Whatever Happened To…Vinnie Vincent?

In the late 1970s, Vincent John Cusano found himself at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.  The young songwriter had recently ended a stint as guitarist in the soft rock band Treasure.  This was Felix Cavaliere's new group following the break-up of The Young Rascals.  And they were terrible.

Light a fire, pour two glasses of Ten High and slide up next to your lady on that orange leather couch...because it's time for the smooth sounds of Treasure:

By the time that band had, understandably, went ignored by the general public, Vinny was married and his wife had just given birth to twin daughters.  He needed a gig.  And he found one at Paramount writing songs for Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi.

If you're old enough to remember JLC, you'll recall that, once per week, Erin Moran and Scott Baio would bust out a new tune at the restaurant where their group held court as the house band.  Vinnie Vincent wrote (or co-wrote) most of those songs.

Vinny also supplemented his income with session work and non-television songwriting jobs which often led him to collaborate with other artists.  One of those fellow songwriters happened to be Paul Stanley's songwriting partner, Adam Mitchell.

Following the debacle of Kiss's Music From The Elder album, Ace Frehley had pretty much had it with Gene Simmons.  Things hadn't been the same in the group since his pal Peter Criss quit and, furthermore, his drinking had become completely out of control.

By the time Ace stopped showing up for recording sessions for the new Kiss album, Creatures Of The Night, it was pretty much a given that Ace had one foot out the door.

Paul and Gene, however, needed to finish the record.  That's when the aforementioned Adam Mitchell recommended Vinny Cusano for the staggering task of replacing Ace.

In a stroke of good fortune, Gene, Paul and Vinny clicked and he would go on to play uncredited lead guitar on six of the Creatures Of The Night tracks, co-writing three of them.

Due to contractual obligations, Vinny didn't appear on the cover of Creatures Of The Night.  Ace was there.  Despite having co-written, alongside Simmons, the album's most endearing song, "I Love It Loud", the Kiss fan-base didn't realize that Ace was out of the band.  Ace Frehley even begrudgingly appeared in the video, miming to Vinny's guitar work:

Bottom line, Ace didn't want to be there, Gene and Paul didn't want him around anymore but, in order to properly market the record, the label felt it was important that Ace's departure not be announced until the record went Gold.

Creatures sold so poorly that it didn't go Gold until 1994, so clearly that didn't happen.

In fact, Ace's departure had been negotiated a full year prior and Frehley had landed a pretty sweet deal.  He would continue to receive royalties on albums he didn't work on through 1985.

When the time came to decide on a permanent replacement for Ace, Vinny was not a complete shoe-in.  The band quietly auditioned Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake and Dio fame, Richie Sambora (later of Bon Jovi) and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Eddie Van Halen asked to audition but Gene, a longtime champion of Van Halen, refused to consider him.  He was convinced that Eddie should stick it out with his own band, despite the increasingly tumultuous relationship with David Lee Roth  (had Gene accepted, we would never have heard the VH classic, 1984).

Ultimately, of course, Vinny did get the job...on one condition.  Gene wanted him to change his name.  Simmons noted that Vinny Cusano felt "too ethnic".  Specifically, according to Simmons, "it sounded like a fruit vendor."

Ummmm....ok.

Vinny suggested the name Mick Fury.  That was rejected  (thank God).  Finally, all parties agreed on Vinnie Vincent...for some reason.

Straight out of the gate, Vinnie set about working to update the band's sound.  More so than any other member of Kiss at the time, Vinnie was plugged in to the new sound happening in Hollywood.  Bands like Quiet Riot and Motley Crue were ushering in a new wave of melodic heavy metal and Vincent firmly believed that this was the direction the band needed to go in order to mend its fading fortunes.

Vinnie was absolutely right.  Given his pop sensibilities as a songwriter, coupled with his virtuosic ability to shred guitar right alongside the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Vincent helped to welcome in an entirely new generation to the Kiss Army.

