Former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent has hit on a novel — if not impractical — approach to selling the latest album from his group, the Vinnie Vincent Invasion. He’s asking fans to pony up $200 per song to hear it.
Titled Guitarmageddon, the 18-track record is being released one song at a time on individually numbered CDs. When you add in the $25 shipping costs per CD ($100 for those outside the U.S.), the total comes to $4,050 for U.S. residents and $5,400 for everyone else.
The 73-year-old electric guitarist began rolling out the first single, “Ride the Serpent,” late last month. It’s his first release of original material in more than 20 years.
What prompted Vincent’s approach?
“There’s no money in record labels,” he replied to a fan on his Facebook page. “They’re a dead end inside a dead end.
“AND THERE’S NO MONEY RELEASING A RECORD LIKE THIS with bootlegging thieves at my door. Unless I get compensated for my work, the album stays unheard. The praise from a fanbase is pointless unless I’m compensated FIRST.”
Vincent complains that the digital age has created what he calls a “gimmie, gimmie, gimmie” mentality. Even prior to the days of downloads, Vincent says record labels were abusive to its signings.
“It was a revolving door of… being cheated out of your royalties, hiring lawyers to find your royalties, going to court for years and ending up without your royalties, and left with nothing but legal bills.”
As for the product he’s hawking? Vincent promises fans won’t be disappointed after parting with their cash.
“GUITARMAGEDDON is one of the greatest rock albums of all time,” he writes. “I lived through Meet the Beatles, Led Zeppelin II, Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced, Jeff Beck Truth, Cream Wheels of Fire, Pink Floyd, etc. The only difference is that these albums are generation-tested and have the benefit of time’s fermentation.
“But as for impact and perfection from the first song to last, GUITARMAGEDDON is a classic. The number one contender.”
Despite his claims, Vincent is willing to let the album die on the vine if the interest isn’t there.
“The magic of VINNIE VINCENT INVASION is escapism. GUITARMAGEDDON is escapism on steroids,” he writes. “So it comes down to this: if the fan support is not there, which it does not appear to be, this record will not be released.
“Am I fine with that? Absolutely. 100%. It will be the greatest album of all time, never to be heard, never to be released.”
Vincent joined Kiss in 1982 as the group’s first replacement for founding lead electric guitarist, the late Ace Frehley. After releasing Creatures of the Night with the group, he was onboard for Lick It Up, the glam-rockers’ first album to be released during their makeup-free years.
Vincent parted ways shortly after. Reportedly bass guitarist Gene Simmons and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley were unhappy with his lengthy guitar solos. Soon after he founded his own group, the Vinnie Vincent Invasion.
Frehley made it clear he was no fan of Vincent’s work in Kiss. Speaking with Guitar Player in 2025 about the players who followed in his footsteps int he group, he said of Vincent, “Vinnie Vincent played too fast. 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 doubled the length of the guitar solo, and that he played things too fast, and they couldn’t control him, you know?
“But I was really amazed… I hadn’t met him over the years. The first time I met him was a few years ago in Florida — and I didn’t realize how short he was.”