VINNIE VINCENT INVASION singer Robert Fleischman talks
2000 MAN
JOURNEY/VINNIE VINCENT INVASION singer Robert Fleischman. A couple of
excerpts from the chat follow:
Classic Rock Revisted: I remember hearing you on the VINNIE VINCENT
INVASION album. I thought you could not do metal but you proved me
wrong. That album, while a bit of hair metal cheese, was strong
overall and really had some power. How did you get involved with
Vinnie?
Robert: Vinnie called me up one day through a mutual friend that had
told him about me. He came over to my house because I had a recording
studio there, and we made some demos together. We were discussing
continuing our work when he received the offer to join KISS. After he
left KISS though, he came back to me and we went into a recording
studio and did about four more songs. Vinnie took the project to
Chrysalis Records where he was able to land a deal without me. I found
out what he had done essentially excluding me from the deal, so as you
could guess that that was pretty upsetting. I began to get calls from
him to come and do the record, but I refused to because of what had
happened. Then more calls came day and night from Vinnie and his bass
player explaining why I had to do the record. Apparently, Chrysalis
had signed him for the sound we had made together - so many offers
were sent my way by Vinnie. At the time my son Austin was on his way,
and extra money always helps out especially when you are having a
baby, so then I decided it was in my family's best interest to do the
job.
Classic Rock Revisted: I have heard Vinnie was hard to get along with
and was doped up most of the time. There has to be some wild stories.
Robert: First of all, Vinnie has never done any dope. A glass of wine
is probably about it. So that is a false and vicious rumor. As far as
wild stories go, yes, there are some. When it was time for me to do
the vocals for the album, Vinnie had wallpapered the vocal booth from
floor to ceiling with playboy centerfolds. I thought that was pretty
funny, I had nicknamed it the "titty box" and thought to myself, he
must have quite a subscription. Also I recall my first day of
recording when I walked into the studio and saw Vinnie's amplifiers.
There were about eight Marshall stacks in a circle which looked like
Stonehenge - real scene out of "Spinal Tap".
Classic Rock Revisted: Once again, things in this band didn't work out
too well. What happened to get you ousted?
Robert: I was never ousted. Vinnie had a manager whose only experience
was being a road manager. The manager had promised Chrysalis that he
would tie me up in a contract. So at the photo shoot for the album,
the manager came to me with this document as thick as the phone book
and told me to sign it, saying "Trust me, it's OK." I told him that I
wanted to take it to my lawyer which is typical in these situations,
but he insisted that I sign it right then and there. So I refused.
Obviously I was once again pegged as a "difficult" person. He went
back to Chrysalis and had to tell them that I wasn't signed, but he
had already led Chrysalis to believe that I had signed. So he was
caught in a lie and the shit the fan. So then I started getting calls
from Chrysalis telling me to sign a deal which would tie me up without
any money advances or anything. I said no to them, they threatened me
by saying they would take my voice off the album, so I told them to do
what they had to do. Obviously taking my voice off would have cost
them a great deal more of money, but I never heard from them after
that. They found another vocalist to sign apparently without any
questions and probably very little money. A few months later I had
people telling me to turn on MTV. So I turned on MTV to see the
premier of Vinnie's new video "Boyz Are Gonna Rock" expecting to hear
their new singer's vocals. To my surprise my voice was coming out of
this guy's mouth as he was dressed in leather pants with panties on
the outside. So that was the first MILLIE VANILLI-type situation.
Needless to say, there was a legal dispute over it, which I won.
Classic Rock Revisted: I have heard that Vinnie would actually piss on
his guitar if he got mad. Did that really ever happen?
Robert: Vinnie was doing overdubs and his guitar kept getting out of
tune. So after many times of trying to do this one lead, he finally
had had it with the guitar's tuning. He proceeded to throw the guitar
on the ground, pulled his pants down, and pissed all over it. We
couldn't go into the studio for about three or four days because of
the condensation and odor.
Read the entire interview at www.classicrockrevisited.com.