It sounds like Eric was smooching Gene and Paul's puckered starfish . Vinnie not DYNAMIC ENOUGH for the front line ??? I like Bruce ,but, his stage presence wasn't what I would call even mediocre. Vinnie OWNED the fucking stage. I call bullshit and Eric doing a little job security for himself. Hindsight is 20/20 when you see what Eric would go through in the next few years.


http://www.kissfaq.com/forum09/viewtopi ... 8aefa21c57

I like Bruce BUT wasn't he referred to as Spruce Kulick because he stood still on the stage just like a tree!!!! Vinnie on the other hand ran around almost as much as Angus!!!! Well maybe Angus is a bit much as NO-ONE runs around as much as Angus!

I'm suprised Angus' head is still on!

Interesting, other than Vinnie mooching food from Eric, which I don't think he minded, I thought he and Eric got on fine.

As for short, Eric was the shortest of the lot. Maybe he was just saying these things to explain why Vinnie left in a "nicer" way than the real story.

I do know Eric thought very highly of the LIU album.

For those without Kissfaq access:

[youtube][/youtube]

Bruce Kulick himself said to me Eric got on well with vinnie and didn't really say bad stuff about him. He did have to promote kiss however so he would say the standard stuff in post vv interviews that he was fed to say..I heard him say vinnie wanted his own band and it wasn't easy for him to be in a band with a hierarchy structure like kiss, or as kiss would say 'team player'

i think he was referring more to his look, since the frontline did look a bit different.Ace- and also Mark(R.I.P.) Bruce- are taller than Vinnie, so, probably, he was referring to the fact that the frontline look was now a bit disjointed.No mention of the famous LA incident(over extend solo, etc)
Mark did report that when he met the band the first time, Gene did say"you're perfect" regarding the fact that he was tall and so, look wise he could have been a good fit in.When he did play live with the band, he did get a reprimend from Paul because he was so active onstage( playng with his teeth, moving, etc) and Paul didn't want to be upstaged.
The only time i've read something diffrent was in an interview when Eric did say that when they went out on a dinner -he and Vinnie- and when he did try to explain to him the inner working of the band, and the band philosophy-so to speak- Vinnie wasn't interested.

if you read the book of Greg Prato, it seems that Eric was more than fine with Vinnie, to the point that other people hinted that Vinnie was taking advantage of Eric's good nature.

ankh wrote:... in an interview when Eric did say that when they went out on a dinner -he and Vinnie- and when he did try to explain to him the inner working of the band, and the band philosophy-so to speak- Vinnie wasn't interested...

I read this one too. We can only guess at what went on during that conversation. My guess would be that Eric tried to be helpful, saying things like "don't upset G&P", "it's their band", "G&P are always right, trust them (except if they ask you to do a medieval concept album)"... that kind of thing. And no Vinnie wouldn't have been interested. The reason for that I think lies in the different ways they both joined the band.

Eric was one of hundreds of hopefuls and was grateful for the chance to join them. He knew they'd replace him if he stepped out of line.

Vinnie had written songs with them first, and good songs too. He didn't feel like "it's their band", but "it's my band too, I'm writing the hits baby". He also knew Kiss had auditioned every guitarist in town and not found one they liked, so he assumed they'd think twice before firing him. He was right, they thought twice, then fired him!

I think Vinnie didn't like the terms of the contract, wanted and demanded(and deserved) better,and they (Kiss) didn't want to comply.

I tend to think it was mutual.

Kiss would have ruled the 80's rock scene had Vinnie stayed in the band... I think Vinnie was just getting warmed up on his Lick it up songwriting and collaborations with Gene and Paul... If G & P invested in Vinnie's talent and cut him loose to have more free reign within the band creatively the final product would have scorched all the other albums of the bands of the time.. It's always pissed me off that they couldn't work through their differences for the betterment of the music... Instead they took the easy way out...we were left with albums like Asylum and Crazy Nights which even though I liked them at the time sounded Like Bon Jovi tribute albums... There was nothing cutting edge about Kiss after Vinnie left.. He made them dangerous and hungry, he was right for them at the time.. Vinnie was the diesel for the engine...

Its hard to know what VV would have done on the other records.. I would have been interesting. Commercial wise I think its impossible to know if VV would have been good or not.
Ashes to Ashes would have been an interesting Kiss tune with Paul on vocals.