Ace Frehley Gets Back in the ‘New York Groove’ With the Roots
Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley dropped by The Tonight Show on Tuesday night, sitting in with the Roots, the most versatile band in late night. The unlikely collaborators treated the audience to a a low-key version of Frehley’s breezy 1978 hit “New York Groove.”
Frehley speak-sings his way through the track, with guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas providing silky falsetto harmonies as backbeat monster Questlove anchors the groove with some nimble hi-hat work.
Frehley’s upcoming solo LP, Space Invader, is out August 19th. Back in May, Rolling Stone premiered the album’s hard-hitting first single, the Kiss-styled “Gimme a Feelin’,” which begins with a monster blues-rock solo and settles into a classic Frehley groove, celebrating a woman who’s “got what it takes to jangle my brain.”
“I’m really excited about this record, because everybody that’s heard the tracks just says they think some of the tracks are even better than [Frehley’s 2009 LP] Anomaly, and even showing another side of me,” the guitarist told Rolling Stone back in March. Frehley compared the album (which also features a version of Steve Miller Band’s 1973 staple “The Joker”) and its overall sound to his 1978 debut solo effort.
It’s been a big year for Frehley, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his Kiss bandmates back in April. Despite rumors of tension and bad blood between the band members, Frehley and company accepted their award, peacefully, together as a group.
“It felt like I just saw those guys yesterday,” Frehley told Rolling Stone after the ceremony. “We’re brothers in rock & roll. The press seems to amplify the fact that we hate each other, and we really don’t. We’ve had our differences over the years, but every rock & roll band does. Tonight, it felt like I had just left those guys the other day, and they were very gracious considering what we’ve been creating over the last 40 years.”