He was briefly given some really silly make-up to wear.  The Ankh.  It was Egyptian.

Thankfully, that didn't last long.

Not because someone suddenly realized that it looked stupid but because Kiss fired him.

Vincent was kicked out of Kiss at the end of the Creatures Of The Night tour.  Why? Because he kept insisting on being recognized as a full member of the group and not simply a hired hand.  That's not how Kiss works.

By this time, Gene, Paul and Ace were the sole shareholders in the group.  Drummer Eric Carr (Pete Criss's replacement), for example, was also only a "contract employee" of Kiss.

But Vinnie wouldn't shut up about it.  He insisted that his contributions merited a much larger share of the band.  Rather than deal with the constant bitching, Paul and Gene kicked him out.

But then they promptly hired him back when they couldn't find a better guitarist.  And when they realized that Vinnie's new songs were actually pretty kick-ass...and perfect for the next record.

For Vinnie's first, official Kiss album, Lick It Up, the band ditched the make-up.  Vinnie co-wrote eight of the ten songs on the record and it became the band's first Gold record in three years.  It opened the door for Kiss in the MTV-age.  Tracks like "All Hell's Breakin' Loose" and the title track marked the band's return to Rock radio.

But Vinnie was well on his way to being fired again.  This time for grand-standing and embarrassing Paul and Gene on stage.

As previously mentioned, Vinnie Vincent was well-regarded as a brilliant guitarist.  And, in 1983, it seemed that every band worth their salt had a guitar player trying to out-Eddie Eddie Van Halen.  Vinnie certainly fit that bill.

The problem?  He would often go off on un-planned, long-winded guitar solos during the band's shows, pissing off Gene and Paul, who ran a tight ship and set-list.

Here's an example of Vinnie's extravagance.  According to Gene, this solo was supposed to last about "2 or 3 minutes":

"Onstage, Vinnie was hell-bent on using every solo as an opportunity to showcase himself," Stanley remembered in his autobiography. "We used to call it the high point of the show — because everybody in the audience left to go get high."

They were also embarrassed by Vinnie's general on-stage antics.  It could be said that Gene and Paul were so used to playing "characters" on stage that someone like Vinnie, being an in-your-face over-the-top guitarist, felt uncivilized and, above all, unprofessional.

Regardless, at the end of the tour, Vinnie was fired.  Again.

By now, Vinnie was a well-known entity in the world of hard rock.  He formed a new band, The Vinnie Vincent Invasion and signed a major label deal pretty quickly.  The group included both Dana Strum and Mark Slaughter who, following the disillusion of the band, would go on to form  (you guessed it, you savvy reader, you) Slaughter.

It only took two albums, the band's self titled debut and All Systems Go, before the group imploded, mostly under the pressure of Vincent's by-now enormous ego.  The records sold reasonably well.  In fact, the band's debut is generally regarded as one of the finest of the "hair metal" era.  But nobody could work with Vinnie.  Both Slaughter and former drummer Bobby Rock have gone on record stating that Vincent's impossibly high standards for the genre impeded the group's success.

It was only rock 'n' roll, after all.  But following his unceremonious departure from one of the biggest bands in the world, Vinnie felt that he needed to make a point.  He needed to the show the world how awesome he was.

Soon, Vinnie couldn't find a gig.  His reputation preceded him and players stopped answering his calls for auditions.

Finally, Vincent signed a publishing contract and went back to his roots.  He began writing mellow ballads for soft-rock artists.  He'd come full circle.

A chance meeting with Gene Simmons at an L.A. recording complex many years after their partnership, led to a mending of fences.

In his book, Gene writes "Vinnie Vincent came up to me and apologized for causing the band all the grief while he was a member.  He wanted to patch things up and wondered if I would consider writing some songs with him."

Gene took him up on the offer.  After all, for all of his faults, no one has ever considered Vinnie Vincent anything but an awesome songwriter.  And no one would ever accuse Gene of passing up an opportunity to cash in.

