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
Juan 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 three albums and toured successfully in Europe. Following her departure from the band in 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. ==Discography ==