Ace Frehley’s Newest Cover Song Comes From a Very Unlikely Source

Ace Frehley has included at least one cover song on every solo album he’s ever released, but his most recent comes from a very unexpected source.

The tradition started with Frehley’s 1978 debut solo album, when the Kiss star hit No. 13 on the pop charts with his cover of Hello’s “New York Groove.” Since that time he’s covered famous songs from ELO, Sweet, the Steve Miller Band and others on studio albums otherwise filled with original songs. He’s also released two records dedicated entirely to covers – 2016’s Origins Vol. 1 and 2020’s Origins Vol. 2.

But on his newly released 10,000 Volts album, Frehley chose a much more obscure song, which he heard while watching a Jason Statham movie from 2002.

“That’s ‘Life of a Stranger,'” he told UCR. “That song was over the [closing credits] for the movie The Transporter. I never forgot that song, even though it was done quite differently from the way I recorded it. It was performed by this woman, Nadia and it was recorded very Europop. You know, with just a drum machine, very sparse”

At first, Frehley wasn’t certain he could pull off the vocals required to cover “Life of a Stranger.” But his 10,000 Volts co-writer and producer, former Trixter guitarist Steve Brown, convinced him to try.

“I played it for Steve and he fell in love with the song as well,” Frehley explains. “He can hear a good song just like I can, with a good melody and story line, a great bridge. That song is one of the few songs I’ve ever worked on where the chorus modulates twice. I said to Steve, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sing this, with the modulation.’ He goes, ‘Don’t worry about it, Ace. I’ll get you to sing it.’ He just pushed me. I nailed it. Steve was like that. He had a lot of faith in me. Sometimes I don’t always have as much faith in me as other people do. I don’t know why.”

Hear Ace Frehley Perform ‘Life of a Stranger’

Hear Nadia Perform ‘Life of a Stranger’