Vinnie Vincent

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No folks, this is not a picture of Pat Benetar dead center, that is Vinnie Vincent! Vincent John Cusano move to Los Angeles in 1980, where he became a staff song writer for the television shows Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi (seriously). According to Vinnie, many of the show's songs were written on set, after rehearsal hours, with his acoustic guitar.

Vinnie Vincent may be best known as the guitarist that replaced Ace Frehley after he departed Kiss. Word has it that Vinnie got along well with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, but since he refused to sign any type of contract with the band, their aggravation level eventually reached a head. Rumor has it that Vincent was asking for a cut of profits, which Kiss rejected. After the Lick It Up tour, Vincent was fired from the band, although he was tapped again in 1992 for help writing songs for Kiss' album Revenge.

After his break with Kiss, Vinnie Vincent put together the band Vinnie Vincent Invasion, which featured Mark Slaughter on vocals. The band produced two major albums in the 1980's, a self titled release in 1986 and a follow-up in 1988 (All Systems Go). Some of you may remember the songs "Love Kills" and "Ashes to Ashes" from this 1988 release. After this 1988 release, Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum left Vinnie Vincent's invasion to form the band Slaughter.

Not long after, Vinnie dissolved his band, and went on to be a session guitarist and even joined the band Nelson for a time (believe it or not). If you can get past the cacophony of Vincent's guitar solos, you will like this band, especially if you like Slaughter. At the time of this writing, the Vinnie Vincent Invasion Discography was as follows:

Listen for free or download any Vinnie Vincent track for just 12 cents per song!