Eric: Kitty, sweetie, kitten (the first time was accidental and when they were both over 50), mixmaster, mittens, Kittenhawk (co-owned by Gene), Snickerdoodle, muffin, goofus supreme, Rapunzel, Honey
Eric: Foxy, Craze, Love, Little Buddy, Honey-pie, Minky, Bunny (this is slightly embarrassing)
Ace: Spacey/Acey-Spacey, Sparky
Peter: Mr. Criss 🩷, Papacat, Jazzcat, Frank Sinatra
Tommy: Tomcat, Tom, Tommothy, Tom-Tom, Spaceboy, Frigidare Supreme (affectionate), Thomas
Bobby: Mr. Rock, Bob
Mark: Markie (this annoys him eventually), Markus (this is sometimes followed by Allen-Slaughter. Heeelp), Princess Mark
Dana: Daniel (This annoys him), Strumwasser, Streamwater (this is somehow more annoying than Daniel), Dany, Danana Republic, dipshit/fuckass (arguments only)
Robert: Rob, Robbie (only when begging pretty please)
Tim: Timothy (the only person allowed to call him this??), Tim-tam (only at the crack of dawn)
man, record exec bullshit has screwed over Robert Fleischman too many times. I have a hot take about something involving him, see. If it wasn’t for rat bastard execs and the Invasion’s grubby ass manager, he’d have stayed on Vinnie Vincent’s Invasion and there would have been at least five more albums—though the same people screwed Vinnie Vincent over in the end, so the guys would have had to find a different record label, and Vinnie would have needed a different bassist, but honestly? Yeah.
And you know, some people seem to think Vinnie wanted Mark Slaughter. No. No he didn’t. He wanted Robert. Chrysalis Records wanted Mark Slaughter because he was pretty and relatively femme. Robert didn’t fit their commercial style (speaking of which, the bastards tried to make Vinnie tone it all down. They wouldn’t let him do what he wanted on guitar or embrace his androgyny. But that’s for another time). Can sing Mark? Sure. He’s got a band. But you know what I’ve learned? Not only is Robert a better person than Mark, but he sings better too. I never heard about Robert slagging somebody but Mark slagged Cinderella and got his ass kicked by Tom Keifer. Did I mention Mark Slaughter can’t hold his tongue? Yeah.
Very interesting interview with Robert Fleischman, the singer Steve replaced in journey. He talks Herbie, Steve joining pretending to be a cousin ha and Neal being upset.
DG: Okay. Let’s talk about some of the allegations made against you regarding your time with the band. An official Journey publication (footnote 1) states that you were fired by Herbie because you were overly demanding and arrogant. Another (footnote 2) states that Herbie fired you when you complained that you didn’t have enough of the limelight. And in his 2001 interview with my colleague Matt Carty, Herbie stated that you were a “pompous little poodle, and really tough to deal with.” How do you respond to that? What’s your side of the story?
RF: I—it doesn’t really matter what Herbie said about me. But I felt it wasn’t the thing to say. I thought he’d have been a little bit more understanding, have more of a heart. But he did [say it]. Hey, Herbie can sell ice cubes to Eskimos, and I really admire him for that. He had this band, and he had the vision. The only way I was hard to get along with was that we were playing this huge gig, and Herbie didn’t want me to sing. Why should I, I thought--I told him, “I thought you guys wanted me here, and then all of a sudden, you don’t want me singing tonight, so why should I even go up on the stage? It’s not like I’m playing drums, so you just want me up there to clap, and—”
DG: To shake the tambourine?
RF: Yeah! And because we were playing in Fresno, and he was afraid of what was gonna’ happen. He was desperate for it all to go well in Fresno.
DG: What was that about?
RF: Well, I mean, he felt that Fresno was the biggest Journey—you know, it was crazy there, and it was just the way he did it, pressuring me. And then they probably thought I was really pompous and everything because they would come to me with these songs and—I couldn’t write anything to that song, or I couldn’t come up with a really great idea with that song, I would just kinda’--I’d drop it. So then they’d come to me and say “Oh, have you finished that song yet?” I’d go, “No I haven’t, I’m still kinda’ working on it,” and everything, and they felt that I was controlling—because of that they felt that I was controlling. You know? But yet it just was that I couldn’t come up with an idea for it. They thought I was trying to ignore it, or I was filtering what they were doing, their music, but it was just—it didn’t inspire me to go from A to Z, you know? Finish it off. I’d get rough ideas, but that was about it. I guess I just procrastinated and I felt like this wasn’t necessary. But the ones that I did finish and everything like that, and that I had feeling for, they came out, and they did well.
