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Vinnie Vincent (born Vincent John Cusano; August 6, 1952) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He is a former member in the band Kiss, as well as the leader of his own band, Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Vincent was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Theresa "Terri" (Farraro) and Alfonso Cusano, musicians. He picked up the guitar at an early age and was inspired by bluegrass and rock and roll. In 1980, Vincent moved to Los Angeles, California where he became a staff songwriter for the television series Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi. Many of the series songs were written on Vincent's acoustic guitar while sitting at the Cunninghams' kitchen table on the Happy Days set, during off-time from the show's rehearsal schedule. Vincent has said the times of working at the Paramount lot were genuinely "happy days". According to the site "Kiss Related Recordings", Vincent has played with the bands Hunter, Warrior, Hitchhikers, and Heat going as far back as 1970.
After being introduced to the band by songwriter Adam Mitchell, Vincent was brought in as the replacement for guitarist Ace Frehley. Vincent's personality meshed well with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, thus enabling him to play lead guitar on six of the nine tracks on the Creatures of the Night album as well as co-writing three. After a disappointing Creatures of the Night/Tenth Anniversary tour, that finished on a high at what ended up being the "last" makeup show (and Kiss' largest crowd attendance) at Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Vincent returned to the studio with Kiss to record the Lick it Up album. His work was productive, yielding eight co-writes out of the ten songs on the album (a record for any member until Kulick's nine on Carnival of Souls and Stanley's ten on Monster).
Though contributing to Creatures of the Night as a session player before being named as Frehley's replacement, Vincent for all the public knew, was the official guitarist in Kiss and played all the lead guitar on Lick it Up. In what was a frequent occurrence for former guitarist Frehley, a "ghost player" was asked to play on the album, with Rick Derringer recording the solo on the opening track. Album producer Michael James Jackson explains, "There were just some things that Vinnie couldn’t play. His sensibility was often too melodic for the band’s style. Vinnie was always struggling to find his place within Kiss, both musically and personally. As I recall we brought Rick Derringer in to take a pass. Moments like this were difficult for Vinnie, but the attitude all of us maintained was that the quality of the record would always be a the priority rather than anybody’s ego"!
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