Like many of us, Bruce Kulick and Ace Frehley don’t seem to have Vinnie Vincent figured out quite yet.
In separate recent interviews, the two former Kiss lead guitarists shared their thoughts on the famously reclusive Vincent, who replaced Frehley in the group in 1982 but was dismissed early in 1984 over creative and personal differences.
“Vinnie Vincent played too fast,” Frehley told Guitar Player. “I never paid much attention to him as far as anything else. I know that Paul [Stanley] used to complain to me about Vinnie. He said that he was like a loose cannon and that he played things too fast, and they couldn’t control him.”
Frehley, Vincent and Kulick played together for the first (and as you’ll soon read, probably last) time at a May 2022 show in Nashville, trading riffs and solos over the backing tracks to Kiss’ “Deuce” and “Cold Gin.”
Although Vincent wowed the crowd with a 15-minute opening unaccompanied guitar solo, Frehley remains less than impressed by his replacement’s playing style. “The problem with shredding is that it’s not really memorable, you know? When you put 64 notes in a bar or two bars, you don’t really know what the guy is playing.”
Why Bruce Kulick Won’t Perform With Vinnie Vincent Again
Kulick, who served as Kiss’ lead guitarist from 1984 until their 1996 original lineup reunion, looked back on that same 2022 Nashville concert in an Ultimate Guitar interview, explaining that several important things didn’t happen the way he had been promised.
Unknown to him, the stage was built to include a replica of the military tank from Vincent’s two tours with Kiss, with Vincent towering above Frehley and Kulick, who were positioned down on ground level. The promised live drummer also wasn’t delivered and was replaced by backing tapes.
“I had no clue the tank would be rolled out,” Kulick explained. “Vinnie would be on the top, and then I’m over here, and then Ace would follow me. … Ace said, ‘What the hell is going on? Where’s the drummer?’ I said, ‘I don’t know but all we have is this track. I know the track works but what do you want to do?’ We were both in a weird situation… I always tend to take the high road and not focus on anything [like] ‘you lied to me! It was supposed to be this.'”
Kulick and Frehley decided to go along with the less than ideal conditions for the benefit of the fans in attendance, but the performance was marred by technical snafus and audio drop-outs that left Kulick performing by himself by the end of the brief set.Read