Tommy Thayer On Why KISS Doesn’t Work On New Records

Lead guitarist and vocalist Tommy Thayer recently gave an interview to Noise11.com and revealed the reason KISS does not create new records anymore.

KISS achieved considerable success with the 1977 record ‘Alive II.’ Their manager Bill Aucoin wanted to increase their popularity and fame and suggested the band release solo albums simultaneously. The band members got a chance to demonstrate their original style with this project, and that year came to be known as the band’s golden year.

While the band was continuing their successful appearance in the music scene, Tom Thayer was hired by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in 1994 as a part-time employee. Later, he became the band’s guitarist and worked with KISS on various projects. However, unlike the other members, Thayer did not release solo records and opened up about it in a recent interview.

As some of you may recall, Gene Simmons had previously claimed that rock music is dead because of record companies’ lack of support. He had also noted that streaming platforms are the murderers of rock since musicians do not get paid what they deserve. He had also targeted young music listeners for preferring streaming platforms over physical records.

Similar to his fellow rocker, Thayer also believes that people are not as interested in buying records as they were in the past. On the issue of not creating a new record, he stated that even KISS does not release new material since the music industry’s direction has changed. The guitarist linked this issue to streaming platforms and noted they detained the artists from creating new works.

Tommy Thayer explained when asked why he has not released any solo albums:

“Well, I don’t know. That’s a good question. These days I don’t know if people are really interested that much in buying music now, to be honest with you. I mean, KISS isn’t doing records; nobody is really doing records because the business has changed so much. It’s all about streaming.

And it’s hard to sell records these days, and people aren’t really buying music — sadly, that’s just not happening. So it kind of disincentivizes you to spend a lot of time writing and recording albums and doing that, even though it’s fun and it’s cool to go through that creative process. But I don’t know if it really makes sense.”

You can check out the interview below.