Ex-VINNIE VINCENT INVASION Singer: 'VINNIE Has Never Done Any Dope'

Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisted recently conducted an interview with former JOURNEY/VINNIE VINCENT INVASION singer Robert Fleischman. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Classic Rock Revisted: I remember hearing you on the VINNIE VINCENT INVASION album. I thought you could not do metal but you proved me wrong. That album, while a bit of hair metal cheese, was strong overall and really had some power. How did you get involved with Vinnie?

Robert: Vinnie called me up one day through a mutual friend that had told him about me. He came over to my house because I had a recording studio there, and we made some demos together. We were discussing continuing our work when he received the offer to join KISS. After he left KISS though, he came back to me and we went into a recording studio and did about four more songs. Vinnie took the project to Chrysalis Records where he was able to land a deal without me. I found out what he had done essentially excluding me from the deal, so as you could guess that that was pretty upsetting. I began to get calls from him to come and do the record, but I refused to because of what had happened. Then more calls came day and night from Vinnie and his bass player explaining why I had to do the record. Apparently, Chrysalis had signed him for the sound we had made together — so many offers were sent my way by Vinnie. At the time my son Austin was on his way, and extra money always helps out especially when you are having a baby, so then I decided it was in my family's best interest to do the job.

Classic Rock Revisted: I have heard Vinnie was hard to get along with and was doped up most of the time. There has to be some wild stories…

Robert: First of all, Vinnie has never done any dope. A glass of wine is probably about it. So that is a false and vicious rumor. As far as wild stories go, yes, there are some. When it was time for me to do the vocals for the album, Vinnie had wallpapered the vocal booth from floor to ceiling with playboy centerfolds. I thought that was pretty funny, I had nicknamed it the "titty box" and thought to myself, he must have quite a subscription. Also I recall my first day of recording when I walked into the studio and saw Vinnie's amplifiers. There were about eight Marshall stacks in a circle which looked like Stonehenge — real scene out of "Spinal Tap".

Classic Rock Revisted: Once again, things in this band didn't work out too well. What happened to get you ousted?

Robert: I was never ousted. Vinnie had a manager whose only experience was being a road manager. The manager had promised Chrysalis that he would tie me up in a contract. So at the photo shoot for the album, the manager came to me with this document as thick as the phone book and told me to sign it, saying "Trust me, it's OK." I told him that I wanted to take it to my lawyer which is typical in these situations, but he insisted that I sign it right then and there. So I refused. Obviously I was once again pegged as a "difficult" person. He went back to Chrysalis and had to tell them that I wasn't signed, but he had already led Chrysalis to believe that I had signed. So he was caught in a lie and the shit the fan. So then I started getting calls from Chrysalis telling me to sign a deal which would tie me up without any money advances or anything. I said no to them, they threatened me by saying they would take my voice off the album, so I told them to do what they had to do. Obviously taking my voice off would have cost them a great deal more of money, but I never heard from them after that. They found another vocalist to sign apparently without any questions and probably very little money. A few months later I had people telling me to turn on MTV. So I turned on MTV to see the premier of Vinnie's new video "Boyz Are Gonna Rock" expecting to hear their new singer's vocals. To my surprise my voice was coming out of this guy's mouth as he was dressed in leather pants with panties on the outside. So that was the first MILLIE VANILLI-type situation. Needless to say, there was a legal dispute over it, which I won.

Classic Rock Revisted: I have heard that Vinnie would actually piss on his guitar if he got mad. Did that really ever happen?

Robert: Vinnie was doing overdubs and his guitar kept getting out of tune. So after many times of trying to do this one lead, he finally had had it with the guitar's tuning. He proceeded to throw the guitar on the ground, pulled his pants down, and pissed all over it. We couldn't go into the studio for about three or four days because of the condensation and odor.

Read the entire interview at www.classicrockrevisited.com.