Annihilator's Jeff Waters interviews KISS / Black n Blue Guitarist Tommy Thayer, in that latest issue of Guitar Magazine / Germany.  A few excerpts from the interview follow:

Jeff:

First off, for those who may not be familiar with the history of Tommy Thayer, or think that you are just a relatively new replacement or fill-in for Ace Frehley, please tell us about your extensive resume; not just your accomplishments in Black n Blue, but also with your being an integral part of the KISS family for an amazing 14 years.

Tommy:

Going back to Black n Blue in the 80's, for people that don't know, we moved to Los Angeles in early 1983 from Portland, where we started out. Quiet Riot and Motley Crue were starting to do well and we just knew that, since we were writing our own stuff, that LA would be the best place for us to be. Within 6 months, we had a record deal; John Kalodner signed us at Geffen Records and envisioned us as being the American Def Leppard. We put out 4 records for Geffen through the 80's up to 1990 and did moderately well but we never really broke, for whatever reason.

Jeff:

And somewhere along the line, you crossed paths with Gene.

Tommy:

Exactly. In 1985 we did part of the Asylum tour with KISS, a dream come true at that point as we were always huge KISS fans when we were kids.

Jeff:

Who wasn't, back then, right?

Tommy:

Ya. I became more associated with Gene to begin with because, after that tour, we asked him to produce our third album Nasty, Nasty, which he agreed to do. We kind of developed a relationship and I just got to know him more and more through that and then he did our fourth album, called In Heat. By that time he was asking me if I wanted to write some songs with him for KISS and we wrote a couple of songs that ended up on Hot in the Shade.

Jeff:

So the writing relationship came before you were asked to be involved in the business end of KISS?

Tommy:

Absolutely. First, it was Gene working with Black n Blue and then it was writing with Gene for what ended up being KISS songs. At the same time, they were working on, developing songs for their next album and Gene would have me come in to help out. Then I was playing guitar in the studio with him on all of his demos; he liked the way I played guitar. It just kind of evolved from there and pretty soon, by the early 90's, when Black and Blue ran its course, Paul and Gene asked me to come and work for them part-time. I needed a job and thought Wow, working for the band KISS?! That's not even a job!!

Read the entire interview HERE