Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice (https://www.facebook.com/themetalvoice) talks to legendary drummer Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Blue Murder) and singer Jim Crean (Hair Nation, Appice Brothers) about Vinnie Vincent's Nashville's show cancellations claims on February 8-9 2019. Carmine and Crean correct Vincent's claims on why the show were cancelled and who cancelled them
When asked about the recent claims by Vinnie Vincent that his promoter was to blame for the recent cancellations of the show in Nashville and Vincent's disapproval of the choice in singer
"The promoter did nothing but try his best to make these gigs happen. The promoter Derek Christopher hired me because I knew Vinnie and I talked to Vinnie and we said maybe it would be cool if I did the gigs with him and Vinnie Vincent agreed. Derek hired me and put the deal together, then I brought bassist Tony Franklin in whom Vinnie never heard of before. Then they were going through tons of singers and I said I have this guy names Jim Crean that can sing high just like the original Vinnie Vincent invasion singer Robert Fleischman. I told Jim Crean about it and he was up for it. Then Derek said why don't you put Jim Crean's voice on a couple of Vinnie's tracks and he would send it to Vinnie and see what he thinks and that's what we did. And from what I remember Vinnie said to the promoter Derek that he thought Jim Crean was great. So we were moving ahead and waiting for a set list and then when we never got any set list from Vinnie so the promoter sent me, Jim and Tony some lists of songs, which included Vinnie's songs and Kiss Songs and I thought that was what we were going to do and then Vinnie started to steer away. And I said to Vinnie, I saw that clip of you playing that Pre-Kiss cruise clip you did not look comfortable on stage, you looked scared and I blatantly said can you still play? You didn't do any solos? Vinnie said to me yeah I can still play. Then later on Vinnie said I don't want to do any Kiss songs or my songs I just want to jam for an hour and a half after he just put out a press release with the promoter saying I'm gonna do Kiss songs, Vinnie Vincent songs, this is him verbally saying that on the ad. Then he changed his mind on that and said he just wanted to jam. Quite honestly I don't want to jam, I don't want to go on the stage and jam. I want to play songs people want to come and hear. As for choosing Jim Crean as the singer, I was working behind the scenes getting Jim Crean to sing demo songs for Vinnie so he can hear what he sounds like. Derek the promoter said Vinnie was fine with him, Derek had no reason to lie about it so we were going to move ahead." Carmine Appice
"Derek called me and wanted me to sing some of Vinnie's songs so I did that, they got back to Vinnie and they said he was very impressed with it. Derek called me the day after he talked to Vinnie and said that Vinnie was very happy with the vocals and he loves it and we are going to make a press announcement and put a poster up as well. Then Derek called me up and said to me to please start sharing the information to get a buzz going so then we started promoting it and then Vinnie started changing his mind." Jim Crean
When asked about Vinnie Vincent's statement "There's only one uncontroverted fact that actually did happen, and that is that I, Vinnie Vincent, did not cancel that show
"The cancellations came from Vinnie he did not want to do the gig. I gave Vinnie three other singers to pick from but Vinnie did not like them and Vinnie said Jim Crean was good. Then Vinnie to blame it all on Derek the promoter who is the nicest guy and is now really ill since all of this happened is bad. Derek has not been able to stand up for himself because he has been really ill, in and out of the hospital. The last thing on his mind is Vinnie Vincent right now, he is trying to get healthy. And to see Vinnie saying it's Derek's fault, it wasn't his fault. Derek the promoter did everything he can to make these gig happen. Vinnie is saying it's Derek's fault I'm saying it's not his fault, Derek did everything and beyond to make things happen, to keep it on track. Derek brought Vinnie out of hiding, he put together that Kiss expo that Vinnie came out on, that made Vinnie money, Vinnie didn't do that Derek did that." Carmine Appice
When asked why Jim Crean was one of the scapegoats
"I don't think Vinnie Vincent should be blaming me, I was there just trying to help him out. I came into the band late and Carmine is a very high profile artist and so is Tony Franklin so I guess that leaves me and the promoter to blame." Jim Crean
