Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Vinnie Vincent (born Vincent John Cusano on August 6, 1952) is an American guitarist and songwriter, well known as a former member in the band Kiss.
Early life
Vincent picked up the guitar at an early age and was inspired by bluegrass and rock and roll. In 1980, Vincent moved to Los Angeles, California where he became a staff songwriter for the television series Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi where many of the series songs were written on Vincent's acoustic guitar while sitting at the "Cunningham's" kitchen table on the "Happy Days" set, during off-time from the show's rehearsal schedule. Vincent has said the times of working at the Paramount lot were genuinely "happy days". According to the site "Kiss Related Recordings", Vincent has played with the bands Hunter, Warrior, Hitchhikers, and Heat going as far back as 1970.
Kiss
After befriending Gene Simmons, Vincent was brought in as the replacement for guitarist Ace Frehley. Vincent's personality meshed well with Simmons and Paul Stanley. However, Vincent's refusal to sign the employment contract strained the relationship. Due partly to disputes over what his role in the band was and his pay would be (some reports indicated that Vincent had asked for, and was flatly denied, a percentage of the band's gross profits), and despite the exhortations of both Simmons and Stanley, all through his tenure with the band Vincent refused to sign any contract making his employment official. This ultimately lead to Vincent leaving the band after the European leg of the "Lick It Up" tour.
At a March show in Quebec, as the band prepared to close out their set, Vincent broke into an impromptu solo, leaving the other band members standing onstage with nothing to do. After the "Lick It Up" tour ended in March 1984, Vincent was terminated from the band, and replaced by Mark St. John (birth name Mark Norton). Despite parting on bad terms, Vincent was later utilized by Kiss as a songwriter on the 1992 album Revenge, contributing to the songs "Unholy", "Heart Of Chrome" and "I Just Wanna". Vincent again fell out of favor with Simmons and Stanley, as they claimed that Vincent again began "making all kinds of crazy demands and pulling the same kind of crazy stuff all over again".
Vinnie Vincent Invasion
Vincent formed the band Vinnie Vincent Invasion in the mid-1980s and released two studio albums.
Later career
A tribute album entitled Kiss My Ankh: A Tribute To Vinnie Vincent was released by SplitScreen Entertainment on August 27, 2008. The album consists of new recordings of songs from Vincent's careers with Kiss and the Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Featured artists include Steve Brown of Trixter, Troy Patrick Farrell of White Lion, T.J. Racer of Nitro, Mike Weeks of Robert Fleischman's band, Sheldon Tarsha of Adler's Appetite, Chris Caffery of Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Ryan Roxie from the Alice Cooper band and rock and roll comic C.C. Banana, who performs a parody of the Kiss song "Unholy" (rewritten as a roast of Danger Danger vocalist Ted Poley).
Quotes
"My chemistry with the band helped put them back on top and gave them a musical credibility that they'd never had before, yet I couldn't get the recognition I needed. I felt like I was imprisoned in a small cubicle, like it was someone else's house..." (Vinnie about leaving Kiss in Kerrang! Magazine. Black Diamond (writer: Dale Sherman), 1997)
