Vinnie Vincent states that he recorded every ‘Creatures of the Night’ and ‘Lick It Up’ shows

Vinnie Vincent states that he recorded every ‘Creatures of the Night’ and ‘Lick It Up’ shows

Former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent was interviewed yesterday (on April 19, 2019) by Mitch Lafon for the Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon podcast.

Vincent revealed that he has what are likely some highly sought after recordings as he indicated (as transcribed by Sleaze Roxx): “I have every single, every single show we ever played. Yes, I recorded every single Creatures show. I recorded every single Lick It Up show — US and Europe. Oh yeah, yeah. I’m the ultimate tourist you know. I’m the one with the cameras. I want to go visit this wherever it is. I’m the ultimate tourist.”

With respect to whether Vincent‘s recordings would sound like a bootleg or would it sound like if you’re in the venue, Vincent advised: “Err. I recorded them from the stage.So I recorded them on cassette and they virtually sound identical because we were that polished. So each show, there’s really no variation from show to show but no, they sound great, you know. It sounded like you’re in the venue. Absolutely.”

Wikipedia states the following in part about Vincent‘s time in KISS (with slight edits):

“After being introduced to the band by songwriter Adam Mitchell, Vincent was brought in as the replacement for guitarist Ace Frehley. Vincent‘s personality meshed well with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, thus enabling him to play lead guitar on six of the nine tracks on the Creatures of the Night album as well as co-writing three. After a disappointing Creatures of the Night/Tenth Anniversary tour, that finished on a high at what ended up being the “last” makeup show (and Kiss‘ largest crowd attendance) at Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Vincent returned to the studio with Kiss to record the Lick It Up album. His work was productive, yielding eight co-writes out of the ten songs on the album (a record for any member until Bruce Kulick‘s nine on Carnival of Souls and Stanley‘s ten on Monster).

Though contributing to Creatures of the Night as a session player before being named as Frehley‘s replacement in December 1982, Vincent, for all the public knew, was the official guitarist in Kiss and played all the lead guitar tracks on Lick it Up. In what was a frequent occurrence for former guitarist Frehley, a “ghost player” was asked to play on the album, with Rick Derringer recording the solo on the opening track.

Though the band seemed to have renewed vigor on stage, all was not well. Vincent‘s refusal to sign the employment contract strained the relationship with Simmons/Stanley. 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 unofficial. This ultimately led to Vincent leaving the band after the North American leg of the “Lick It Up” tour.

After the Lick It Up Tour ended in March 1984, Vincent was terminated from the band, and replaced by Mark St. John.”

You can listen to the interview with Vinnie Vincent by Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon on April 19, 2019 below:

Vinnie Vincent interview from April 19th 2019

On this episode of ROCK TALK WITH MITCH LAFON – a new and exclusive interview (recorded April 19th 2019) with guitarist extraordinaire VINNIE VINCENT. We dis…