Vinnie Vincent vs KISS Trial News
Here is a closer look at what is going on with the Vinnie Vincent VS KISS lawsuit.

Vinnie Vincent Lawsuit Summary from FriedAlive.com

September 6



VINNIE VINCENT vs. ALL DEFENDANTS
From: stephens@dbtech.net
The lawsuit recently filed against KISS and it's record labels is for $5.8 million, excluding trebled damages which could exceed $15 million and *not* the AP newswire misprint of $1.3 million. VV and his lawyers are in the process of arranging television interviews.


August 6

Vinnie Doesn't Settle Lawsuit
From: Drew Harris
As coincidence would have it, I was on the phone with Vinnie and his attorney(interviewing them for the radio show) at the exact same time that this person was circulating the supposed AP story, and both Vinnie and his lawyer said that they were not going to settle anytime soon. (Vinnie wants to publicly expose what record companies do with artist royalties.)

As an attorney, I can say that there's other reasons to doubt the veracity of the story: -- There's eight different defendants, each of which would have to separately agree to the settlement, all within two weeks (not likely)
-- Mercury would probably file a motion to dismiss first, which costs only about $135, considerably less than $4.3 million
-- Mercury doesn't even have to file an answer yet (30 days from the time they're served) let alone settle the case Besides, the AP doesn't write sentences like, "a terse statement is expected tomorrow". (Opinion adjectives like "terse" are against AP newstyle.)

Vinnie speaks via KISSin' Time Radio
From: Drew Harris from KISSin' Time Radio
The interview went very well, Vinnie is very talkative, and even though I had been scheduled for only 40 minutes he stayed on the phone with me for nearly two hours. We spent half the interview talking about the lawsuit and the other half talking about his time with Kiss, his time after Kiss and his upcoming projects. We'll be editing the interview down into two half-hour shows to be aired as upcoming programs on Kissin' Time.

A couple of thoughts:
Despite the public image that is portrayed about Vinnie to the contrary, he comes across as an extremely reasonable, articlulate, thoughtful and well-mannered guy. He speaks from the heart about his fans, and is acutely aware that people have not had a chance to get to know him.

I am still not entirely convinced that the "everyman" identity is his regular persona,because he moved through the conversation with great skill at steering it toward his upcoming Metaluna projects and toward the concise catch-phrases which quickly summarized his lawsuit's legal theories (good prep work by his attorney, there). But, if it does all happen to be just one big BS routine, then it's the best one I've seen in a very, very long time. He really comes across as quite likable, and after speaking with him for two hours I'm more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks to everyone who sent in questions, I was able to use a few of them and get some interesting answers. Here are a few highlights from the interview:

---Vinnie is planning on taking this suit to trial because he wants to expose what the record companies have been doing with artist royalties. (I know that somebody has posted that Vinnie has settled the lawsuit; that may be... although at the exact same time that this person had posted his message, Vinnie and his lawyer were on the phone telling me that they were not interested in settling. So go figure.)

---Vinnie grew up in a poor family that listened to a lot of Country & Western. His father played guitar and his mother was a singer, and the two had made records back in the 40s. Vinnie's first recorded work was when he was 13 years old, in a band called The Younger Generation, and his father paid for the studio time to cut a demo. (The song will be on the Vinnie Vincent archives boxed set, scheduled for October release.)

---Vinnie worked in a guitar store where he cut a demo in the back room called "Back On The Streets", which was the demo he used to get his songwriting gig with KISS for Creatures Of The Night.

---Vinnie's first major exposure was playing guitar on a disco tour with Dan Hartman, who took him across Europe where they lip-synched on lots of obscure TV shows. The final date on the tour was on the Dinah Shore show here in L.A. (imagine Vinnie on Dinah Shore...), and after the performance Vinnie turned down the offer for a ride back East and stayed in L.A., where he eventually landed his gig with KISS.

---Vinnie wouldn't talk about how he came up with his makeup, and it sounded like there was some kind of dispute involved in it between him and the band.

---I Love It Loud was original called Loud And Proud

---Vinnie had lots of fond words for Eric Carr, and said that he didn't feel a competition with Ace, because they were such different guitarists, and that he felt honored that Ace performed "Back On The Streets" in concert. He also felt honored that Peter recorded "Tears" for his Let Me Rock You LP.

---Euphoria's being re-released in the U.S. with an altered cover that will not be a limited release like the first version.

---Vinnie thought it was a shame that his makeup never appeared on an album cover, particularly on Creatures Of The Night, though by the time it was released on CD with the Bruce Kulick cover he no longer felt it was worth getting upset over.

