Batch of Unpublished Vinnie Vincent Photos Surfaces

A former die-hard fan of Vinnie Vincent has supplied us with some amazing previously-unpublished photos that may have come from the former KISS guitarist's personal collection.


Only wanting to be identified as "vvjunkie", this former fan claims to have fallen out of favor with the Ankh Warrior after she made comments on a message board that, despite being set up as a fan forum, is considered enemy ground by the guitarist with its open discussion of all things Vinnie Vincent. After receiving a ban from Vinnie's official forum (and not wanting to shell out $500.00 for the new forum) she has decided to share these photos from his inner-sanctum. 

Early Musical Years
(1970's)

For those that don’t know, Vinnie was known by his real name of Vincent Cusano back in the 1970’s when he worked/performed with such artists as  Edgar Winter, Dan Hartman, Felix Cavaliere, and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Laura Nyro. This photo appears to be from around that time.

Creatures of the Night Era

(1982/1983)

Finding new photos of Vinnie’s days in KISS makeup is quite difficult these days as his time in the Ankh Warrior makeup was so limited. This photo definitely appears to be from the guitarists personal collection and may even be a test shot used to help “get into character” for future photo shoots and performances.

Lick It Up/Invasion Era 

(1983-1986)

It's debatable what era the 2 studio shots originate from. These 2 shots could be during the recordings of Creatures, Lick It Up, or even one of the Invasion albums. Anyone with specific knowledge of the date and location of these photos is encouraged to comment. The "glamour" shot us unquestionably from the Invasion era. Much discussion of the Vinnie Vincent Invasion can be found on the Rik Fox segment of Part 1 of the 2-part Vinnie Vincent special that we premiered last July.

The 1990's & Beyond


This final photo appears to be from Vinnie's mid-90's KISS Expo tour of Europe. You can hear the detailed account of one of the tour's organizers, Alexx Michael of Shameless, in Part 2 of the 2-Part Vinnie Vincent Special that we premiered last July. 



We'd like to now announce that there will be a Part 3 and possibly a Part 4 to the Vinnie Vincent Series that we started last year. We thought that we had tapped the well dry but have come to hearn many new things over recent months. We've had meaningful discussions with people from Vinnie's early days all the way to new revelations of current activities of the former KISS guitarist that will surely surprise you (or maybe not depending on your perspective). Keep track of the show on this site as more information will be coming in the new year. Stay tuned!

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Geeky Year-End Wrap Up & a Thank You!

We want to take a minute out of our busy holiday schedule to thank ALL of you that have listened to the Decibel Geek Podcast since our launch back in April. It's been a fun year full of learning and, hopefully, improvements on the show.

We began the year with my clunky "Introduction" episode where I try to describe, between panic attacks, what the show is supposed to be about. Things have definitely changed since that episode and I think we may have to tweak it but it's a good reminder of how far the show has come.

We had a couple of moderately successful episodes with friends such as Mitch Lafon from Bravewords.com, Dylan Kinney of Nashville Comedy Theater, Doogie Vance of local radio fame, & Chris Higgins of Piranah where we discussed various rock and metal news items of the day as well as concert memories and our favorite rock documentaries. 

The floodgates finally opened on July 4th when I premiered my 2-part Vinnie Vincent special. Featuring some intriguing guests from the Ankh Warrior's past such as Rik Fox, Alexx Michael, & Keli Raven as well as current owner of the Vinnie Vincent Fan Forum Vic Radacic on the crazy behavior of Vinnie toward his internet fan base. Links to the episodes spread like wildfire across the internet; racking up thousands of downloads. It still gets hundreds of downloads per month. Look for new episodes on Vinnie Vincent in the coming months!

Part 1 Part 2

August saw another fascinating 2-Part special on the life and career of Rik Fox. Rik's stories of his younger days hanging out with KISS when they were broke and just learning to apply makeup as well as hanging out with the CBGB's crowd in New York made Part 1 a memrable episode. Part 2 focuses on Rik's ventures out west when he moved to Los Angeles just in time for the Sunset Strip boom in glam rock. This episode gives us the low-down on Rik's early days with WASP as well as detailed stories of working with Ron Keel and Yngwie Malmsteen in Steeler as well as other groups of the day. Rik's story reads like a "who's who" of rock and this interview gives it all to you.

September brought us the return of Bravewords.com's Mitch Lafon for a new feature entitled Geekwire where we try to cover as many rock and metal news stories in an allotted time. Mitch will be on in the future for sure as he has a unique perspective from the inside of the industry. The Geekwire episode also saw the debut of co-host AAron Camaro. AAron has been a welcome addition to the show and brings "the voice" to the proceedings. Born in the heartland of America, AAron is a tried and true rock and metal fan and his contributions will continue into the new year.

October brought us the addition of the monthly Nashville X-tra version of the Decibel Geek Podcast. Featuring interviews and rants focusing on the local Nashville-area rock scene, the Nashville X-tra episodes allow Chris and AAron some breathing room to let it all out about what is cool and what sucks locally. These episodes will continue into the new year as we plan to bring you more guests, more rants, and more entertainment to your localized ears.

We finished off October with our choices for the Top 5 KISS songs of the non-makeup era before going into November with a great conversation with Russ Dwarf of Killer Dwarfs fame. We had a great response on both of these episodes and took a week to have some fun with our new Radio Sucks Radio Show where Chris and AAron spin songs that no radio station would allow them to go near. We had a lot of fun with this episode and have more planned for the new year.

After another Nashville X-tra episode, we filled our December quota with our Top Albums of the Early 90's episode. We think we've finished the year strong with this episode and have had a good response from it. We love doing the Top 5 shows and it's always interesting to see our listeners choices as well as hearing how stupid we are for not picking certain albums or songs. All feedback is welcome!

