Interview ~ Tommy Thayer Of KISS
By jpdeuce73 / http://www.immusicmag.com
Tommy Thayer laced up his platform boots as a full-time member of KISS back in 2002 and is a key reason why the band is still forging ahead today. Tommy Thayer, along with Eric Singer, helped to bring new life and energy to the band in a way that the late Eric Carr did when he joined the band back in 1980. The group�s in its 43rd year and kicked off its Freedom to Rock Tour last month on July 4 in Tucson, Arizona. The band is hitting smaller, secondary markets that often get looked over when a band is booking a major tour. These smaller cities love their rock and roll and they love KISS as well and it�s been quite a while since the kabuki clad members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have visited them. Former American Idol contestant Caleb Johnson is serving as the opener up through August 8 with The Dead Daisies taking over that coveted slot on August 10. If you thought these guys were going to slow down, then you are sadly mistaken. Along with the Freedom to Rock Tour, they have a new CD/DVD/Blu-ray entitled KISS Rocks Vegas coming out on August 26, then there�s the KISS Kruise in November and who knows what else! We had the extreme privilege if sitting down with lead guitarist Tommy Thayer to talk about the tour, the military and about internet trolls.
You�re about a month into the tour and we�ve all seen the pictures online; tell us what it�s been like so far.
Tommy Thayer/KISS: The tour is really exciting and it always blows us away when we get out here and realize that they are still so many crazy fans out there clamoring to see KISS. I think the thing that�s most interesting, it�s astonishing actually, is how many news fans are coming to the shows. Every night Paul says �how many people have never seen KISS before?� and it�s astounding how many hands that go up. It�s really inspiring to see that and literally half of the people there haven�t seen KISS before. It just shows you that there are that many people coming up that are interested in checking it out. By the time we finish the show, and it�s an amazing show if I do say so myself, you�ve made a lot of new fans.
This tour is a bit similar to the Lost Cities Tour back in 1997 when some of the smaller, overlooked cities were visited. What made you guys decide to do that again this time around?
The Freedom to Rock tour is based on doing the secondary market cities and it�s important to us to play these cities. In some cases, we haven�t been there in ten or twelve years or more and they�re great markets. In a lot of ways, the fans and the crowds that are coming to these shows are even more excited than most regular tours because they haven�t had the opportunity. They get a lot more hyped up and it�s exciting; it�s like the people can�t believe that KISS is there. They�re great markets with a lot of energy and a lot of excitement; these are places that you can�t get to every time, but this time we are.
Those secondary markets are just as hungry and appreciative of a big rock show and some times more than some of the bigger cities.
It almost plays into the theme of the tour also because there�s a healthy sense of Americana and home town feel which is a big part of the spirit and vibe of this tour.
I have to give major props to you guys again this year, as with the last several years, for putting a lot of emphasis on giving back to the military.
It�s not just for show; this is something that we believe in our hearts. I come from a military background because my father was a retired Brigadier General in the Army. I�ve been around this a lot and I know Paul and Gene are very adamant about supporting these types of things, so it really does come from the heart. We�re hiring vets to be roadies for the day in each city and we�re honoring our service men and women every night. It�s exciting and something that we believe in and I know that the crowd really loves it as well.
I know you must hear the cries from some fans who want a new studio album. It has to be a tough spot for you guys because they cry for a new album and then they don�t buy it. I don�t mean that as a slam against you or the band, but I think you know what I mean.
As you know, that�s the unfortunate state of the record business these days. It�s harder to make the decision to record a new record these days because with all the time and effort and resources that go into doing it, in almost all cases, it doesn�t pay off anymore. Like you said, people aren�t buying music in a general sense anymore and it becomes kind of a waste of time in a sense. Creatively, it�s nice to have an outlet sometimes, but it�s almost like there are more important things to spend your precious hours of the day doing. Maybe there�s more touring and other things that make more sense than recording a record. In this day and age, there are a lot of different platforms and ways to get your music out there besides just the conventional recording business. We did this crazy KISS and Scooby Doo thing last year and I know it�s a kid�s thing, but in terms of attracting new, young fans it�s astounding what things like that can do for your career. It�s more about thinking outside of the box and doing more unconventional type things that promote the band and get the word out there. It�s such a different world today and you have to look at different platforms to get your music out there and get people to know about the band.
Speaking of different worlds, do you think that social media has killed the mystique that used to exist surrounding music and bands? I remember having to wait for the new issue of Creem or Metal Edge to get my news and now some bands share way too much personal info on social media.
I completely agree with you even though I am on social media; I don�t tweet twenty times a day, but I may send one out every day or two which I think is a nice pace. I completely agree with you that the mystique is gone in a lot of ways and it all started with MTV and videos on television all the time. I remember, like you did, I had to wait for that new issue of Creem or Circus Magazine to come out or potentially see a band like KISS on The Midnight Special once every six months to see them actually play live. If the band came to your town once a year, that was an exciting event because you would wonder what they were going to look like, what were they going to play and do? Now, with YouTube and social media, everything is just completely saturated and that�s unfortunate. I think that�s the world that we live in today and unfortunately there�s just too much information out there and too readily available. Now, you can see anything on YouTube anytime you want and it just takes away the mystique. Even if you go back to the history of releasing records, nowadays it�s subscription services, Spotify and Pandora. Even when we were buying stuff off of iTunes, there�s nothing interesting, or sexy I should say, about buying an MP3 file on iTunes. One of the reasons that we collected music in the first place was to get these albums with great artwork and liner notes. You could sit there for days looking at it and reading the liner notes and now it�s all gone. There was a real mystique with that and it created this great thing that we don�t have any more and I really miss that.
It�s hard to believe that you�ve been in the band for fourteen years now and I feel a need to address the elephant in the room. Do you steer clear of social media as much as possible because of the trolls who love to hate on you? You must have incredibly thick skin not to let some of their comments get to you.
(Laughs) First of all, I�ve come to realize that it doesn�t matter if it�s Tommy Thayer, KISS or whatever subject it may be, there are going to be trolls there with their negative comments and negativity. I don�t take that personally because it�s just a condition of internet blogging and people feeling the need to say whatever they want. As far as the KISS stuff, I know for a fact because I do pay attention to this stuff, that those people are a minute percentage of a percentage. Even though you see this stuff online, if you go to our shows then you really get a sense to what�s really going on. It�s just out there and it doesn�t bother any of us to be honest with you; if anything, I get a laugh out of it.
Here�s a curve ball for you; what�s the most unusual non-music related job that you had growing up?
I did all kinds of things because I was never afraid to work, so there were paper routes and stuff. I grew up in Beaverton, Oregon and I worked for this company called Petronix. I worked part time because I was playing in a band at night and in the afternoon I would help assemble circuit boards and soldering. I�m actually a proficient solderer and I know my way around circuit boards and electronics and resistors. I�m not an expert, but I have some good experience at it. There�s your interesting Tommy Thayer fact of the day (laughs).
That�s pretty cool! Are you free to say what KISS will be up to when the Freedom to Rock Tour ends?
We�re adding a few dates in the fall and of course we�re doing the KISS Kruise in November; that�s been a great success and it�s a great franchise now in its sixth year. As far next year goes, there will be more touring, but to what extent I can�t tell you just yet. KISS lives on and we�re going to keep rocking as long as we can! Being on this tour this year has really been exciting because the enthusiasm from the people is definitely still there.
(Tommy Thayer photo courtesy of Keith Leroux)