And cash in, they did.  Vinnie co-wrote "Unholy," "Heart of Chrome" and "I Just Wanna" for the 1992 Kiss album, Revenge.  "Unholy", in particular, became a big Rock radio hit for the band.

But then Vinnie decided to sue Kiss.  Inexplicably, with his fortunes on the rise and his reputation softened, Vinnie chucked it all with another ego meltdown.

Vinnie lost in court  (the details of the suit have never been made public).  Gene vowed to never work with him again.  Again.

His prospects fledgling worse than ever, Vinnie signed a contract with the small Enigma indie label for a new project a few years later.  Once again, this album saw Vinnie burn through musicians and his meager budget almost immediately.  He insisted on recording in six different recording studios, spent countless hours trying to perfect a few bars of a solo and he refused to allow his session partners to take home tapes of demos so that they might practice before recording which, in turn, added unnecessary studio hours.

The album never materialized and left the indie label nearly bankrupt.

At a rare public appearance at a Kiss convention in the 90s, a shy Vinnie Vincent announced that he was going to form his own record company in order to release his work according to his own impeccable standards.

To date, Vinnie hasn't offically released new music in over 20 years.

But that doesn't mean that he hasn't promised new material.

Vinnie tried to re-enter the world of songwriting.  He moved to Nashville for a time and tried to break into Country music but that didn't click.  To date, Vincent still owns property and two homes in Smyrna, Tennessee that sit abandoned and in disrepair; relics from his attempt to become a Nashville songwriter  (more on that in a moment).

He did, however, find another avenue of income.  Long resistant to appearances at Kiss conventions, Vincent finally relented and found that he could make upwards of $10,000 per showing (more if he wore the make-up) simply for doing an hour-long Q&A with fans and posing for pictures.

Enjoy the awkwardness:

Vinnie used the money he made from these appearances to promise long-waiting fans a new collection of material, tentatively titled Guitarmageddon. He began taking pre-orders with some fans paying as much as $120.  As a show of good faith, Vinnie issued a 4 song EP titled Euphoria exclusively for backers.   It was good enough that more pre-orders began to come in.

The album never happened and, to this day, fans are bitter take to social media to claim that Vinnie stole their money.

Vincent remained a recluse thereafter.  According to Rolling Stone, he reneged on a contract for more Kiss Convention appearances, despite having taken the advance  (he said he feared for his life due to the adoration of fans and demanded an armed guard; when the promoter refused, he quit).

It wasn't until 2011 that Vinnie made the news again.

His wife, Diane, had suddenly appeared at the Murfreesboro Sheriff Department's office, reeking of booze and covered in blood. She told a deputy that her husband had slapped her face, grabbed her hair and dragged her through shattered glass.

When officers arrived at Vinnie's home, they found not only evidence that backed up his wife's claim but they also found four dead dogs in sealed containers.

Vinnie was charged with domestic violence but not animal cruelty.  He was ordered to attend anger-management classes.  Thereafter, Vinnie sort of disappeared for good.

At least, Vinnie doesn't make a lot of public appearances anymore.  Now 63, it's widely rumored that Vincent makes thinly-veiled internet appearances on Kiss-related fan forums.

Using online aliases, the alleged Vinnie Vincent talks about the virtues and brilliance of his time in the band, citing intricacies that only the real Vinnie Vincent would actually know and care to describe.

While no one has been able to prove that /u/vinnyfan4ever is really Vinnie Vincent in the Kiss subReddit, most agree that...yeah - it's probably him.

Diane Cusano, who reportedly kept the household financially secure as a successful Nashville realtor, died in 2014 as a result of chronic alcoholism.

Ironically, Diane was an ex-girlfriend of Ace Frehley that Vinnie met at a Kiss convention.

Woah.  This "Whatever Happened To" is kinda sad, isn't it?

I'll try to do better in next week's edition.  We'll find a happy ending.  Promise!

Your thoughts on Vinnie Vincent?  Leave 'em in the comments below!