---Vinnie supposedly didn't know that he was being shorted royalties when Gene invited him to work on Revenge (though he suspected it), and it wasn't until his Revenge involvement ended in disaster that he started to look into matters and discovered the "widescale fraud" that he has sued over.

---Vinnie says it was total coincidence that he filed his suit on the first business day after the band finished its reunion tour, and that he "doesn't follow the band". He says he knew of the reunion tour but that he doesn't pay attention to the band's general activities.

---Vinnie's married, with two daughters (twins), and now lives in Nashville.


July 29
  • More on the Vinnie Vincent lawsuit
    From: AceFrehley.com
    A few exclusive details on the Vinnie Vincent law suit for you...
    The suit targets Stanley Eisen and Gene Klein as indivduals, also KISSSTORY LTD, THE KISS COMPANY, POLYGRAM RECORDS and HORIPRO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP. For MTV Unplugged, Vinnie is demanding in his lawsuit $25,000 in royalties for his rights to the song "I STILL LOVE YOU".
    But the lawsuit makes a serious flaw when it asks for and claims royalties towards the KISS MY ASS tribute album. The claim of course is the royalties to the song UNHOLY. But UNHOLY was only released on later versions of KISS MY ASS and yet the law suit quotes global sales figures for all versions of the CD.
    Vinnie is also claiming royalties for HARD TO BELIEVE, the amateur tribute CD released in 1990 and also claims royalties on the Phunk Junkeez album, Injected, for their cover of I LOVE IT LOUD. The interesting points on these last two are that VINNIE has no idea whether royalties on those projects were paid to KISS publishing or not.
    Vinnie makes 14 other claims in his lawsuit and also targets KISSSTORY's profits, if he wins on that point it will be interesting to see how other former KISS members react...
    Vinnie also claimed KISS had an option in 1984 to pay him $50,000 for all publishing rights to the album Lick It Up, but failed to pay that amount. They claim this now means Vinnie has full publsihing rights to the material he authored by default.
    Finally, Vinnie wants a retraction from KISS for all deflamatory statements made by Gene and Paul. KISS on the other hand will most likely claim that Vinnie was under contract that expressly signed away his publishing rights. Although Vinnie never signed this contract, he led KISS to believe he accepted its general terms, and thus constitutes a verbal working agreement. KISS will also claim Vinnie deliberately delayed signing his work for hire agreement and deceived KISS as to the real intentions of the delay.


  • July 21
  • Vinnie Vincent sues for 5.5 million
    From: ACEis1st@aol.com
    The July 19th issue of Billboard reports that Vinnie Vincent has filed suit against Kiss, Polygram, and other related companies. This suit alleges that Vinnie was defrauded of royalty payments for songwriting, albums, performances, song books, E.T.C. The filing alleges he is due at least $5.5 Million. This suit also alleges that Vincent was dismissed from the group in because he refused to sign an employment agreement, and he didn't sign an agreement because the bands terms were unacceptable.


  • July 14
  • Vinnie Vincent on MTV's The Week in Rock
    From: xYAHOOx@prodigy.net
    The week in rock,had a clip on Vinnie Vincent sueing KISS, due to non-payment of royalties for work on Creatures Of The Night and Lick It UP. They showed a clip from Vinnie's news conferance he said the main reason for the suit is to show children interested in the music bizz that groups like KISS can treat you unfairly. (Like the money doesn't matter to him) He looked like he was gonna cry! There was no comment from KISS at this time. (well maybe under thier breath)


  • July 8
  • Ex-KISS Guitarist files lawsuit for Royalties
    From: Tuck Watts
    From Associated Press Newswire... (I work for WRCB-TV Chattanooga)
    Ex-KISS Guitarist Files Lawsuit For Royalties
    (Nashville) -- A former guitarist for the rock group KISS is suing the band, claiming he's owed millions of dollars.
    Vinnie Vincent now lives in Middle Tennessee. From 1982-to-84, he toured and recorded with the hard rock band, writing songs like "Lick It Up" and "I Love It Loud."
    At a news conference today in Nashville, Vincent and his attorney Mary Parker announced they had filed the lawsuit against the band yesterday in Los Angeles.
    Vincent claims he's been defrauded of royalty payments, since he never signed an employment agreement. He didn't put an exact dollar figure on what he thinks he is owed, because it would depend on KISS sales figures.
    Vincent nearly cried at the news conference, saying that rock musicians sometimes give their hearts and souls, "and never get anything back except heartache."