American singer and guitarist Thomas Cunningham Thayer was born 62 years ago in Portland Oregon and has a daughter. He is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the hard rock band ‘Kiss’.
Tommy was brought up in a family of musicians; his mum was, in fact, a singer and violinist. He showed particular interest in hard rock and when he was 13, got an electric guitar and 5 years later started playing in clubs and garages with local bands, as well as created the group ‘Black ‘n Blue’.
In 1984, the group’s debut album was released, and a second followed a year later. They toured for 2 months with the band ‘Kiss’ doing the opening act and eventually the group disbanded in 1988.
From the late 80s til the mid 90s, Thayer co-composed and played the guitar for songs for ‘Kiss’ as well as collaborated with two female artists and the rock band ‘Shake the Faith in the production of their albums.
In 1994, the band ‘Kiss’ was in the process of issuing a book named ‘Kisstory’, and so two of its members asked Tommy to work on it on a part-time basis. This led to Thayer organising the forthcoming group’s world tour and MTV unplugged concert, held in 1995. In the years that followed, Tommy edited and produced a video and 2 movies about the band.
In 2002, Thayer was requested by ‘Kiss’ to perform in a private concert held in Jamaica and this was the first time that he had the ‘Spaceman’ makeup applied. Afterwards, he also appeared in a few TV shows with the group and eventually became its lead guitarist.
During the next two decades, ‘Kiss’ released 3 albums which featured songs like ‘Hotter than Hell’, ‘Never Enough’, ‘When Lightning Strikes’, ‘Freak’ and ‘Outta this World’, amongst others.
Tommy is also an active philanthropist and supports several charitable organisations and hospitals.