CARMINE APPICE Says VINNIE VINCENT 'Looked Like He Was Scared' When He Played At Pre-'Kiss Kruise' Party

Legendary drummer Carmine Appice spoke to WSOU about the recent cancelation of former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent's comeback concerts. The shows, which were supposed to take place February 8 and February 9 in Nashville, were set to feature Vincent alongside Appice and bassist Tony Franklin (DAVID GILMOUR, JIMMY PAGE, THE FIRM).

"Something happened between Vinnie and the promoter," Carmine said. "I know there was something going on. I talked to Vinnie a few times, and him and the promoter were not seeing eye to eye on a lot of stuff. But I always thought that if Vinnie messed this up, or whoever messed it up, I don't know if there'll be another chance. 'Cause this is his comeback. He already canceled it once [before]. And if gets canceled again, nobody's gonna care anymore. [They'll say] 'I'm not gonna go even buy a ticket. He's not gonna show up. Or something's gonna happen.' But I was looking forward to it, because me and Tony Franklin — I love playing with Tony, and we were gonna play the Vinnie KISS songs, which would have been fun."

According to Carmine, he was a bit concerned about Vincent's ability to put on a good show after watching a video of the guitarist playing three KISS songs with FOUR BY FATE last October at the pre-Kiss Kruise party in Miami, Florida.

"Vinnie played with me in a band before he was in KISS called CARMINE AND THE ROCKERS, and I know he's a great player and a great writer and a good singer and he's a good stage performer," Carmine said. "But after I saw that [footage]... Vinnie's always been like a showoff kind of guy, and he just stood there. He looked like he was scared to me. I asked him: 'Can you still play? You've been out 30 years.' He goes, 'Yeah. I've been playing in my house. Yeah, of course, I can still play.' I said, 'Okay. I believe you.' But I don't know what happened. All this other crazy stuff was going on with singers and this and that, and the promoter. It's too bad, 'cause it would have been fun."

Robert Fleischman, a former member of JOURNEY and Vincent's post-KISS band VINNIE VINCENT INVASION, was supposed to sing for Vinnie but abruptly pulled out of the project in November, saying that he was unhappy about elements of the production.

Derek Christopher, the promoter of Vinnie's comeback concerts, said that he was "shocked" by Vincent's decision to scrap the shows two weeks before they were scheduled to take place.

Vincent's plan for his comeback has publicly changed several times. In the initial announcement, the show — which was originally slated to happen in November — was described as a true solo gig with Vinnie singing and playing songs from his career on acoustic guitar and telling stories about the old days.

Last summer, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons suggested in an interview that Vincent was "his own worst enemy" and expressed his doubt that Vinnie would successfully relaunch his career.

"There's something called the classic failure mechanism, which I was told by doctors and everything — I'm not saying he is one," Simmons said at the time when asked about Vincent's attempt to trademark the name "Vinnie Vincent's Kiss". "But there are people who simply cannot handle when things are starting to go their way — success — so they torpedo it by making stupid decisions to make sure they don't succeed, so they can deal with that."

Vincent — who was a member of KISS when the band publicly "unmasked" in 1983 — made several public appearances last year after spending the past two decades out of the public eye.

Vinnie joined KISS in 1982, replacing Ace Frehley. As the "Ankh Warrior," he toured with the group in support of "Creatures Of The Night", on which he played lead guitar on six songs prior to becoming an official member of the band.