Instead of throwing a glamorous release party, this KISS legend celebrated his album drop by shopping at Walmart.
To commemorate the release of his new record, 10,000 Volts, Ace Frehley went to a Walmart in Sparta, New Jersey to search for the album's trippy lenticular cover on CD, picking up some other items along the way. He has resided in the Garden State since he first met his fiancée.
"I originally grew up in the Bronx. I'm a native New Yorker. [In 2018], I hooked up with an elementary school teacher in New Jersey, moved in with her, her two kids and a dog, and now I'm a New Jerseyite," the guitarist said on a 2020 episode of AXS TV's At Home And Social With, Blabber Mouth reports.
The pair met at a KISS convention in New Jersey, where Frehley was performing the entirety of his 1978 studio album live. He had met his fiancée, Lara Cove, the night before she attended the standing room only-concert. After she gifted one of the KISS-branded mugs she was selling at a convention booth to him, the pair began to hit it off.
"She's a very beautiful woman. We got to talking. And then she came to one of my shows subsequently, several months later. And one thing led to another. I don't think I need to go any further," he laughed.
Upon the release of the 11-track LP in February, the now-suburban couple unexpectedly paid a visit to their local Walmart, where they shopped for "CDs, T-Shirts, Fishing Poles, and more." The trip to the store was documented on Frehley's YouTube channel.
"I don't think a lot of people would expect Ace Frehley to walk into a Walmart," the artist said, before entering to buy five copies of his CD and taking pictures with local fans.
While walking through the mega-store, the singer also tried out several fishing poles and browsed the t-shirt section, landing on some Irish garb that was being prepped for St. Patrick's Day.
"I remember growing up in the Bronx with all my Irish friends, you get beat up if you don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day," he reminisced. To further prove he's just like other New Jersey residents, the "Inside the Vortex" singer also stopped by Dunkin' Donuts for coffee.
The founding member of the iconic rock group frequently shares an inside look at his life on the YouTube channel, also recording a trip to the grocery store and a visit to Staples to buy a printer in a reality TV-like fashion.
While KISS is no longer releasing music, the iconic band's vocalist/bassist Gene Simmons co-wrote two songs on Frehley's last studio effort, Spaceman. Simmons also plays bass on "Your Wish Is My Command," which joins "Without You I'm Nothing" as his contributions to the record.
The title track for 10,000 Volts was released in November 2023. Frehley produced the LP with Steve Brown (TRIXTER), releasing it under MNRK Music Group.
