Gene Simmons says Vinnie Vincent played like Yngwie Malmsteen "on crack"

Gebe Simmons and Vinnie Vincent onstage — (Image credit: Richard E. Aaron)

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has described Vinnie Vincent's contributions to the band's 1983 album Creatures Of The Night as sounding "like Yngwie Malmsteen on crack."

Vincent was drafted in to play on the album after original guitarist Ace Frehley had departed the band in the wake of 1981's controversial concept album Music from "The Elder". And while Frehley was pictured on the cover of Creatures Of The Night, it was Vincent whose guitar was heard on six tracks, including War Machine and I Love It Loud.

"He played on a few tracks in total," SImmons tells Guitar World. "And Vinnie will often talk about his songwriting on Creatures, and yes, he helped with several, but the contributions of [Scottish singer-songwriter] Adam Mitchell are there, too. But even that was an issue because we were writing at Adam's house, and Vinnie cornered me and said, 'Hey, forget about this Adam guy. I should be writing the songs. We don't need him.'”

"I remember that Vinnie brought in Killer," adds Simmons. "We liked it, but he fought tooth and nail over the solo. Vinnie wanted to make every solo this massive thing. But Paul and I would bring him specific solos; we gave them to him and asked him to play them verbatim, but he refused.

"He didn’t want to do that, but honestly, everything that Vinnie did sounded like Yngwie Malmsteen on crack. You know, the kind of stuff that the rest of us normal human beings hate. It was ridiculous, and it certainly wasn't Kiss."

Vincent stayed with Kiss until 1984, appearing on the cover of the previous year's Lick It Up despite never officially becoming a full-time member of the band. And, as is normal in the every-bewildering world of Kiss, when Creatures Of The Night was reissued in 1985, his replacement – Bruce Kulick, who didn't play on the album – appeared in his place on the cover.

The 40th anniversary edition of Creatures Of The Night is out now.

Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.