Philip Shouse still can't believe he's on Ace Frehley' next album.
Sure, for years, Shouse, a Decatur native, has toured as part of solo bands of not just one Kiss original member/legend, but two: lead guitarist Frehley and bassist Gene Simmons.
Not to mention, Shouse's buzzy recurring hard-rock jam session in Nashville, Thee Residency, has featured bigtime special guests like Alice Cooper.
And last year, Shouse officially became a member of bruising classic metal band Accept, of “Balls to the Wall” fame, on guitar.
So it’s not like he’s prone to being overwhelmed by moments or stars. But damn, being on a solo record by Frehley, one of rock’s most beloved (and effortlessly coolest) musicians ever, is special. “I’m so excited,” Shouse says. “To be on an Ace record, it’s pretty remarkable.”
Shouse plays bass and some harmony lead-guitar on a remake of sauntering 1975 Kiss classic “She,” on Frehley’s forthcoming covers album, “Origins, Vol. 2,” out Sept. 18. “And it sounds great. I can’t wait to hear it on record, on the actual release.”
In addition, a cartoon depiction of Shouse and the rest of Frehley's solo band appears in the animated music video for the first "Origins Vol. 2" single, a cover of vintage Deep Purple rager "Space Truckin'." (The band didn't play on that particular track, but still.)
The pandemic has put Thee Residency’s live shows on ice for now, but Shouse and his fellow TR musicians recently released an EP. The EP contains one of the best new melodic-rock songs this year, “Feelin’ It,” which echoes and continues the music of the band’s heroes.
During coronavirus-caused downtime, Shouse has been focusing on his side hustle, Mutt Merch, a line of dog-related items, including T-shirts with clever rock/pet pun-themes like “Aerosniff,” “Black Labbath” and “The Beagles.” He’s also branching out into video podcasting, with a soon to debut show called “Shouse Rules,” featuring Shouse interviewing rockers about their pursuits outside music.
On a recent afternoon, Shouse was at his Hendersonville, Tenn. when we talked via phone. Below are edited excerpts.
Phil, what's it like seeing an animated version of yourself in the music video for Ace's version of "Space Truckin'"?
That was a trip. That was actually the second time we’ve been animated for an Ace video. The first one was “Mission to Mars” off of his last record, “Spaceman,” and so that was the first time and we didn’t know that was happening either. The video got released and it was like this one: I watched it and was like, “Hey, that’s us!” I forwarded it to the guys and the guys got a kick out of it.
Tell me about re-recording "She" for Ace's new version.
We were pretty much left up to our own devices. He wasn't here for it. We got the word from, I think Ace texted Ryan (Asbrock, guitarist), it started the whole process and so Ryan (Cook, guitarist), Jeremy and I did it here and we got our buddy Paul Simmons to play drums. He did the drums at his house. This was done before COVID lockdown so we could all kind of still be around. So we got the drum track and then we got a track from the producer that had a couple of Ace guitar tracks that were actually the wrong sequence. [Laughs.] It was the wrong arrangement. So we fixed it, went in and did the correct arrangement and then we sang it too. We sent it off and they said, "We love it." So that was pretty simple. All three of us are singing lead vocals and there's a three part vocal harmony the whole time, and I play bass. And I think I play one guitar solo. I may have done one of the harmony solos with Jeremy, I remember doing one of those.
"Space Truckin'" is a great call for Ace to cover.
Yeah, it was a good pick.
Are there any others you've heard on the album that feel like a good fit for Ace?
Is "30 Days in the Hole" on there? Because I can swear that's what Robin Zander sang.
"30 Days in the Hole" (by '70s boogie band Humble Pie) is on there.
Yeah, that's (Cheap Trick lead singer) Robin Zander singing that and it just kills. He can sing the phone book and it would sound great, so that was a highlight. I'm trying to think if I heard anything else off it, but yeah that sounds fantastic.
Robin's voice has held up really well. Any idea why? There are some rock singers that isn't the case for, but I don't know if Michael Jordan can still do a 360-degree slam dunk anymore either.
