How Vinnie Vincent Comeback Singer Got Ill-fated Gig

03-29-2019

The man who was recruited to sing at former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent's canceled comeback shows has revealed how he landed the gig with the reclusive music star.

Singer Jim Crean (Hair Nation, Appice Brothers) explained during an interview with The Metal Voice how he came to be involved in the shows that were called off by Vinnie. He said,, "Carmine Appice played with Vinnie Vincent back in the 80s before he was in KISS. I think the guys from KISS, Gene and Paul called Carmine up back then to find out what Vinnie was all about before he got the KISS gig and they always remained friends over the years.

"Then this whole thing came up where Vinnie came out of seclusion for 30 years and somehow the agent got a hold of Carmine and asked Carmine if he would like to do a couple shows with them. So then Carmine got Tony Franklin. After they booked shows, one was at Graceland Tennessee but Vinnie cancelled it and so then they had these other two dates booked and they got postponed.

"Robert Fleischman the initial Vinnie Vincent singer was gonna do the shows but then he decided he didn't want to do it. So then they were looking for a new singer and so Carmine was out on the road with me and Carmine had mentioned to me. Carmine said I should demo some songs with me signing and send it out to Vinnie. I said okay, so when I got back to New York I sent Vinnie's agent a couple songs.

"I never spoke to Vinnie, it was all through email, actually I sent an email to Carmine, then Carmine sent to his agent and then to Vinnie. Carmine called me up and he goes, 'yeah I submitted like four different singers to Vinnie and they were big-name guys and Vinnie said out of four or five guys he liked you the best'.

"Then I got a phone call from Derrick Christopher Vinnie's agent and he said, 'Vinnie wants to use you for this for these two upcoming shows in Nashville'.

"We then came up with a figure that we needed to make it work and we came up with a tour schedule the whole nine yards and rehearsal schedule. In regards to a setlist it consisted of a lot of Vincent songs and a few KISS songs. The KISS songs that were on the set list were 'Lick It Up', 'Unholy', 'A Million To One' and 'Exciter'.

"We demo'd three songs (but it wasn't Vinnie playing these songs), they came really good. Then they made the announcement with the three of us as Vinnie's all-star band that Vinnie was going to go out there and shred. Carmine talked to Vinnie in depth about it after that Vinnie decided that he just wanted to make this upcoming shows just a shred show where he just goes out there and just jams. So basically Tony and Carmine Appice just kind of keep a beat and Vinnie just plays. I guess a little later he decided that he just didn't want to do that either."

"In all of this I have to say the fans were really excited about the whole thing I got a lot of positive response from the KISS fans because they're the biggest and best fans in the world, they're so loyal, they're awesome. Actually I made a lot of fans and friends over this to be honest with you it was cool and an honor. I did a demo and then somehow, I don't know who, put it out on the internet, somehow it got released on some KISS page of me singing one of the songs and the KISS fans really got behind it. It was like, 'wow this is great, this guy can really sing it great', so that was cool.

"All this wasn't about that for me, it was about helping Vinnie get out there and show people that this guy can still rock. Tony and Carmine were pretty solid band for him to come out there and but the show was gonna be about Vinnie and that's how I was gonna present it, this is about a great guitar player."