So, in conclusion, I'm very proud that the show has come this far since April and we look forward to taking things to the next level in 2012. Hopefully, we'll be doing great by the time the Apocalypse takes place!

Wishing you all a Merry Whatever and a Happy New Year!

Chris Czynszak

Decibel Geek Podcast

Happy Hooligan's Holiday......Corabi to Jam for Kids in Nashville

Being a middle-aged married dad with bills to pay makes it pretty difficult to get out of the house to see shows. That's part of the reason we started doing the Decibel Geek Podcast. We live vicariously through the memories & discussion brought forth on the show. But if there's one thing that can get us out into the wild of Music City, it's an acoustic show with one of our favorite singers from one of our favorite albums performing for the benefit of helping underprivileged kids have a better Holiday season.

John Corabi, he of the ironclad pipes on the fantastic 1994 Motley Crue album as well as many other great projects, will be performing at Drifters in East Nashville this Friday, December 13th in what's being billed as the "John Corabi & Friends Acoustic Toys for Tots Benefit." It's a mystery as to what "friends" will be at this show but there's plenty of possibilities with so many of John's contemporaries living in town.

Corabi has spent the past year touring with Cinderella as well as a short stint with Russ Dwarf throughout Canada. You can hear Russ' thoughts on that tour in the recent episode in which he was a guest.

The show will hopefully feature songs from Corabi’s entire career including material from his Crue album as well as songs from his days in Union and maybe even a few nuggets for the new solo album. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

If you’re close to Nashville, try to come out and enjoy a great night of music while helping out a worthy cause. Admission is $15.00 but that can be bypassed by bringing an unwrapped toy to donate. That’s a small price to pay for some great tunes and good company. The show starts at 8:00pm. If you see a couple of middle-aged dorks in the audience acting like idiots, come by and say hello!

Episode 14 - Top 5 Early 90's Albums

From Makeup & Parties to Chainsaws & Paxil

We decided that we wanted to have a healthy dose of pissed-off listeners and we’re pretty sure that this episode is a prescription for just that. The early 1990’s for us old folks that remember it was a strange and magical time for rock music. Lots of transition was taking place in the pecking order of rock music’s hierarchy with the mass music-consuming public deciding to ditch the Aqua Net and makeup mirrors and adopt a lumberjack-chic style to go along with their newfound depression.  This swift change had a large impact on the music industry and created a wide pastiche of genres that began to branch out in all sorts of different directions. This era of change also produced some head-scratching tour packages such as Poison taking out a young Alice in Chains on the road as well as a package that included Alice in Chains with Megadeth and Slayer.

The “Alternative” Culture & What’s Old is New Again (huh huh huh)

In a quest to try and come up with a tougher Top 5 list than our previous episode that involved Top 5 Non-Makeup Era KISS Songs, we decided to try and pigeonhole 5 albums out of this crazy matrix of material that was being produced in this Gulf-War era of change.  Before we get into the list, we also discuss the recently-released PearlJam Twenty documentary as well as our take on the triumphant return of Beavis and Butthead to the small screen.

We Can’t Shut Up & the Pride of Bridgeport, Egypt

New rule for Top 5 shows. We’re not going to spoil you in this main entry with our picks. In fact, we’ll give you a link to go to a separate page to check out ALL of the albums we discuss in this episode. Our Top 5 choices are in here but so are LOTS of other albums because a. we’re loudmouths and b. we read off our also-ran list of choices that didn’t quite make the cut as well as some of the choices that our listeners suggested through various social media outlet thingys.

PS: We have a new update on Vinnie Vincent’s musical activity in this episode. It has a real outdoorsy feel.

Full List of Albums Discussed/Mentioned

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Episode 13 - Nashville X-TRA

We hope everyone is over their tryptophan-induced coma. Thanksgiving was a great time for us at the Decibel Geek Podcast. We had a lot to be thankful for this year. We launched the show this year and added co-host Aaron Camaro.  Our audience is growing and we love talking about music! In short, we’re thankful to YOU for listening to the show.

Today’s episode is a Nashville X-tra episode. We kick things off with a new Rage Against the Scene segment where Chris reviews some recent articles from the Nashville Scene and his reaction is not totally what you would expect. Could Chris be moonlighting as a hipster and disguising himself in skinny jeans, bad facial hair, and a bowler hat? Doubtful, but you’ll have to check out the segment to find out. Chris also has a bone to pick with 102.9The Buzz. There’s been a lot of aggression building up over The Buzz in recent years and Chris is ready to let it all out. Hear his thoughts on their choice to constantly spin 90’s tunes and the complete degradation of The Buzz Around Town. Something smells rotten in Nashville and it has dollar signs all over it.

This episode we also announce Decibel Geek’s recent inclusion to Stitcher Radio. If the tedious task of pushing “download” is just too much for you and you have one of those intelligent phone thingy’s, you can now check out the show through the Stitcher Radio app. Simply download the app, search for Decibel Geek, and you’ll be up and running and listening to us bitch about bands in no time! Just go to Stitcher to try it out!

Next up Aaron & Chris intro a review of the new 3Minutes to Live album. Well, I guess it’s not exactly new now since we drug our feet a bit on getting this up. Once we’re over this crack habit, the shows will be better (we think).  Anyway, Chris gives a track-by-track review and shares the good, the bad, and the ugly about this record. We promise, it won’t hurt a bit.

We finish off the show with some full tunes for your ear holes. We went for variety this time, so you’ll get Piranah, fORMER, and Fistof the North Star; something for ALL tastes. There will be more music-based episodes in the future so you’ll have a nice break for our droning voices. Hope ya dig it Nastyville!

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