakes of some KISS songs, Ace said: “I haven’t decided. I have a list of about 50 songs, soโฆ I really don’t wanna give anything away. It’s too soon.”
Regarding the possibility of “Origins Vol. 3” being released in 2025, Ace said: “I could have it ready [this year]. I can do the album in a month because I don’t have to write the songs. That’s the beauty of the ‘Origins’ series. I don’t write. So, the recording process is pretty seamless and rapid because all I have to do is Ace-ify it. [Laughs]”
Released in September 2020, “Origins Vol. 2” featured cover versions 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 the 1975 KISS tune “She” also appeared as a bonus track. Guests on the set included CHEAP TRICK‘s Robin Zander, Lita Ford and former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.
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”, then-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.”
“10,000 Volts” came out in February 2024 via MNRK Music Group (formerly eOne Music).
The official music video for the “10,000 Volts” track โ directed by Alex Kouvatsos from Black Wolf Imaging โ was released in late November 2023. A clip for “Cherry Medicine”, which was directed by Justin H. Reich of Three Thirty-Three Creative and produced by Reich and Steve Seabury, followed in February 2024.
