Brandon Cook worked one night as Tommy Thayer’s guitar tech three years prior to joining Black ‘N Blue

Brandon Cook worked one night as Tommy Thayer’s guitar tech three years prior to joining Black ‘N Blue

Black ‘N Blue guitarist Brandon Cook was recently interviewed by Tyson Briden on the latter’s podcast Non-Stop Rock Talk with Tyson Briden. Cook admits to the fact that he actually guitar etched for former Black ‘N Blue and current KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer three years before he joined the band.

According to Wikipedia, Thayer founded Black ‘N Blue with lead vocalist Jaime St. James in 1981 and the guitarist stayed in the band until 1989. Thayer has reunited periodically with the band in 1997, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2018. Cook joined Black ‘N Blue in 2013.

Cook goes on to say (as transcribed by the podcast Non-Stop Rock Talk with Tyson Briden with slight edits):

“The first time I actually heard Black N’ Blue — the very first time I ever heard a song by them — was [when] I got to be Tommy Thayer‘s guitar tech at the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. My friend Tom Holland and my other friend, Kevin Rankin — they kind of like — I’d been playing [in] Tommy‘s brother’s band — John Thayer, and he has his own band and I was playing in the band. Those two guys, they were like, ‘Hey, do you wanna be guitar tech for Tommy? He’s coming do the Oregon Music Hall of Fame thing.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah. I’ll do it.’ 

Because I got to do that, I was setting up Tommy‘s guitar amp and getting his tone right and everything, [and] following his specs that his guitar tech had sent me. And so I just kind of played the opening riff of “Riff Raff” by AC/DC. Yeah, and that was like fishing in a barrel because everybody in the band jumped on that and started playing the song with me. They played “Riff Raff” with me, and I was just like, ‘Whoa!’ It as just like slapped into gear. It was unbelievable how tight they were playing that song. And I’m just like, ‘Wow! What a great band!’ I really respected them and their playing ability. That was the first time I played with Black ‘N Blue. That was 2010 and then three years later, I got the gig. It’s kind of a weird coincidence.”

You can listen to the interview with Brandon Cook on the podcast Non-Stop Rock Talk with Tyson Briden at Buzz Sprout‘s website.