Right, exactly. Robin's on a very short list of signers from that era that still sounds exactly the same. That's the one thing that will go is your voice, because you can still play guitar - you may have hand issues but most of the time it's singers. And nothing against anybody who can't. I mean, God, how can you keep that level up that high for so long. But some guys … And I don't know how Robin did it because Robin until recently smoked. And his warmup is like screaming. But whatever he did, it worked.
It's guys like him, (classic era Ted Nugent singer) Derek St. Holmes is on that list. Derek is completely mind-blowing how he sounds just like "Double Live Gonzo" still. (Aerosmith's) Steven Tyler is in that; I think (Iron Maiden singer) Bruce Dickinson is and also a guy who is kind of off the radar for a lot of folks but Frank DiMino from Angel. We did a gig a gig with Angel with Ace, and they're back wearing the white outfits, it's Frank and Punky (Meadows, guitarist) from the old band, and it sounds like Angel. I got to hang out with Frank a little bit after that gig and super nice guy.
Sammy Hagar, to me, his voice has held up really well too.
Geez, and Sammy. Like those quarantine videos that his band is doing are absolutely amazing. He's 72, singing his ass off.
Your all-time favorite Ace-sung songs, from Kiss and his solo career?
We open with "Rip It Out" so that's always a fun one because the solo record was such a big deal to me when I got that '78 solo album. Just remembering me listening to that, I was into Kiss and finally got his record and it was like, "Whoa, this great." And I just wore it out.
So that one, and "Rocket Ride," whenever we get to that one in the setlist it feels like the show really starts because that one just kicks ass all around. The riff is great, it's called "Rocket Ride" and the subject matter is what it is and that one was always a favorite of mine. From the first second I loved that tune.
And he’s always picked good cool covers too, or somebody has. “New York Groove” is a cover (of the band Hello). I loved his version of (ELO hit) “Do Ya.” It fits his voice so well. It’s not a secret he isn’t known as one of the best singers in the world, but he’s a stylist with his voice and he knows how to use it. And he gets the right thing.
To me he's the hard rock version of Lou Reed's sing-talking, New York street-guy thing.
That's a really good comparison.
What can you tell me about the new studio album you've been recording with Accept? The vibe of the material how it went down?
Man, the stuff on the new Accept record is killer. There's several songs that are on there that are automatically going into my favorite of the catalog category. Really, really good. Sounds like Accept, super heavy and a thing I like about that band's classic era is they always had so much swagger and swing, and all the tunes were catchy and had hooks. And this stuff has that. It keeps the heaviness obviously because you can't have it without that, but they do still have that swagger.
And I'm playing some solos on some of the tunes which was great. It was interesting how we did it. I did go over to the studio here, a little studio around Nashville. Andy Sneap the producer is in the U.K. and he obviously couldn't fly here to producer so I was being produced from remotely, which was really cool. We used a couple different types of software, a couple different ways of doing it. Just whatever we needed to do to get it finished. So that was fun.
It sometimes was a struggle because it's technology and technology fails sometimes, so if things would crash we would freeze, he would freeze, we'd lose audio, we'd lose connection. So it was tough to get into a rhythm when you're having to deal with all that stuff. But it was really great because everybody's attitude and spirit was so great. It was like, however we have to do this, that's how it's going to get done. And it really was kind of cool to see us roll with punch after punch after punch. It was a really good effort on everybody's part.
Any idea when that Accept album might come out?
I'm not sure. I think the goal is this year, but as far as when I really have no idea.
If you had to give up all your guitars except one which do you keep?
Oh man, I would probably have to keep my Gibson Explorer. It's a great guitar but it's also a gift from a fantastic friend of mine that passed away a couple years ago so that's the one I would probably keep,
You have a really positive attitude, But as a guy in Nashville hit by the double whammy of a tornado then the pandemic, how do you keep positive through all that?
It’s funny because I haven’t been this positive, happy or content … I can’t even remember the last time in my adult life that I was this like cool with everything. And I’m not going to get preachy at all here, but for me personally it was when I stopped drinking a little over a hundred days ago. Because the first few days of this were not pretty for me whatsoever, and I’ve always been pretty self-aware for the past 15 years and know when it’s getting out of hand and know when I really need to change something. And those alarms went off and I did it. And since then my attitude has changed and also so many good things have come into my life that I definitely know where that came from and that isn’t lost on me and I’m not overlooking it.
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