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KISS, VINNIE VINCENT, STRYPER, THE NAIL, VICTORY, NEPTUNE, LYIN RAMPART, DANGER ZONE, WENDY O WILLIAMS, SKOR, KING OF NONE, ECLIPSE, WARRIOR, KENNY WAYNE SHEPARD, CAM COLE, SWEET
"TOP 11 COUNTDOWN WITH "
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KISS, VINNIE VINCENT, STRYPER, THE NAIL, VICTORY, NEPTUNE, LYIN RAMPART, DANGER ZONE, WENDY O WILLIAMS, SKOR, KING OF NONE, ECLIPSE, WARRIOR, KENNY WAYNE SHEPARD, CAM COLE, SWEET
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KISS, VINNIE VINCENT, STRYPER, THE NAIL, VICTORY, NEPTUNE, LYIN RAMPART, DANGER ZONE, WENDY O WILLIAMS, SKOR, KING OF NONE, ECLIPSE, WARRIOR, KENNY WAYNE SHEPARD, CAM COLE, SWEET
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ROCKSTORY
"(KISS - VINNIE VINCENT)"
"“Vincent John Cusano was born August 6, 1952 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and is better known by his stage name Vinnie Vincent. He picked up the guitar at an early age and was inspired by bluegrass and rock and roll. Cusano's first introduction to working with internationally renowned artists was working with Felix Cavaliere. This resulted in an album of the same name being released in 1977. In 1980, Vincent moved to Los Angeles, California where he became a staff songwriter for the television series Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi. According to the site "Kiss Related Recordings", Vincent has played with Dan Hartman as well as the bands Treasure, Laura Nyro, Hunter, Warrior, Hitchhikers and Heat going as far back as 1970. Back at the KISS camp Frehley's participation in the recording of 1981's Music from "The Elder" was far more limited than with previous albums. This was in large part due to his unhappiness with the band's decision to create a concept album rather than a straightforward rock album, and, by Frehley's own admission, his "not relating all that well" to producer Bob Ezrin, who cut many of Frehley's solos from the recorded tracks. Although Frehley appeared on the covers for the 1982 releases Killers and Creatures of the Night, he had no involvement with Killers, and minimal input on Creatures of the Night. In December 1982, Kiss began the Creatures of the Night tour without Frehley: he was replaced by Vinnie Vincent. After being introduced to the band by songwriter Adam Mitchell, Vincent was brought in as the replacement for guitarist Ace Frehley. Vincent's personality meshed well with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, thus enabling him to play lead guitar on six of the nine tracks on the Creatures of the Night album as well as co-writing three. Vincent was the last member to wear a unique makeup/costume configuration, and took on the persona of The Ankh Warrior , until he and the band were first shown without the makeup during an interview on MTV in September 1983. After a commercially disappointing Creatures of the Night/Tenth Anniversary tour, that finished on a high at what ended up being the "last" makeup show (and Kiss' largest crowd attendance) at Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Vincent returned to the studio with Kiss to record the Lick It Up album. His work was productive, yielding eight co-writes out of the ten songs on the album. Though contributing to Creatures of the Night as a session player before being named as Frehley's replacement in December 1982, Vincent, for all the public knew, was the official guitarist in Kiss and played all the lead guitar tracks on Lick it Up. Though Vincent performed well live with Kiss, he refused to sign an employment contract which strained the relationship with Simmons/Stanley. This arose because of disputes over his role in the band and pay (some reports indicated that Vincent had asked for, and was flatly denied, a percentage of the band's gross profits). Consequently, Vincent never formally became a member of the band. This ultimately led to him leaving after the North American leg of the "Lick It Up" tour. He was replaced by Mark St. John. Despite parting on bad terms, Vincent reconnected with Kiss years later as a songwriter on the 1992 album Revenge, contributing to the songs "Unholy", "Heart Of Chrome" and "I Just Wanna". Vincent again fell out of favor with Simmons and Stanley, as they claimed that Vincent again began "making all kinds of crazy demands and pulling the same kind of crazy stuff all over again". Following his departure from Kiss in mid-1984, he formed the band Vinnie Vincent Invasion with, among others, former Journey singer Robert Fleischman in the mid-1980s and released two studio albums: Vinnie Vincent Invasion in 1986 and All Systems Go in 1988. The band broke up in 1989. After that, the band's singer Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum formed Slaughter. In 1996, Vincent released a solo EP from the studio sessions he did in 1990, called Euphoria, once again with Robert Fleischman on vocals. Vincent, as well as playing all the guitars, played bass and did the drum programming. After 22 years of being off the radar, Vinnie Vincent agreed to appear at the 2018 Atlanta Kiss Expo with Simmons on stage which was the first time they have met in person in over two decades. On May 22, 2022, Vinnie played for the first time live together with his lead guitar colleagues from Kiss, Ace Frehley and Bruce Kulick, performing a 4-song all Kiss set at Creatures Fest in Nashville. In May 2023, Vincent held an album listening party, at Starstruck Studios. The upcoming album was well received; several bands opened for Vincent, and he played with backing band Leo Roriz of Sleeper Signal and Ben Hanz of Trixter. "
