Eddie spoke with former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent at the the Atlanta KISS Expo on January 19th. Vincent discusses his life, his time in KISS, and his possible return to the music business, listen to the discussion below.
Vinnie Vincent joined KISS in 1982, replacing Ace Frehley. As the “Ankh Warrior,” he toured with the group in support of Creatures Of The Night, on which he played lead guitar on six songs prior to becoming an official member of the band. From there, KISS wrote and released Lick It Up — their first album without makeup — in 1983, a recording on which Vincent co-wrote eight of ten songs, including the title track, which remains a staple of the group’s live performances to this day.
14 Responses
Looked forward to this interview all week. Other than continuously professing his love for
Gene and Paul, he really didn’t say too much. Eddie was asking great questions and Vinnie
really didn’t offer up much information. Hopefully Eddie can get him again and get some
real answers to questions we’ve had for over 30 years. By the way, I am glad to see that
Vinnie seems to be doing well.
Great read. I really want things to work for this guy. There’s a strange past there . But I hope he’s doing better. Lick It Up is a much better album than the title track suggests and he cowrote 8 of 10 songs. And what is there to say about Creatures other than some argue it was there best ever…
Eddie did the best he could , Vinnie wasn’t willing to give up much , so for me it was a big let down , watching the YouTube clip he seemed very odd as he took the stage, it took a second to realize he looked to be transitioning…. my wife said he was wearing womens cloth’s, shoes ,make-up… I am glad he seems to be happy and mending fences at least with gene – I watched his performance clips too- the whole thing for me was kind of bizzare …… but I couldn’t look away-
could not agree more
eddie,you def tried,but vinny was ,well vinny,he gave up little,and no shock here,ive been saying this for over 2 years now,kiss will be going away next year (45th year).and they are going to have all members in some form going out with them,next up reconnecting with peter you will see.the one question i wish eddie would have asked is what was up with vinny turning into an old woman?????that was the elephant in the room
As far as Vinnie looking like/ transitioning to a woman? it would have been nice to hear the question tastefully asked , but it really doesn’t matter anymore – Laura Jane Grace aka Tom Gabel singer of against me – made the transition recently and it hasn’t seemed to change anything for them – they are a great band !
As far as kiss, I personally don’t see Gene or especially Paul wanting to play with Vinnie ever again transgender or otherwise – so I hope Vinnie puts out some new music of his own , not just old un -released stuff – I hope he is truly happy – it was great to see him embraced by everyone he seemed genuinely moved – Eddie, try for another in depth interview !
If he is ‘transitioning into a woman’ and if that makes people uncomfortable, isn’t that what rock n roll is supposed to be about – not being the norm? Or do we have a bunch of supermodels commenting here?
Great interview, Eddie! It was good to hear from Vinnie, and I’m glad he’s not bad mouthing Gene and Paul from KISS. It sounds like he is on good terms with Gene, at least. He admits to the mistakes he made, so that’s good. I agree with his take on the second Invasion album, as I found it to be pretty boring compared to the first one, which I still listen to on occasion. He’s a really good songwriter and guitarist, so I would love to see him put together some other musicians and put out some new music.