Music news: Vinnie Vincent tribute - KISS MY ANKH

Posted on the Metal Sludge message board.

On the eve of the release of its much-anticipated tribute album "KISS MY ANKH: A Tribute To Vinnie Vincent," SplitScreen Entertainment has answered many of fans' frequently asked questions about the project. The album features performances by members of White Lion, Savatage, Alice Cooper, Trixter, Nitro and many others, samples of which can be heard at the official "KISS MY ANKH" MySpace page. The album is scheduled for release on August 27th. A few excerpts from the Q&A follow:

MySpace http://www.myspace.com/KissMyAnkh 

SplitScreen Entertainment: We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Vinnie Vincent and Kiss fans from around the world who have written in with their questions, comments and feedback. We've been completely overwhelmed by response to this project and we apologize for not being able to reply to your inquiries individually. Rest assured, we have read them all and we hope this FAQ section will answer any questions you may still have about the tribute. Overall, we're extremely pleased that so many of you are looking forward to "KISS MY ANKH" and we can't wait for you to finally hear it! Now on to your questions...

Question: What compelled you to produce a Vinnie Vincent tribute album?

SplitScreen Entertainment: Without a doubt, this is the question we are asked most often. Admittedly, Vinnie Vincent is not the most obvious candidate for a tribute album. For that matter, he's not even the most likely member of Kiss. If anything, Vinnie Vincent is the black sheep of the Kiss family and he's become something of a polarizing figure over the years. While some absolutely despise the man, others consider him a true guitar hero.

Yet love him or hate him, Vinnie Vincent never fails to be a topic of discussion amongst music fans the world over. The longest-running thread at the official ESP Guitars message board is a tribute to Vinnie Vincent, with some 2,000 replies and 60,000 views. There are also regular Vinnie Vincent debates at the infamous Metal Sludge Gossip Board. There are multiple Vinnie Vincent tribute pages at MySpace and Vinnie Vincent video clips routinely rack up tens of thousands of plays at YouTube. There is even a thriving fan community at VinnieVincent.com. In fact, a casual inspection of virtually any Kiss or hard rock forum will produce evidence that Vinnie Vincent is alive and well in the hearts and minds of his fans. Even though Vinnie has had very little creative output over the last 20 years, he has nonetheless left a lasting impression that lingers in his absence.

Interestingly, despite his virtual disappearance from the scene in recent years, Vinnie Vincent has retained a simmering fan base itching for something new. Their situation is not unlike that of Guns N' Roses fans, who have been waiting nearly 15 years for the release of "Chinese Democracy." In that respect, Vinnie could even be seen as the poor man's Axl Rose. Though fans may plead for the faintest glimmer that new material is on the horizon, they subsist on naught but the occasional leaked demo while the artist himself remains in relative seclusion. That being the case, if Vinnie Vincent is unable or unwilling to release a new album on his own, it falls to his fans to do it for him. This is where "KISS MY ANKH" fits into the equation.

We realized we'd tapped into something significant soon after announcing the album, when we began receiving inquiries from artists wishing to be involved. Literally dozens upon dozens of hopefuls contacted us about appearing on the tribute, citing their admiration of the man and their appreciation for his body of work. All of this is testament to the fact that Vinnie Vincent's music still means a lot to a lot of people. In addition to his notoriety as a singular shredder, Vinnie is a master at crafting compelling melodies with outrageous yet elegant lyrical content. Like the ankh itself (the Egyptian symbol of life everlasting), Vinnie Vincent is a creative force whose contributions live on more than a quarter-century after his initial emergence.

Though Kiss tribute albums have already been done to death, our more unorthodox approach seemed like a cool way of doing something new and different with the concept. Plus we had a funny title and we knew that Vinnie himself would appreciate the additional shot of income that sales of the album would generate. It is for all of these reasons, in addition to the motivating factors cited above, that SplitScreen Entertainment chose to produce "KISS MY ANKH: A Tribute To Vinnie Vincent."

Question: Aren't most tributes to individual artists released after the artist is dead?

SplitScreen Entertainment: Good point. True, Vinnie Vincent is not dead. At least we don't think he is. We certainly hope he's not! But since his career has been all but non-existent for the past decade, we figure the time is right to pay tribute to the music he created during his time in the spotlight.

