Kim Nielsen (guitarist)

Biography

Kim Nielsen first picked up the bass guitar at the age of 12. In the years to come, she played with local bands in Los Angeles, California, while taking lessons from Racer X bassist John Alderete. In 1988, following a recommendation by Alderete, Nielsen joined the all-female heavy metal band Phantom Blue. The band with Nielsen on bass recorded two albums and toured successfully in Europe.

Following her departure from the band on April 1994, Nielsen moved to England, where she married former Belladonna drummer Adam Parsons, now an artist manager in the music business. In 1996, she joined the Nottingham-based metal band Wraith and recorded their Schizophrenia album. After years of living in England, she returned to Los Angeles in 2000, where she had brief stints with the all-female AC/DC tribute band ThundHerStruck and a Queensrÿche tribute called Jet City Woman. In 2004, she collaborated with the supergroup Asia as a guest bassist on their album Silent Nation.

Nielsen joined former Phantom Blue members Linda McDonald, Gigi Hangach and Tina Wood for a reunion at a benefit concert on May 26, 2009 at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood, California. The concert was for the benefit of brain research in memory of Phantom Blue co-founder Michelle Meldrum, who died of a cystic growth in her brain on May 21, 2008.

Nielsen cites Geezer Butler, Pete Way, Steve Harris and Eddie Jackson among her musical influences.

Phantom Blue

Other Contributions