Drummer Carmine Appice recently spoke with WSOU. The drummer explained why guitarist Vinnie Vincent canceled the shows he planned to play in Nashville, TN.
Appice said [via blabbermouth.net], “Something happened between Vinnie and the promoter. I know there was something going on. I talked to Vinnie a few times, and him and the promoter were not seeing eye to eye on a lot of stuff. But I always thought that if Vinnie messed this up, or whoever messed it up, I don’t know if there’ll be another chance. ‘Cause this is his comeback. He already canceled it once [before]. And if gets canceled again, nobody’s gonna care anymore. [They’ll say] ‘I’m not gonna go even buy a ticket. He’s not gonna show up. Or something’s gonna happen.’ But I was looking forward to it, because me and Tony Franklin — I love playing with Tony, and we were gonna play the Vinnie KISS songs, which would have been fun.”
According to the drummer, he was a bit concerned about Vincent’s ability to put on a good show after watching a video of the guitarist playing three KISS songs with Four By Fate last October at the pre-Kiss Kruise party in Miami, Florida.
“Vinnie played with me in a band before he was in KISS called Carmine And The Rockers, and I know he’s a great player and a great writer and a good singer and he’s a good stage performer,” Appice said. “But after I saw that [footage]… Vinnie’s always been like a showoff kind of guy, and he just stood there. He looked like he was scared to me. I asked him, ‘Can you still play? You’ve been out 30 years.’ He goes, ‘Yeah. I’ve been playing in my house. Yeah, of course, I can still play.’ I said, ‘Okay. I believe you.’ But I don’t know what happened. All this other crazy stuff was going on with singers and this and that, and the promoter. It’s too bad, ’cause it would have been fun.”
Robert Fleischman, a former member of Journey and Vincent’s post-KISS band, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, was supposed to sing for Vincent but abruptly pulled out of the project in November, saying that he was unhappy about elements of the production.
Derek Christopher, the promoter of the guitarist’s comeback concerts, said that he was “shocked” by Vincent’s decision to scrap the shows two weeks before they were scheduled to take place.
7 Responses
Carmine, similar to Ace Frehley was great on TMS. A true talent with good insights.
30 years is a long time to go without performing, obviously too long for Vinnie.
Vinnie’s whole comeback has been a clusterf***. Vinnie could have taken the hype from his appearance with Gene Simmons and really turned it into something special for himself. Rather, he has caused frustration for fans, spawned rumors that he can no longer play guitar, etc….nobody is gonna give a rat’s ass about Vinnie any more. He had his chances, and he sadly blew them.
I think its pretty obvious at least to me , and maybe i’m totally wrong here , but I think there is a lot going on with Vinnie emotionally , I think he really may have needed some money , and he came out of hiding at the urging of someone, business associate, a friend, possibly Derek Christopher ? telling him the time is right , there is a huge fan base that wants to hear from you etc…. so he came out of hiding and it was overall pretty positive for him- the logical next step was to put together a comeback show – but he seemed to do it all wrong it takes some time rehearsing with a band to become tight and to gell with your rhythm section , I heard he hadn’t even rehearsed with his band when he scrapped the Nashville shows ???????- And I dont think he was ready mentally, he obviously has a huge gender issue he is dealing with , and he also seemed really not very good musically from the clips on youtube – I think Carmine is 100 % correct when he says no one will care anymore- if he truly wants to play again – I think Vinnie needs to publicly tell his side of it , apologize if need be , put together a real band , get in a room and rehearse for 2 or 3 months and really get it right – he should have never moved forward with scheduling any shows if there were red flags with the promoter – he screwed fans over twice – I never saw his comeback shows happening , what happened didn’t surprise me at all , It didn’t surprise anyone for that matter – Vinnie might have one more chance, if he surrounds himself with professionals and does it right this time…..
I heard Carmine wanted “hot legs” on the set-list and Vinnie said I`m out.
lol!!!!!!!!!