Vinnie Vincent Did Cancel Comeback Shows Says Appice

04-26-2019

Drum legend Carmine Appice has disputed claims by Vinnie Vincent after the former KISS guitarist denied canceling a pair of comeback shows in Nashville earlier this year.

Vinnie discussed the cancelation in a recent interview and claimed that is was the promotor who pulled the plug on the shows. Carmine was asked about those claims by The Metal Voice and told a different story.

Appice said, "The promoter did nothing but try his best to make these gigs happen. The promoter, Derek Christopher, hired me because I knew Vinnie and I talked to Vinnie and we said maybe it would be cool if I did the gigs with him, and Vinnie Vincent agreed. Derek hired me and put the deal together, then I brought bassist Tony Franklin in, whom Vinnie never heard of before. Then they were going through tons of singers and I said I have this guy named Jim Crean that can sing high just like the original Vinnie Vincent invasion singer Robert Fleischman. I told Jim Crean about it and he was up for it. Then Derek said, 'Why don't you put Jim Crean's voice on a couple of Vinnie's tracks?' and he would send it to Vinnie and see what he thinks, and that's what we did. And from what I remember, Vinnie said to the promoter that he thought Jim Crean was great.

So, we were moving ahead and waiting for a setlist, and then when we never got any set list from Vinnie the promoter sent me, Jim and Tony some lists of songs, which included Vinnie's songs and KISS songs and I thought that was what we were going to do. And then Vinnie started to steer away. And I said to Vinnie 'I saw that clip of you playing that pre-KISS cruise clip, you did not look comfortable on stage, you looked scared.' And I blatantly said 'Can you still play? You didn't do any solos.' Vinnie said to me, 'Yeah I can still play.' Then, later on, Vinnie said 'I don't want to do any KISS songs or my songs, I just want to jam for an hour and a half...' after he just put out a press release with the promoter saying 'I'm gonna do KISS songs, Vinnie Vincent songs...' This is him verbally saying that on the ad. Then he changed his mind on that and said he just wanted to jam."

In a follow up question where Vinnie was quoted as saying he did not cancel the gigs, Carmine replied, "The cancellations came from Vinnie. He did not want to do the gig. I gave Vinnie three other singers to pick from but Vinnie did not like them, and Vinnie said Jim Crean was good. Then Vinnie to blame it all on Derek the promoter, who is the nicest guy and is now really ill since all of this happened, is bad. Derek has not been able to stand up for himself because he has been really ill, in and out of the hospital. The last thing on his mind is Vinnie Vincent right now, he is trying to get healthy. And to see Vinnie saying it's Derek's fault, it wasn't his fault. Derek did everything he can to make these gig happen. Vinnie is saying it's Derek's fault I'm saying it's not his fault, Derek did everything and beyond to make things happen, to keep it on track. Derek brought Vinnie out of hiding, he put together that KISS expo that Vinnie came out on, that made Vinnie money, Vinnie didn't do that Derek did that."

Crean also reacted by telling his side of the story. He said, "Derek called me and wanted me to sing some of Vinnie's songs, so I did that, they got back to Vinnie and they said he was very impressed with it. Derek called me the day after he talked to Vinnie and said that Vinnie was very happy with the vocals and he loves it, and we are going to make a press announcement and put a poster up as well. Then Derek called me up and said to me to lease start sharing the information to get a buzz going. So then we started promoting it and Vinnie started changing his mind."

Crean was also asked about being scapegoat and responded, "I don't think Vinnie Vincent should be blaming me, I was there just trying to help him out. I came into the band late and Carmine is a very high profile artist and so is Tony Franklin so I guess that leaves me and the promoter to blame." Stream the full interview here