THE SEARCH FOR FORMER KISS GUITARIST VINNIE VINCENT

VinnieVincent400 Max Blau of Rolling Stone reports:

Smyrna, Tennessee, is not a likely place to find a guitar god, or anyone in particular, which meant it was just about perfect for Vinnie Vincent. For a while anyway.

Behind a forbidding eight-foot-tall picket fence and a padlocked gate stand two houses. Paint cans, a television set and stuffed black garbage bags litter the driveways. This is where guitarist Vinnie Vincent — who gave life back into KISS in the early Eighties, when the bandmembers had removed their makeup but seemed musically ready for embalming, and then became a hair-metal solo star in his own right — has lived in seclusion for the last 15 years. Or, more accurately, had lived. It’s hard to know where Vincent is these days.

From the looks of it, the houses have been abandoned for some time. Knocks on the front door go unanswered, and multiple calls in to Vincent’s lawyer inquiring about his client’s whereabouts yielded nothing. It’s not as if Vincent, 61, was ever a man about Smyrna. Up the road, a clerk at the gas station can’t recall ever seeing the musician who once played for 137,000 fans in Brazil — KISS’ biggest concert. A next-door neighbor, Paul Sachtjen, says he’d never met Vincent face-to-face. He had, though, endured a battle over some pruned pear trees hanging across property lines, receiving angry letters and police visits, but never at the expense of Vincent’s closely-guarded privacy. Years later, Sachtjen’s son vandalized a convertible belonging to Vincent’s wife, Diane. Soon after, surveillance cameras and mounted outdoor spotlights were installed on Vincent’s property.

“I feel bad for him,” Sachtjen says now. “He wants to be a recluse and left the hell alone.”

As the original replacement for founding member guitarist Ace Frehley, Vincent garnered a reputation as one of the band’s most talented, influential, and divisive members in its 40-year history. From 1982 to 1984, Vincent’s knack for cocky melodies and virtuosic guitar shredding revived an outfit that had limped into the Eighties with the release of the high concept, low quality Music From The Elder. 1983’s Lick It Up was the KISS first album on which Vincent was credited as a member (uncredited, he’d subbed for Frehley on the previous year’s Creatures of the Night). It was also the first time the band appeared without makeup, and as the writer of the title track and the musician responsible for the re-born KISS’ most jaw-dropping moments, Vincent helped frontmen Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons establish a post-grease paint identity, pushing the music in the chart-topping direction of Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard.

Despite his contributions, on April 10th, when KISS receives their long overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Vincent is about as likely to attend the ceremony as Syd Barrett would’ve been to fly on an inflatable pig over a Pink Floyd show.

“He’s such a mysterious figure,” says Bruce Kulick, who held down the lead guitar spot in KISS for 12 years following Vincent’s departure and who will attend the Rock Hall event. “In some ways, he’s the Howard Hughes of KISS. Vinnie has laid low for so long that it adds to his legend.”

Vinnie Vincent’s fans and former bandmates have different theories about his current whereabouts: He might be in Nashville, with family in Connecticut, or with some sympathetic female KISS fan. Wherever he’s gone, believes Promoter Phil Elliott, Vincent will make his presence known once the bills start to pile up.

“I don’t know how he’s going to stay afloat,” Elliott says. “When he’s desperate enough, he’ll come out of the woodwork.”

It’s hard to imagine a situation in which Vincent would not choose to keep his connection to the music world and his fans strictly online, mostly one-way and entirely out of sight, if never truly out of mind. As Robert Fleischman — like so many alienated by Vincent long ago — puts it: “If he wants to be left alone we should leave him alone. I just don’t think he really wants to be left alone.”

If Vincent does resurface, digitally or otherwise, what kind of reception he’ll receive when he does is anyone’s guess. He drew the ire of some fans when he failed to issue refunds for pre-orders from his website. Some customers even threatened him with a lawsuit for alleged fraud for selling a product, The Vinnie Vincent Archives, which he never intended to deliver. As a sop, they received letters from Vincent’s Metaluna Records, likely a one-man operation at this point, apologizing for the lengthy delay in sending out the compilation. Those apology letters came with offers to buy a guitar pick used by Vincent on the Creatures of the Night tour. The asking price was $1,000.

On VVForums.com, rumors still swirl that Vincent will take part in celebrating the KISS legacy he helped create, whether by acknowledging the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony or through some other, more idiosyncratic means. That idea that he might show up is certainly delusional, but it’s also sweetly optimistic — the KISS Army still loves the Ankh Warrior, and as anyone who knows anything about Vinnie Vincent can tell you, stranger things have happened.

