Tommy Thayer talks KISS, End of the Road World Tour & more with Guitar World
By Greg Prato / GuitarWorld.com
The rock icons' longest-serving lead guitarist on their massive End of the Road Tour, what the future holds, and his recent guest appearance on Carmine Appice’s Guitar Zeus 25th Anniversary Box Set
An argument could be made that without guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, not only would Kiss’s highly successful The End of the Road Tour never have happened, but fans wouldn’t have been able to see the band in concert over the past two decades.
The pair may have initially been replacements for their original counterparts, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, but decades of touring one of the biggest rock and roll shows of all time has secured their place in music history.
In between his Kiss duties as the Spaceman, Thayer lent his six-string skills to Carmine Appice’s soaring track Mystified, which appears on the legendary drummer's Zeus 25th Anniversary Box Set.
Following the boxset's release (and in between Kiss tour legs), Thayer spoke to Guitar World to discuss his approach to the track, how his playing has developed in his time with Kiss, and what the future holds for the iconic group.
How did you get involved with the Guitar Zeus project?
“I’ve known Carmine for a long time. I’m talking back to the early ‘80s, when my band Black ‘N Blue first got to LA. It’s really interesting because Carmine would come see Black ‘N Blue play in the Troubadour, and then afterwards he’d come up and say hello to us.
“We were just blown away, thinking, ‘Why would he want to come say hi to us?’ [Laughs] The craziest thing was he was just the nicest guy. He was one of those unpretentious, unaffected guys. It left an impression on me.
“So, when I heard he was doing the Guitar Zeus thing and he had a new edition that he wanted me involved in, I immediately jumped on it.”
