In the ’80s, Kiss star Gene Simmons turned his hand to producing other artists, and even founded his own record label – which he named, somewhat inevitably, Simmons Records.
And one of the acts that Simmons worked with back then was Black ’N Blue, featuring guitarist Tommy Thayer, who ended up joining Simmons in Kiss in the 2000s.
Thayer has continued to perform with Black ’N Blue on an occasional basis throughout the years.
Most recently they played at the Kiss Landlocked in Vegas event in November 2025.
As Thayer tells MusicRadar, he will always be grateful for the opportunity that Simmons and Kiss gave to Black ’N Blue all those years ago.
He recalls with a smile: “We first met Gene back in late 1985, when Black ’N Blue got the opening slot on Kiss’s Asylum tour. The Asylum record had just come out, and for us, getting to open for Kiss was a dream-come-true moment.”
Asylum was the first Kiss album to feature lead guitarist Bruce Kulick alongside bassist Simmons, rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley and drummer Eric Carr.
Three years after the band took off their famous stage make-up, they fully embraced the glam metal image of that time – as displayed in the video for the single from the Asylum album, Tears Are Falling.
On the road, Simmons took Black ’N Blue under his wing.
“Gene was actually the first one we talked to,” Thayer says. “He was the guy hanging around backstage, totally approachable. Later, we met Paul, Eric and Bruce as well.
“And a funny story: after the very first night of the tour, Gene pulled us aside and told us that our intro – with a big, booming announcer voice – was too much like Kiss. He said we needed to change it. That kind of broke the ice, and from there we really got to know him.
“By the end of that run, we were getting ready to head back into the studio for our third album. We wanted to get back to a more straightforward hard-rock sound, since our previous album Without Love, even though it was a great record, had taken us in a slightly poppier direction.
Thayer continues: “Toward the end of the Asylum dates, we approached Gene and asked if he’d be interested in producing us and hearing some of our new demos. He said, in classic Gene fashion: ’Sure, of course. I’ve got a big mouth!’
“So we met up with him in his suite at Caesars Palace in Vegas, which was an experience in itself. He definitely seemed to be putting on a show for us. What’s new, right? But that meeting kicked off a long, fabulous relationship.”
Simmons ended up producing two Black ’N Blue albums, Nasty Nasty (1986) and In Heat (1988).
Three songs from Nasty Nasty were co-written by Simmons with Thayer and Black ’N Blue’s singer Jaime St. James. These included the title track, which featured a riff that Simmons recycled for the Kiss song Domino, the lead-off track from the band’s 1992 album Revenge.
Nasty Nasty also featured the song I’ll be There For You, written and produced by Journey’s keyboard player Jonathan Cain.
The album peaked at No.110 on the Billboard 200. The follow-up, In Heat, also had four tracks co-written by Simmons, but again failed to achieve commercial success, reaching No.133 in the US.
Despite those disappointments, Black ’N Blue are remembered as one of the better bands of the hair metal era, and Tommy Thayer says he still loves to play those old songs.
“It’s something we just genuinely enjoy doing together,” he says, “and if people love what comes out of it, that’s a pure bonus.
“It’s pretty simple. I’ll get together with Black ’N Blue occasionally, like at the Kiss Las Vegas event, which was an absolute blast, but there are no live shows with me playing with them on the horizon.
“Getting together with those guys is like hanging out with brothers. We just laugh, have fun, and pick up right where we left off. There are no real plans to do more right now. It’s more special when it happens naturally.”
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