Read the entire three page story at Rolling Stone.

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52 Responses

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  • Lee on

    Terrific article. The fact he put to legal papers he was getting screwed by Gene & Paul to $1,000 a week and 2 star hotels speaks volumes about Kiss back then. I bet Singer/Kulick and the late Carr have wage tales that rival this or Jake & Vivian stuff. Yes, he’s probably broke and shacking up with a Kiss fan avoiding the servers. At least an Ace is out there hitting the deck at album/show/appearances at conventions….V-V could be too.


  • Lopez celestial on

    If you like kiss, thank vinnie vincent…..with out him kiss would had under after THE ELDER.
    WE STILL LOVE YOU Mr. Cusano came back


  • Richman on

    A more interesting autobiography than these other guys for certain. If you remember the actor Ken Wahl, he too disappeared is sought after and is yet to re-emerge. Come back Ankh, wherever you are. $1000.00 dollar picks? You gotta be kidding me!


    • dave on

      In total agreement with you on this. An autobiography by Vinnie would certainly sway the public opinion one way or another plus alleviate his percieved indebtedness. The fact that he hasnt makes me think A hes tried and been shot down by the KISS lawyer team B hasnt decided to drop that dime just yet and cash in or C isigned some sort of confidentiality agreement. The simple fact that Paul or Gene have never gone out of the way to de-establish him as an addict, but insted refer to him as “difficult” yet credit him with songwriting credits on the “Revenge” album make me lean more towards A and C


  • mark on

    vinnie vincent joining kiss was the beginning of the web of lies created by gene and paul, putting ace on the creatures of the night record having no mention of his leaving the band while announcing the tour until after the tickets went on sale? and while he spend a few years with them he was probably the first kiss member to be treated like a employee rather a true member of the band. years go by and plenty of interviews saying how self destructive he was etc…. how on earth do you expect the man to survive that?? like, the fans, ace, and peter he too knows how it feels to be humiliated , emmbarrassed, and ashamed on how these two have desecrated the history, legacy of the band and now reality show band” kiss”.


    • JB on

      Yes, his shame and humiliation was so horrible it forced him to sell guitar picks for 1,000 dollars.


    • schocoman on

      Nothing else than “meeting” the band today and “talking” to them for the same insane amount of money for maybe a few minutes, if you are lucky, i.e. trying to make the most profit possible from everything that might have the brand name Kiss on it. And if you are broke you come up with all kinds of ideas …


    • JB on

      Here’s an idea…hold on schoco, ’cause it’s a biggie. How about getting a freaking job. Or, hmm… I don’t know, how about actually using the talent god gave him and make music. No denying Vinnie is a talented person so what’s the problem here. Nope, he’d rather rip off fans and steal their money. Or are you saying you approve of that? Your hate for Gene and Paul is beyond obvious but at least they actually “offer” something in return for fans money. Big difference.


    • DR on

      If KISS can charge it, and people will pay it – what’s the problem?


    • BertimusMaximus on

      Exactly DR!! The only people here bitching about greedy musicians, are the ones who can’t afford to BUY VIP ticket packages. If somebody is willing to pay 1000 bucks to meet Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Scab 1 and Scab 2 before the show, how does that impact someone else’s life? Seriously whose business is it anyway? Why would anyone care if not for jealousy? Personally, I’d never drop a grand to meet the current incarnation of the band. I think the most I’d ever be willing to do is drop 200 bucks, and the whole tab in exchange for two hours bullshitting with Ace Frehley. No matter what, I’d come out ahead, because Ace is sober now, so basically I’d be paying for my drinks, while listening to him and his hysterically funny stories for two hours.


    • BurntIce on

      “This isn’t the first time Cusano has cried foul and then played victim. Given the history of petty disputes he’s waged and lost over almost 30 years, it’s not hard to see Vinnie Vincent as a victim — a victim of Vincent Cusano, whom Gene Simmons once described as, “about the most self-destructive person I’ve ever met. This guy would hang himself as somebody’s offering him the keys to the kingdom.´ ”

      Article here: http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/how-rutherford-countys-resident-former-kiss-guitarist-squandered-his-stardom/Content?oid=2540107


  • Luijan Ranbel on

    OK Vinnie…
    Please realize most of us forgave Gene Simmons.
    Some of us will forgive Paul Stanley.
    All of us forgave Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
    It’s all good man.
    Rock & Roll is here to stay and will live forever long after we’re all gone.


    • DR on

      Thanks for speaking on behalf of all of us.


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