Donnie Vie declares himself to be pretty much Enuff Z’Nuff and at least sonically

“Its been 12 years since I’ve made the 13th Enuff Znuff (studio)record “Dissonance” I personally dont consider ” greatest hits rcds”, “compilation rcds”, live rcds”, cover song rcds” or” nostalgia early demo releases making a record, though we released at least one of all the above to collectively total in the ballpark of 18 record releases. I also personally feel that once a band loses their main writer and lead vocalist, anything following also cant really be considered more records added to its repitior.

There are rare xceptions where in cases like ACDC, Van Halen, Survivor,, Genesis and I really off hand cant think of any others where the band picks up and continues on acquiring a totally brand new singer/ writer who takes that band into an entirely new chapter with a sound of its own with its own unique and strong career and sound of its own, but I also never understood how they didn’t close the previous great legacy and give the band a new name to go with its new identity, because that is no longer that band and now you have the whole comparison thing going on as the band was held and adored for its sound and persona that made it great and got it where it was and to their fans they want to hear what they heard, loved and knew the band to be as it grew and evolved.

Like if a person dies someone dosnt and cant just slide in and continue on being that person or considered being that person because they or it simply is not nor would they ever be. The person or band is gone, and this is a new person or band, and this is a great example. When a band does or trys to do it, unless the original HAS died and for the sake of the rest of the original great members being stuck with absolutely no choice but to memorialize and give it a go, having much more powerful material left that continued to maintain their integrity and live up to the bands reputation as a truly great band and that factor being decided by the fans who are the only opinion that matters and is the only way this could be successfully achieved.

This is not a decision anyone else’s agenda can make, because you cannot ever buy or find a substitute for their opinions, feelings and love that gave the band its success and reason for exsistantance. Any other reasoning for keeping the name is to capitalize on the brand name and for personal agenda meaning the fans feelings and opinions do not matter or figure into the equation of continuing on cause they are given no say or choice in the matter.. all they can do is choose to be supportive or not supportive but that is the power to decide if the band gets to keep on doing business and for how long.

A band can ride on the coat tails of its former glory by still performing the hit songs for a while as they try to squeeze every last drop of success out of those songs,, but then its just like any other band performing those songs and ethically would have nearly just as much right to use the bands name as the other guys who are using it and who are not.. this is simple math when you strip away all the politics and controversy, bla bla bla, that ain’t the band, that ain’t what we want when we pay our money to go see it. Those who have no issues with this and continue to support it really weren’t or aren’t the fans of the band, they are fans of the songs or friends of the band. I feel so strongly about this that though I am or was pretty much the songwriter and definately the singer both giving the sound of Enuff Znuff, therefore basically besides playing the drums and bass( and lead gtr on the first 3 records or a few single exceptions only,) am pretty much Enuff Znuff, at least sonically.

Say what u want about my personal issues or reputation , politics etc…you can NOT change this fact nor can it be debated or rerationalized. Still with this being the case, even I still would never have dreamt of continuing on trying to use that name,, because I am just Donnie Vie, the singer/writer/ Guitarist/ etc. . Of or from Enuff Znuff. Derek Frigo, Vik Foxx, Chip Znuff AND Donnie Vie IS Enuff Znuff. Enuff Znuff made 3 studio records. A live record,, a greatest hits and 1 early demo collection record.. That is it!!

NOW,,,, there have been offshoots of the band using the same name with Ricky Parent as the drummer, that I feel no problem still calling it that because its just the drums and our band was not Led Zepplin or Rush or Nirvana where the drums were as vital as anything else in creating the sound and identity of the band and its integral reputation. In our case, just drums and the beat to drive the songs. If anything, sonically and technically I feel and prefer Ricky to be more of a contributing factor to the sound than his predecessor, so realistically the same band. Now Frigo on the other hand, take preference or viewing his skills as an individual player whether or not suitable for the style of songs he was playing( and any intelligent listener could see that he was clearly not cut out to be creating popesque Beatleistic songs. He didn’t grow up listening or interested in that, though he did appreciate it he was more suited for what he know which was heavy guitar orientated.

Anyways the departure of him, that Enuff znuff known only for the hits ” new thing, fly high, etc.. was no longer, and the band as the 3 piece studio members( I added all that contribution to my job detail) should have gone by its own name. ( as I tried with Chip n Donnie” which was my initial intent to be just Donnie, but for business and financial reasoning continued on, as I was still the main contributing factor but just never felt it. It then became what I feel my solo band with minor creative contributions but also with the restrictions and limitations that came with the name and reputation and egos to achieve the full creative potential as I am able to do now as I have picked a lane and open the throttle.

