KISS Guitarist TOMMY THAYER And BLACK 'N BLUE's JAIME ST. JAMES Release Music Video For 'Bombshell' EP Title Track

KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer recently reunited with his former bandmate in BLACK 'N BLUE, singer Jaime St. James, to write and record a new six-song EP, "Bombshell". The official music video for the EP's title track can now be viewed below.

The effort is available to order from the duo's web site, thayerstjames.com.

"Bombshell" track listing:

01. Bombshell
02. Bulletproof
03. Time of My Life
04. Tonight's the Night
05. Magnetic
06. I Wanna Fly

Thayer and St. James comment: "Our story has always been about friendship first. From the beginnings of BLACK 'N BLUE, before the tours, the records, and craziness of the '80s, we were two friends writing songs and chasing dreams together. That bond has never changed.

"'Bombshell' is the first time since the late '80s that we've written and recorded new music side by side. We didn't come into it with a plan, we just wanted to get together, write, and see where it took us. The joy for us is in the process, and that's what has kept us coming back to it after all these years.

"These six songs are simply two best friends doing what we love most: creating and recording music together. That's where it started, and that's where it still lives."

In December 2025, Jaime told Metal-Rules.com about the making of "Bombshell": "It is so much fun to write with [Tommy]. He feels the same way. Whenever we get together, there's this real magic happening, and I'm having an absolute blast working with him. Luckily, he has a little more time now. I live in L.A., and he's in Vegas or Oregon — he keeps places in both — but we still just meet up and make it work. And that's how we got this new six-song CD that just came out. 'Bombshell' — six great songs."

Jaime added: "We started [writing the EP] at the very end of 2024, and throughout most of 2025, we were writing and recording. It's just been released, and it's all brand new material. We both think it's some of the best stuff we've ever done."

Asked why he and Thayer didn't use the name BLACK 'N BLUE for this release, Jaime said: "Because it's not BLACK 'N BLUE — it's THAYER-ST. JAMES. Tommy and I released 'The Lost Tapes' EP three years ago, which was from 1989. It's a really good record, and it was released under the name THAYER/ST. JAMES, because it's just me and me playing on it — nobody else from the band. I called him and said, 'How about THAYER-ST. JAMES 2?' He said, 'You know what? Let's do it.' It's just the two of us, and honestly, it's really nice to write and create with only one other guy. With a full band, it's always, like, 'You don't like the song, right?' And he goes, 'What? We're going to make a good song.' All the other guys don't really get involved — it's just me and me — and Tommy has no plans on rejoining BLACK 'N BLUE. So, I said, 'Fine, we'll do THAYER-ST. JAMES. At least the music's alive.'"

In the late '70s, a glam metal band appeared in Portland called MOVIE STAR. The band included Thayer, St. James, drummer Pete Holmes, bassist Patrick Young and guitarist Jeff Warner. That band became BLACK 'N BLUE, releasing their 1984 debut album on Geffen with the hit single "Hold On To 18". The band recorded three more albums for Geffen, with two produced by Gene Simmons of KISS. The band broke up in 1989, reuniting in 1997 and again in 2007. The band later reunited without Tommy, who replaced Ace Frehley in KISS in 2002.

Back in 2022, Thayer and St. James issued a five-song EP titled "The Lost Tapes" consisting of five previously unreleased tracks recorded in the late 1980s.

In a 2005 interview with Inside_Out666, Thayer stated about BLACK 'N BLUE: "BLACK 'N BLUE formed in Portland, Oregon in 1981. Myself, Jaime St James and the other guys wanted to form a new heavy metal type band because at the time the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was starting to hit Stateside as well as MÖTLEY CRÜE in L.A. It was an exciting time."

Reflecting on BLACK 'N BLUE's first performance, Tommy said: "Jaime was originally the drummer of a band we had previous to BLACK 'N BLUE. One night at a Portland nightclub he jumped up front and starting fronting the band and the rest is history."

BLACK 'N BLUE released four successful and critically acclaimed albums through Geffen Records: their self-titled debut (1984),"Without Love" (1985),"Nasty Nasty" (1986) and "In Heat" (1987),with the latter two albums produced by Simmons. Catalog sales in the U.S. were in excess of one million units.