Black Diamond: Excerpts
Excerpt from Chapter Five, "What Music They Make":
"Lick It Up and Vinnie"

After the Brazilian tour, KISS immediately returned to the studio to work on the follow-up album to CREATURES, this time with Vinnie as a permanent member of the band. At least that was what was presented to the press and the public. Behind the scenes, the band had given Vinnie the chance to join the band on a permanent basis as soon as he contractually signed with KISS. What was listed in the contract, or contracts, is unknown outside of those involved directly. Yet, it is safe to assume that such contract(s) were like those that Eric had signed in the past, and Mark, Bruce and Eric Singer would sign in the future -- essentially for such individuals to become employees of the band.

That is not to say that they would lose all rights to contribute to the band on their own levels, or to flex a voice in opinions; but it was to be a system of checkpoints to keep the newer members from doing anything that was felt to be not in keeping KISS' image. Vinnie received the papers during the making of LICK IT UP, and told the others that he would sign them before they went on tour. When the album was completed in August, Vinnie received songwriting credits on eight of the ten songs featured, including a vastly revised version of an old Warriors song named "Boyz Are Gonna Rock" which became "On The Eighth Day." Many critics who, although downplayed the lack of makeup as just a gimmick by a band on its last legs, gave the album itself better reviews than usual, directly linking such improvements to the induction of Vinnie Vincent into the group. This method of justification for critics to safely review the album grew in such mass proportions that even the fan-press began invoking such praise to Vincent, some even going so far as to state that Vinnie brought more to the band than Ace had or that of Gene and Paul. Such proclamations were upsetting to the other members of the band, and in later years both Gene and Paul have downplayed Vinnie's involvement and the success that was soon to follow. Looking back though in 1990, Eric agreed that Vinnie's placement in the band did motivate their rise in popularity again. "We started more publicity because we were taking the makeup off and got some profiles that way, and people started talking about us again. I don't want to get everyone angry at me for saying so, but you can't deny Vinnie's contributions to the album had a lot to do with it. Vinnie contributed a lot of good writing to that album and CREATURES also. And 'Lick It Up' was one of them. It was almost the perfect song to get us into the public's eye. And it seemed like the band was solid again. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Vinnie was soon to take the train ride to nowhere."

Perhaps the most upset with such words of praise was Vinnie himself. As he spoke to Dante Bonutto in KERRANG in 1985, "I just wasn't living up to my full potential. I wasn't able to be who I am. I wanted to do things that would have made the group more exciting and more meaningful, yet LICK IT UP probably shows about 25 per cent of what I'm capable of achieving." Vinnie began to feel the band restricting his emerging popularity and his musical direction, with the critics and fans adding fuel to the fire by their words of encouragement. Still, his feeling of frustration and isolation, much like that of Ace's in his last years in KISS, were kept in check as the album was completed. "Lick It Up" was the first single to be released, with "All Hell's Breakin' Loose" the second. Beyond these two songs, "Fits Like A Glove" and "Young And Wasted" (a song that Eric would sing lead on in concert) would also be featured in live shows for years after. Eric was thrilled when Gene and Paul elected to record "All Hell's" for the album since Eric had written everything on the song except the melody and the lyrics. He cringed, however, when Paul told him of something he wanted to add to the song. "When Paul said he was going to add a rap thing to it, I thought, 'Oh no! I don't want to hear it!' I expected it to be like a Zeppelin song, and [suddenly] here's a rap thing. But looking back on it, it's much better the way Paul rebuilt it because it wouldn't have been a single and there wouldn't had been a video for it."