Now the various revolving door of live members are absolutely irrelevant as they contribute nothing but to learn and play whats already been created but cant be achieved obviously cuz i can’t sing ld vox, play lead guitar, piano, keyboards, bg vox etc all at the same time and never resorted to backing trax like most have and do. These guys are absolutely inconsequential or have any value in the equation of what the band is. They may as well be anybody and in any other band just as long as they are competent and do their job properly.

There have been and still are some very good and intelligent players in the live act. Johnny Monaco started as lead guitar and bg vox, which was huge for me. Suddenly I had bg vox which are vital to the sound of anything I create. He is a very skilled gtr player, also lead vocalist but also an artist and fan who appreciates the creative elements that make up the songs, and isn’t or wasn’t driven by just getting the job done and getting paid with the least amount of effort applied like learning and rehearsing new, cooler or at least more material from the repitoir giving the band 10 times more integrity and reaching greater potential, making it a far greater experience for not only the fans, but for me as the artist. Ive gotta love it to sell it to you.

The current line up in Enuff Znuff is composed of top notch talented players, so theres no way its not going to sound powerful and great, but they are all ( including chip) just players who would have the same competences in any other band, but also any other competent players could fill their shoes in that band, cuz aside from the 2 latest releases under the Enuff Znuff name havent contributed a note to the records or creative process. ( though I have no idea who did what on these records except obviously the writing, ld vox and bass) which brings me back to my initial point and thought.

That is no more Enuff Znuff than any other 4 guys playing those songs . That is one original member unsuccessfully trying to do the job of the guy who is or was the job along with his own actual job that he does do better than anyone else could,,, and with 3 other random guys helping him to go out and have fun and make $ using the credibility of something else. Wouldnt that be great for everybody to be able to do that? Just say your this or that, and therefor be. As simple as that. I wanna be the Beatles but I am just DonnieVie so I will resort to exsisting or not exsisting on the merits of my own effort, abilities and NAME. haha.

Well this is not another one of my tirades in protest of violation and moral ethics, nor another personal attack on former colleagues. This is me saying, I spent my entire life building and cultivating a brand name product using all my abilities as an artist and a lead vocalist and have achieved great integrity and credibility, earning the respect and adoration of tens of thousands ( probably collectively a million or more) of fans, pears and heros of mine in this field of work. And though I have every intent on pursuing an entirely different avenue, exploring possibilities of my potentials, I also have now realized I have more to contribute and achieve to add to the entity ive already established bearing the name Enuff Znuff.

Ive stepped away from it for various reasons for some time now and found other forms of artistic fulfillment but now am feeling inspired to revisit the creative mindset of where I left off years ago and felt for the time being had reached the limits of what I was able to accomplish with that situation. Ive reached out to chip, and we have been communicating once again and discussing the disagreements and issues we each have ,in hopes of at the least finding compromise, and validations in hopes of reaching common ground and at least for me personally finding peace of mind and soul to put the negatives to rest and embrace the positives and memories of what we have experienced and achieved together personally and as a band. We were able to successfully accomplish a new piece of work using the old chemistry and formula, and that you will all soon hear on his soon to be released new record.

He claims that I quit, and I remember it more as basically me being ostracized, and that has yet to be established. But under the current state of the world and future uncertain I have had a revelation that regardless of what was that life is uncertain and time is not a given luxury to take for granted. In other words I have and am writing new and greater Enuff Znuff material and have the desire and full intent to add it to the 260 song roster of killer shit. It is for the creative hunger and for the love and wishes of the fans that I serve and all else falls beneath those priorities when it comes to this. I love the guy, I love being able to just call or text him again infact I just called him the other day to tell him it turned out to be his old antique clawfoot bathtub I found and bought for my mothers new bathroom.

As soon as I heard his bass and bg vox on the new song it instantly transformed it into Enuff Znuff from just another DV song. Regardless of contribution % ‘s it is a distinct sound of its own and one I still dig very much. Through our conversations I’m still unclear of his intentions, but im hoping they are of best interest of the name and of the fans. Either way, with or without him, I’m recording and releasing new Enuff Znuff material asap, as I follow what the songs tell me they are, and these are telling me they are Enuff Znuff. I know he’s putting out a new ez record but as I’ve told him as well, That is not Enuff Znuff, But this stuff is and with him its former glory. Im interested in yalls opinions good or bad and I’d like to hear them, cuz like I said its your band and your songs not mine or his and you need to be factored into the equation. At least you are in my opinion. Sorry so long, but im a windbag and a writer. Hahaha???✌✌✌”