Last month, KISS guitarist Ace Frehley released Origins Vol. 1, a collection of cover tunes that pays tribute to the legendary guitarists and groups who inspired him to launch his own musical voyage, including Jimi Hendrix (“Spanish Castle Magic”), Led Zeppelin (“Bring It On Home”) and Cream (“White Room”). On Thin Lizzy's "Emerald," Frehley and his buddy Slash (Guns N' Roses) trade leads; The Spaceman spoke to Jeff Perlah of Newsweek about the collaboration, an excerpt follows:

"Well, I always thought Thin Lizzy and those two guitar players really worked well together. And I always loved that song 'Emerald'. When I tracked it, I had Slash in mind from day one. I thought me and him would be able to really take that track to another level. I had recorded some leads prior to getting him in the studio, and I was gonna have him fill in the holes, so it would be very expeditious for him to get in and out of the studio, I didn't want to take up too much of his time.

But during the process, he thought it was a little stagnant trying to play off stuff that I had already recorded. Slash looked at me and said, 'Come on Ace, let's just do it live.' So I plugged in, he plugged in, we were right next to each other, and we just knocked it off live."

How did recording in the studio with KISS often work out?  

"It wasn't always the easiest thing for me, but somehow, some way, it all came together in the studio with the help of Eddie Kramer, Bob Ezrin and the [other] different producers we worked with over the years."

Which were your favorite KISS tours?

"The Destroyer and Love Gun tours. Those were two of our biggest tours. We had the amazing stage set, elevators going up, going down [he laughs]. It was like a rock ’n’ roll circus. A once in a lifetime experience."

Read the interview in its entirety at this location.

"Emerald" feat. Slash: