They’re the rock band who have been involved with anything from Dr Pepper adverts to Scooby Doo DVDs – but Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer admitted even he was stunned when the group’s image appeared on coffins!

The Detroit Rock City and Crazy Crazy Nights rockers hit the Hydro next week for a spectacular show.

But the band’s face-painted image has meant they’ve appeared on a ton of merchandise over the years.

“There has been a lot of strange things I’ve seen,” laughs Tommy, who first donned The Spaceman facepaint back in 2002.

“The Kiss casket was bizarre. You smile when you see that, because you’re thinking you gotta be kidding me! But I guess they wouldn’t have that unless there was a market for it. The imagery with Kiss is so strong that you can do all those things.

“I know some people think Kiss over-commercialise everything but I think it’s cool and get a kick out of it.”

The band’s gig at the SSE Hydro a week on Saturday will be their first in Scotland in seven years. Tommy is looking forward to getting back here, especially as he has some Scottish blood in him.

“I’ve only been to Scotland once, which was the gig several years ago (at the SECC). I didn’t get to see too much and hopefully this time I will get to see a bit more. My mother’s family is originally from Scotland and the name Cunningham, so I have Scottish blood in me, and I’d like to see a bit more of it.”

Fans of the band can expect plenty of their usual high octane stage show when they hit the Hydro stage. From their earliest days in the 1970s, Kiss were always known as a group who made their performances much more of a show than just a run of the mill gig.

While some die-hard fans would love to hear more obscurities and rarities when the foursome play, Tommy reckons they could never stop blasting out the hits.

“You want to think about the dynamic of the show, and most of the people want to hear the classic songs if you’re playing an arena or a stadium, the same way that most people want to hear Jumping Jack Flash and Satisfaction if you go see the Rolling Stones,” he argues.

“For the die hard fan that can get boring, so we try and add things in, but they’re never really satisfied. In a big stage, a big stadium, if you play an obscure song then it can get quiet out there. That’s disconcerting, because our job is to keep it exciting, keep those energy levels up.”

Tommy was a long-time fan of Kiss before he became their guitarist, admiring their work from afar while he played in the rock band Black N’ Blue. In the 90s he worked for the band as a manager, before stepping into Ace Frehley’s shoes (and slapping on the facepaint) when Frehley left.

Although he has now been The Spaceman for 15 years, the Oregon native has to put with continual speculation that the band will eventually revert to their classic line-up.

“The reality is that it’s probably not going to happen,” he says.

“People grow apart. I’m right inside this band and this organisation, and I know it as well as anybody now, and it’s like when you had a girlfriend in high school – you can’t expect to meet her years later and have the same chemistry.

“It doesn’t bother me hearing it though, because I know what’s going on and I understand the situation. It’s a part of life. Of course Kiss fans have a sentimentality going back to when they first discovered them in the mid 70s and they want to believe that could still happen, but it’s 2017. The great thing is that Kiss has been successful for so many years, and we’re still touring and selling out arenas.”

Kiss, SSE Hydro, Saturday May 27, £55, 7pm