KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer rocks for charity

famous - Now 46 and a Pacific University trustee, the musician will lend his name to a golf fund-raiser

By Nancy Townsley

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jul 25, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

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In or out of makeup, Tommy Thayer is a colorful guy.

The Beaverton native and lead guitarist for the rock band KISS has no shortage of gigs on his electronic calendar.

Last week he was on stage in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., performing in a concert during the four-show KISS Hit and Run Tour.

Sunday and Monday he’ll host the Pacific Legends Golf Classic, a star-studded fund-raiser at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains.

And on Sept. 15, Thayer will serve as grand marshal of the 50th anniversary Beaverton Celebration Parade in his hometown.

The parade’s theme, “Everything is Golden,” is an apt metaphor for Thayer’s life. He is, after all, a local boy who just may have been born – on Nov. 7, 1960 – to be wild.

“I grew up in Beaverton, listening to the Beatles from my older brother’s record player,” said Thayer, who had developed a raging passion for rock-and-roll by the time he entered Sunset High School.

After graduating in 1978, Thayer and some of his buddies were deep into the garage band scene, playing in Beaverton, Lake Oswego and Portland. They eventually put together a hard-rocking band called Black ’N Blue.

Inspired to pursue a life of music, Thayer took his long, flowing tresses and square-jawed good looks to Los Angeles in 1983.

“There were no major labels or management in Portland at that time, so we went to southern California to try to get discovered,” Thayer recalled.

While playing at an old high school in Hollywood, Black ’N Blue caught on. Geffen Records signed the band in 1983.

“Within six months we had a record deal,” Thayer said. “It was the stereotypical young American dream come true.”

In the mid-1980s, the band landed a gig touring with Gene Simmons and KISS, already famous for their raucous on-stage antics and heavy metal lyrics in songs such as “Cold Gin” and “Strutter.”

Simmons, the band’s bass guitarist and lead vocalist, produced Black ’N Blue’s third and fourth records.

“We’d run our course by 1990,” Thayer said, and when KISS managers asked him to come to work for them, he jumped at the chance.

“I was really interested in producing by then, so I did some of their DVDs and played guitar on some of their records,” noted Thayer.

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