Question: Why aren't there more famous musicians on the tribute?

SplitScreen Entertainment: Unlike the star-studded tribute albums that have become commonplace in recent years, "KISS MY ANKH" was never intended to feature big-name talent. Our original plan was to showcase a cross-section of Vinnie Vincent material recorded by real Vinnie Vincent fans. The fact that we ended up having a few names on board came as an added bonus, which has in turn helped draw attention to the project. In fact, the more awareness we received, the more name musicians came forward as big Vinnie Vincent fans, asking to be involved! We actually had to turn down 2 or 3 of them because they simply came to us too late!

Beyond the involvement of said name musicians, the roster for "KISS MY ANKH" consists primarily of rising talent we've had the pleasure of working with over the past few years; artists who have established themselves in their respective scenes and who are deserving of exposure to a wider audience. We're proud to say that each and every one of them delivered the goods on this tribute and we could not be happier with the lineup we've assembled.

Question: Why isn't my favorite Vinnie Vincent song on the tribute?

SplitScreen Entertainment: To be sure, Vinnie Vincent wrote a lot of great songs and any compilation of his work will invariably leave off material that deserves to be included. In the case of "KISS MY ANKH," we wanted to present highlights from throughout Vinnie's career. With essentially 5 albums from which to choose (3 with Kiss and 2 with the Vinnie Vincent Invasion), we decided upon a format of 2 tracks from each, assembled in chronological order. As such, we ended up with a healthy mix of well-known Vinnie Vincent favorites alongside a few lesser-known gems that we felt deserved a fresh listen. We shied away from material from the Treasure album and Vinnie's "Euphoria" EP, primarily because we felt the material might be a bit too obscure for the casual fan. For similar reasons, we chose not to include any of his collaborations with other artists like Dan Hartman or The Bangles. In the end, "KISS MY ANKH" stands as a representative sampling of Vinnie's mainstream catalog... the "Vintage Vincent," if you will.

Question: Why does my favorite Vinnie Vincent song sound so different?

SplitScreen Entertainment: When compiling the talent roster for "KISS MY ANKH," we made the conscious decision to not dictate style or form to our contributors. We simply picked the artists we felt were up to the challenge of doing the material justice and then let them make their own creative choices. Some chose to remain faithful to the source material, with a few taking great pains to preserve the sound and feel of the originals. Others chose to come up with their own unique interpretations, ranging from acoustic to industrial to death metal... and even a hilarious song parody roasting a member of the extended Kiss family! Ultimately, "KISS MY ANKH" is meant to pay tribute to Vinnie Vincent both as gifted songwriter and influential musician, so hopefully there will be something for everyone on the album.

Question: Why didn't you include covers of any of the unreleased Vinnie Vincent demos that have been floating around for years?

SplitScreen Entertainment: Unfortunately, those songs were simply not available to us. Though it would have been cool to present some of Vinnie's unreleased material in the form of new recordings, the nature of song licensing does not really allow for this. In that same vein, the licensing process for the music Vinnie composed for the "Joanie Loves Chachi" TV series would have been similarly prohibitive... not that there was any great demand for that material in the first place, of course.

Question: Where did the title "KISS MY ANKH" come from?

SplitScreen Entertainment: The title was actually something our executive producer came up with while attending a Vinnie Vincent Q&A in 1996 at the annual NY/NJ Kiss Expo. Vinnie was on stage, answering fans' questions and commenting on his upcoming projects, including plans to write an autobiography. When asked by an audience member if he had a title in mind, Vinnie stated that he did not yet have one. At which point, perhaps inspired by the official Kiss tribute album "Kiss My Ass," our producer blurted out his own suggestion, "Kiss My Ankh!" Everybody laughed, including Vinnie himself, and our producer wisely tucked away the phrase for future use. It wasn't until late last year that it finally occurred to him to utilize it as the title of a Vinnie Vincent tribute album... an idea that came to him one night while taking his girlfriend's dog for a walk! Parading the pooch is not one of his favorite activities so he tends to do a lot of creative thinking to pass the time. He had been trying to come up with a tribute album concept that would be at once very cool yet also somewhat obscure. Thankfully for the many Vinnie Vincent fans around the world, he nixed his original idea of doing a glam rock tribute to Manowar!

