Tommy Thayer: these are my top 10 KISS songs
By Jonathan Horsley / www.musicradar.com
The Spaceman names his favourite guitar tracks and deep cuts
The end is nigh. No, we’re not engaging in some very 21st century catastrophic thinking; KISS have officially scheduled a decommissioning of their instruments, greasepaint and pyro, after the climax of their End Of The Road world tour in 2019.
If it’s difficult to picture these creatures of the night going quietly to the easy chair - and don’t bet against seeing them engaged in some sort of rock and roll in the future - just think how hard it is for them to put a setlist together. Well, we were lucky enough to grab guitarist/vocalist and KISS official Spaceman Tommy Thayer as he was doing exactly that, and pressed him on his favourite 10 KISS tracks.
Points to note? Well, this is a very difficult thing for an artist to do, but for KISS, whose discography is a what’s what of rock history? That’s impossible. So of course there were omissions - no Deuce! No Cold Gin!! And if you're looking for the ultimate KISS playlist, then all the songs Thayer mentions in passing should be considered essential, too.
So, in no particular order - except to say that number one is the song we’d send into space on an interstellar ambassadorial mission to spread the KISS gospel of rock - here is Tommy Thayer’s KISS top 10!
1. Rock And Roll All Nite
“Well, Rock And Roll All Nite is really one of the most famous rock ’n’ roll anthems in the world. I mean, we literally refer to it as the rock ’n’ roll national anthem. When Gene and Paul wrote it, they wanted to write a song that was an anthem, that was a calling for the fans, and really what KISS means and what it represents.
“In the chorus it says, ‘I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day,’ so it's really about the fans and what they are expressing, and what they’re feeling, that they are there to have a party and an amazing time, and they wanna rock and roll, I wanna rock and roll all night. That’s very empowering. It makes you want to put your fists up in the air and sing it.”
