KISS KILLERS AND CREATURES OF THE NIGHT SESSIONS

Going back to KISS related questions... You were asked once again to help KISS out during the KILLERS sessions in 1982. That was quite different time in KISS camp compared to glorious 70’s, so how those sessions were back in the day?

Yeah, by that time, they were tired of this and they really wanted to have somebody in the band, and they were also just starting up on the CREATURES OF THE NIGHT record, as well. So Vinnie Cusano was around, Vinnie Vincent was around. There were other people that they checked out. The guitar player from Mister, Mister came in and played the solo on “Creatures of the Night”, Steve Farris. It's a phenomenal solo. Paul was like, “What do you think?” “ What do I think? I think it's phenomenal.” “He didn't really fit in the band, though.” “That may be, but I'd keep the solo if I were you”, which he did. I remember the thing with Vinnie Cusano, Gene saying to me, the guy's a really good songwriter. That's a plus. I said, obviously he can play. We know he can play, but if he can write songs, but they both said it to me at the time “We're just worried about the guy getting with the program?” Then of course, it didn't last long because he couldn't. My brother was the total draft marine. Yes, sir, sir, yes, sir and did what they told him to do up until the point he gained their confidence and then they didn't treat him like that anymore, but Vinnie didn't do that, so he got his ass fired which was stupid. He should've made a plan to stick this out for two years, three years, whatever it would take me out there so that I can go do me, and then bye to them, but he just didn't do that either, and we know what happened after that. Sure, he had a deal and Mark Slaughter and all what happened, but it still ultimately crashed and burned. He destroyed himself. This is the sad thing that some people that have the gift, along with that gift is this self-destruct mechanism that somehow they either kill themselves literally or figuratively and I've seen both. I've seen those that kill themselves physically because they couldn't deal with it and they couldn't handle it, and I've seen those who kill their careers because they couldn't do it. That's sad because there's somebody who for as much as he's a nut and all that we would say about him and laugh about him, the guy has a phenomenal talent. It's sad. That, to me, is sad. It's sad.

Right going back to KILLERS sessions a bit, the solo’s you’re playing there are quite different to traditional Ace Frehley style. How that thing came about?

At the time they were really infatuated with the Van Halen thing, so I had a guitar custom made with a Floyd Rose on it. I used that for “Partners in Crime” and all of that stuff. They were like, “Can you do some like whammy bar stuff?” Sure I can, but they were pushing the envelope at that point realizing that Ace Frehley’s style was not enough anymore and they wanted some more modern stuff there?

Right, the musical genre was about to change during that time.

Well, it was changing. Things were changing by then, just like the day Paul was just like, “So what if we took the makeup off? What is your opinion? What would happen?” I wanted to say what fucking took you so long now. Okay, he told me what I needed to know. Okay and then going back to it I totally got that too. Guess what, I saw that coming, I saw it coming. Unfortunately for my brother and Eric and especially sad to me, they had to doom that record CARNIVAL OF SOULS, you know. I thought that was a really good record and it got shelved for the moment until they were able to put it out later on they really busted their asses. That was the record that belongs to my brother and I was really proud of him because I thought that he did a really great job of moving them from, like you say from an old style rock band into a little bit more modern sound without giving up what they were. It wasn't like it was now they're not even recognizable. No, they're recognizable. So it's drop-D tuning in one song. So what? It didn't matter. What mattered was that they realized at that point that the money was going down rather than up and that the way to make the kind of money they were making was to, again, put the makeup band out there and tour, which they did.

But the final question about the CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, you are not playing on the album, right?

Nothing that I played went on to the record. You know there was somebody else, there was a bunch of people but the other guitar player that I’m going to mention is Robben Ford, who was friends with Michael James Jackson who was helping out as producer. And so he played on, I can’t remember the name of the song but he did play on the album.

doublev2 wrote:Here is a great interview with some stuff on Vinnie. Taken from this webpage http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/content/view/2371/1/

KISS CREATURES OF THE NIGHT SESSIONS
Nothing that I played went on to the record.

doublev2 wrote:I am on the fence. It's not screaming out to me vinnie but if vinnie says he did it I kind of believe him.

VVV wrote:Second paragraph:

I think its really cool to hear Vinnie talking about other bands out at the same time as him like this. A lot of 80s bands were in such competition with each other they just slammed one another, but Vinnie is cool about it here.
And for the record, I saw the 'Rock Never Stops' tour also, and it was an awesome, awesome show!!!

Possio wrote:I´m with pinkWiz and who ever else, It´s Vinnie on Danger alright.
He has that "ascending lick" or climb up the scale that is totally his invention sorta...
You can here similar things in Fits Like and in his Solo spot during that tour.
Sounds like Dorian with a few chromaticisms thrown in....
Cool stuff.

doublev2 wrote:Bob was killers I believe .

Brooklyn_Born wrote:Bob played on the 4 new tracks on Killers..

doublev2 wrote:It would have been cool to hear eddie van Halen play one creatures tune.

shramiac wrote:He said he played on I Still Love You!!!! I thought that was Ford also!?!?! Now I'm really confused????