Question: Is there any significance to the cover art?

SplitScreen Entertainment: For "KISS MY ANKH," we very much wanted the cover to be a visual expression the album concept. Toward that end, we incorporated the ankh symbol itself, along with additional nods to the Egyptian theme of Vinnie's Kiss character. We chose to utilize the ankh in much the same way as the metallic letter V seen on the Vinnie Vincent Invasion album covers, where it is depicted as a big, iconic symbol floating in the sky. It was this motif that we attempted to incorporate into our own album cover, replacing the V with a metallic ankh.

Interestingly, in an old issue of the Vinnie Vincent Invasion fan club newsletter, Vinnie claimed that he liked to envision the band as having come from the future! As such, their album covers would embody this forward-thinking sensibility. In our case, since we're digging through the past and mining Vinnie's rich treasure trove of recorded material, our depiction of an ancient landscape (complete with hovering symbol) would seem to be a logical extension of this philosophy.

As a comedic tip of the cap to longtime Vinnie Vincent fans, we even briefly toyed with the notion of offering a special "Archive Edition" of "KISS MY ANKH," released on audiocassette and shipped in an empty paint can... although we later thought better of the idea!

Question: Is there any significance to the August 6th pre-order date?

SplitScreen Entertainment: August 6th is Vinnie's birthday. Happy birthday, dude! We hope you like your present!

Question: Have you heard from Vinnie Vincent or any members of the Invasion?

SplitScreen Entertainment: We were actually delighted to receive a MySpace friend request from original Invasion vocalist Robert Fleischman! All of us behind the scenes have a tremendous appreciation for Robert's contributions to the Vinnie Vincent Invasion so it was very cool to find out that our project was on his radar. Robert's successor Mark Slaughter and drummer Bobby Rock are also now MySpace friends, but that's been the extent of our contact with the band. Hopefully all the Invasion members know that we have the utmost respect and admiration for the work they did 20 years ago and we hope to do them proud with our new project.

Question: Where is Vinnie Vincent today and what has he been doing in recent years?

SplitScreen Entertainment: Surely the most fascinating aspect of producing our tribute to Vinnie Vincent has been encountering all the rumors that have circulated in his absence. The big question on everyone's mind seems to be... where in the world is Vinnie Vincent? Has he moved to Tennessee and retired from the music business? Is he now a chef running a restaurant in Connecticut? Has he had a sex change and is he living his life as woman? Despite the many and varied possible explanations for his recent low profile, Vinnie himself has yet to come forward to substantiate any of them. If anybody does know what Vinnie is up to these days, they're certainly not talking. Seemingly the last known public appearance of Vinnie Vincent was via a photograph taken to promote his limited edition autographed prints for the now-defunct KissWorld store in December 2004. Ever since then, despite sporadic rumors and the occasional court case, the man has been completely out of the public eye. If anyone out there has information as to Vinnie's current whereabouts, feel free to drop us a line because we'd like to send him a copy of the album for his birthday.

We hope that Vinnie is well, we hope he is happy and like the rest of his fans, we hope he is still pursuing his passion for music. Perhaps with a bit of good fortune, Vinnie Vincent will one day return to rock the world again.

The complete track listing for "KISS MY ANKH: A Tribute To Vinnie Vincent" is as follows:

1. Killer - DoubleVirgo
2. I Still Love You - Gods of Fire
3. Lick It Up - Future 86
4. A Million To One - Steve Brown
5. Boyz Are Gonna Rock - Mike Weeks (with Andre LaBelle and T.J. Racer)
6. Back on the Streets - Jazan Wild
7. That Time of Year - Sheldon Tarsha, Ryan Roxie, Marko Pukkila, Troy Patrick Farrell
8. Love Kills - Vic Rivera / Kelli McCloud
9. Unholy - Curse God and Die
10. I Just Wanna - The Dead Zoo Keepers
11. Ted Poley (parody of Unholy) - C.C. Banana (with Banana 7, featuring Chris Caffery)

Further details can be found at the SplitScreen Entertainment website.

http://www.SplitScreenEntertainment.com

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