Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to legendary drummer Carmine Appice about his re-release of Guitar Zeus, Assisting with the production of Ozzy Osbourne‘s Bark at the Moon album, his monster hit ‘Do ya think I’m Sexy’ with Rod Stewart, Blue Murder, King Kobra and Unreleased Vinnie Vincent songs that he is thinking of releasing.

Watch the interview here:

When asked about the re-release of his two Guitar Zeus albums
“That’s my main thing right now, this is something that was originally done originally done in 1995-1997 and what happened was I released it everywhere in the world except in America. In 005 I tried to release it in America and soon as I got the deal the company went out of business. So I tried again with another company called Fuel, Fuel released it as a double record and they didn’t really do much so I let it go. Then I got the rights back from Fuel and I said you know what I’m gonna try and release it again and add some bonus tracks. I have 32 tracks and I found one track that I fixed and was never released ever, so I finished this track called ‘Mother Space’ and it was released as my first video. I got Bumblefoot on guitar for that and mixed it to sound like the rest of the record. Then I put some other songs that were never released like a song called ‘Nothing’ with John Norum from Europe which he plays his ass off. Then I put this whole package together and released it as Carmine Appice Guitar Zeus in America. The album was finally released on a little label of my own, so now we have 32 tracks on the digital downloads and we have 12 tracks on the CD and eight tracks on a vinyl. I’m getting to release it the way I really wanted to release it and I’ve been doing a lot of PR for it. The album sounds like Soundgarden, meets Blue Murder, meets the Beatles. It has all these great guitar players playing solos like Brian May from Queen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Mick Mars, Slash Bumblefoot, Ted Nugent, Dweezil Zappa, Zakk Wylde and the list goes on.

When asked about how the co-writing the song with Rod Stewart ‘Do ya think I’m Sexy’ and how it changed his life
“Rod Stewart used to listen to a lot of stuff on the radio and he said I want a song like ‘Miss You’ by the Rolling Stone and we gave him like a good demo and we tried different arrangements as there was a lot more of a Hard Rock arrangement on the song at the time but then Tom Dowd the producer kept having us change it. Even the first version that was done we had three guitars, bass, drums and keyboard and it sounded really massive and hard rocking, it didn’t sound like a disco song, it sounded more like with the Rolling Stones. So then they put an orchestra and before you know it ended up in 48 tracks and when you mix that down it became smaller. The released it and then it went number one everywhere. Over two million in USA and so probably the album sold over ten million worldwide. It changed my life because it made me a more of a songwriter financially.”

When asked about joining Ozzy during the Bark at the Moon Era
“I didn’t even ask to join Ozzy they called me. I was in France and my manager said Sharon Osbourne’s looking for you. So I called them and they asked me to join the band and I said well I might be interested. I have known Ozzy for a long time. And I said what happened with Tommy Aldridge they said they fired him, they recorded a new album and they wanted me to go into the studio and fix the drum sound and help finish the album with Ozzy vocals plus I would also get an associate producer credit, So I said I’ll okay this all sounds good. So we put a contract together and in my contract it said that I can have my own merchandise on the tour and it goes on to say that I have my own PR person with me doing press promoting my drum master classes that I would do on the road which they agreed to it, as it was in the contract. ”

“I went into studio to finish the Bark at the Moon album the did with Tommy Aldridge and help the poorly recorded drum sound using some of my techniques. Me and the producer probably re-mic’ed the drum sound but we could not help the timing, Tommy Aldridge drum timing was bad. Also I helped Ozzy lay down his vocals. Sharon actually left Ozzy in my care in New York City to do lay down the vocals. Then me and Ozzy flew to England and shot the Bark at the Moon video that I was in miming to We went on tour and all my master classes were sold out (I was giving money to UNICEF also for the master classes). I was making about fifteen hundred dollars a day extra on the tour with these master classes. Sharon didn’t like that, long story short she started harassing me on the tour so eventually she came said Tommy Aldridge is taking over. I said we got a contract, then she said I guess I’ll see you on court, with a real snotty face. So I took them to court and I I got what I would have got on the tour but I wasn’t in the band, that’s not what I wanted you know. I mean I sang the background harmonies on the tour and I had a good name and I did a drum solo and I always tore the audience up. But Sharon threw me off the tour. The timing on Bark at the moon was bad that’s why they called me but they took Tommy back. ”

When asked about the Vinnie Vincent Speedball cancellations and releasing unreleased songs they recorded together
“Vinnie Vincent gig was cancelled, yeah we knew it would happen. Vinnie kept saying that it’s the promoter fault but the promoter has been so sick, he’s still sick and he hasn’t had a chance to go and work the deal. I think now Vinnie Vincent has totally ruined his career, if there was any last chance, it’s gone now. I think he’s done. I mean there’s nothing on his website. I think people are afraid to book him, that’s what happens when you do stuff like this. I knew Vinnie back in 1979-80 when he played with me he yeah he had some ego problems you know and never lived up to his word in business. I don’t know what his problem is but all I know is back when I played with him and he played with Kiss he was a fantastic guitar player, really fantastic talent, good songwriter, good singer and he sang on some of the songs that we did. I think I’m gonna put some of those songs we recorded together out that no one has heard up on YouTube just for the hell of it just so people can hear some of it because they’re really good stuff, even though he didn’t want it ever released. I’m not putting it up for sale I’m just putting it up for creativity. I own the tapes. There is this one song called ‘Tears’ which was the original version of the song that he gave to to John Waite it was a little different arrangement. We have eight or nine songs we wanted to release like 50 vinyls records with these songs and sell them, and autograph them at a gig. Vinnie didn’t like them so yeah so he stopped it, so we didn’t do it, The style of the songs were not metal it was 1979 they were just hard rock. They are sort of like a Heavy Cheap Trick and kind of kind of like Cactus. ”