Tommy Thayer of KISS is interviewed about his contributions of more solid guitar playing

May 30, 2008

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Jeff: Your touring role in KISS obviously demands that you play and be the Ace [Frehley] character, as best you can. In your mind, what aspects of your playing, performance or sound does Tommy Thayer bring to the KISS show? Or are you only striving to be the Ace character as perfectly as you can and that is your only goal? You obviously nail (play perfectly) Ace’s solos and do them very consistently each night.
Tommy: We (KISS) talked about this too, that the whole idea for me isn’t to just go up and try to mimic Ace completely; that would come across as being real tribute looking. It’s a fine line between being faithful to what Ace has done with is playing and looks, and then injecting some Tommy Thayer into it. I don’t go out trying to play and sound like Ace. The reason I sound like Ace is because I grew up learning how to play like one of my favorite guitar players since I was 14 years old. So when I play a KISS song, with my style, the way I play, it really sounds a lot like KISS! It just comes out that way because of the influence he and KISS had on my playing. I think that what I bring to the table in the KISS show is a more consistent and solid style of guitar playing. I am not trying to take anything at all away from Ace; Ace is the reason that I am in this band and here at all. To me, Ace was really in his prime back in the ’70s and I think that I bring a new version of what he was doing back then, but in a more solid way. Consistent, ballsy and tight is the best way to describe my contribution to the music and show; night after night.