Lord of the Flies

by J.S. Holland

Gene Simmons has always kept his cards surprisingly (for him) close to his chest about why Vinnie Vincent (you know, the Ankh-faced guy) was kicked out of KISS. In the booklet to the box set, he states that Vinnie did something so reprehensible it can't be repeated. And in the documentary KISS X-Treme, Gene says: "Vinnie was let go...to ponder his mistakes." Then he punctuates it with a highly significant look to the camera.

We still may never know what all of that was about, but Vinnie Vincent's latest burst of bad behavior landed him in jail this time around. The Nashville Scene is reporting that he "allegedly smacked [his wife] Diane in the face before dragging her by her hair through a pile of broken glass and throwing her to the ground repeatedly."

And that's not all: reportedly the cops discovered containers full of dead dogs on the property, and Diane Vincent explained that these were dogs that were killed by one of their more aggressive dogs. Authorities are looking into this. I can only imagine what it must smell like around the Vinnie Vincent Plantation.


Gene and Paul are probably furious about this development, and rightly so, since news stories and headlines are referring to Vincent as "KISS guitarist" instead of former KISS guitarist, and most numbskulls will repeat the story around the water cooler in the morning as: "did you hear that a member of KISS is a wife-beating psychopath who hoards dog corpses?"

Vinnie was a member of KISS from 1982 to 1984, briefly pursued a solo career, returned to KISS behind the scenes as a co-songwriter for songs like "Unholy" on the Revenge album, and then was promptly never heard from again until now. And he was living in Tennessee all this time?! Had I known I lived driving distance from Vinnie Vincent, I would have showed up on his doorstep long ago. We coulda saved Vinnie.