DG: “Wheel in the Sky” being the most notable example.
RF: Yeah, I guess so.
DG: Let’s talk about your replacement by Steve Perry, The official story is that Herbie was floored by Steve’s demo tape, and he knew then and there that he wanted to get him in and you out.
RF: It just came down to—Herbie had connections with a guy named Michael Dilbeck who had put a lot of money into Steve Perry’s demos, and so Dilbeck was part of CBS records—he was a big honcho in the A&R department. So he kept bringing up Steve to Herbie and I guess they worked out some deal where, well, “If you get Steve in the deal then I’ll help you out more here with CBS and you’ll have a better connection with us”—it was one of those political moves. And they brought Steve in, and Steve’s a great guy—I mean, I see Steve occasionally and we talk together, and we’re friends.
DG: Oh, that’s good. But one thing the official band publications readily admit is that a level of deception was employed not only by Herbie but by [Journey guitarist] Neal [Schon], [former Journey keyboardist] Gregg [Rolie], [Journey bassist] Ross [Valory], and [former Journey drummer] Aynsley [Dunbar], when it came to the way Perry was brought into the band. Apparently Perry was actually pretending to be John Villanueva’s Portuguese cousin.
RF: Exactly! I was introduced to him that way! I mean that’s how he was introduced to me, that way. We had had a show at Soldiers Field in front of probably 120,000 people, and we were in Chicago, and Steve Perry was there in Chicago too, watching me on the sides of the stage.
DG: The Time (Cubed) booklet states that “at a sound check before a concert in Long Beach, Herbert arranged for [you] to be otherwise occupied while Perry joined the band to sing one of [your] songs.”
RF: Exactly.
DG: And how did it make you feel when you subsequently discovered what had been going on behind your back?
RF: (Pause.) Hey—that’s why I never really liked rock’n’roll too much. That’s why I never really went out and all. I like being a solo artist because I don’t have to deal with Peyton Place. You know what I mean? I don’t have to deal with the soap opera. I just think when it gets—everything gets lost. You know, your whole focus, what you’re doing—it’s gone once that element comes in.
DG: It stops being about music.
RF: Yeah. It becomes this—it’s ego. But from what I understand, Neal was very upset that I left, and he was mad at Herbie for a while, I think—that’s what I heard.
Vinnie Vincent Invasion: Boyz Are Gonna Rock 7” Promotional Single (1986)
Side A: Boyz Are Gonna Rock
Side 1: Animal
Pink Vinyl
Front of slip cover reads "Are you ready to rock? Brace yourself for the Vinnie Vincent Invasion!"
Back of slip cover reads "Do not buy this record! It's FREE!"
Labels on both sides ("Side A" and "Side 1") reads "This is a free sampler. If you like what you hear you can get the "Vinnie Vincent Invasion" album # BFV 41529. PLAY VERY LOUD."
Recorded: Baby 'O Recorders, Hollywood, California
Genre: Glam metal
Label: Chrysalis
Vinnie Vincent Invasion's self titled debut album is released.
Two singles were released, "Boyz Are Gonna Rock" and "Back on the Streets". A music video was only made for "Boyz Are Gonna Rock", In the video the singer in the video is Mark Slaughter rather than the actual singer Robert Fleischman. Fleischman left the band prior to filming the video and Mark lip-synched to Fleischman's vocals.
The song "Invasion" (for the CD and cassette versions) contained about three minutes of looping guitar feedback at the end of the song. The record version had the same feedback, but the difference was that it never ended until you picked up the needle. This was because the sound went all the way to the end of the vinyl, causing the needle to loop it over and over again. The liner notes state that no pedals, outboard gear or synthesizers were used anywhere on the album.
The album was listed 8th on Kerrang!'s list of hard rock albums in 1986. The same magazine listed the album 100th on their list of 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time. In the book Fargo Rock City, journalist Chuck Klosterman names it the second greatest heavy metal album of the 1980s, behind only Appetite For Destruction by Guns N' Roses. Rolling Stone listed it 39th on their 2015 list of Greatest Hair Metal albums of all time.
