After writing with Gene, Paul and Vinnie collaborated on "I Still Love You" and "Betrayed" (unrelated to the KISS track recorded in 1989). Both were recorded for the "Creatures Of The Night," but "Betrayed" along with the excellent "Back On The Streets" were ultimately dropped. It's not clear how developed any recordings of the songs were. In the case of "Back On The Streets" (with Paul on lead vocals) it is possible that there was a conflict in including two strong ballads on the album, especially when only one of them had a Paul co-write. This may have been due to the changing financial structure of the band which made such credits more and more important to both Gene and Paul in particular. Regardless, there were also apparently legal reasons for the song being dropped (KISS Alive Forever). Even with the material Vinnie was providing KISS continued rehearsing with, and auditioning, numerous guitar players in an attempt to find someone suitable to fill Ace's boots. This caused no end of problems for Vinnie, who saw the band auditioning prospective candidates while not really being in consideration for the position; even though he was working with the band, writing and recording. Vinnie eventually had to threaten the band with his leaving New York, where rehearsals and recording were taking place, before they would commit to him. Ultimately Gene simply called him, while he was in the bath, and let him know that he had become the new guitarist in KISS and that he'd be putting his band and the prospective deal with CBS on hold. Naturally Vinnie freaked out, but it had taken the band a long time to come to the realization that he was the right choice to take the band forward. Like Eric Carr before him, his relative obscurity was beneficial to maintaining the mystique of the members of the band.
While Vinnie was co-writing with the band, and hanging around the studio, it is not necessarily indicative of his playing all of the lead guitars on the songs he contributed to. Robben Ford played the solo on "I Still Love You." This suggests that there may be delineation between Vinnie's early role as a song-writer developing into him recording on the album. The whole album was a total mess in terms of who played on what anyway. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't guitar work by either or both Kulick, Vincent, or unnamed others on many of the tracks either. A contribution Gene Simmons made to Vinnie was in his renaming. KISS seldom allowed the use of "ethnic" names in the band, and so Gene suggested the "Vinnie Vincent" moniker. Vinnie liked it too. According to Gene, that's the only "gift" he'll allow Vinnie.
When "Creatures Of The Night" was released on October 26 the public's reaction to it was hardly over-powering in the United States. For all intents KISS was still being presented with Ace Frehley as a member of the band; as evidenced by his face on the cover and his participation on the "I Love It Loud" video. There was no instant return to the popularity levels the band had last enjoyed in 1978. Instead, response was quiet if not mostly non-existent as if the band had simply become a non-entity. During October and November the band embarked on short promotional tour of several European countries, including Germany, Holland, Italy, and the UK, with Ace Frehley in tow. He was actively promoted at that time as still being with the band. Even at this time the band was not hiding the fact that Ace had not actively performed on the album, though they did give the topic plenty of spin. Ace suggested, "What happened was the band came back to New York and I did some overdubs and some solos, but that was it. Most of the guitar work was put on by Paul and he came through with flying colors" (Kerrang #32). It seems clear that it still wasn't known what Ace's position was in the band. Paul added to the illusion commenting, "When I couldn't handle things - and I don't consider myself the ultimate lead player - another friend of ours came in and gave a little help... nobody you'd know" (Kerrang #32). Sounds like an allusion to Vinnie.
In America critical response to the album was generally positive: "The back cover may resemble Dire Straits' current album jacket but any similarities between the ends there. KISS, still not revealing identities, comes back with a hard-hitting dose of very heavy metal. Whereas the last few Kiss albums made concessions to pop and progressive rock audiences, this album takes the foursome back to its roots - simple but effective heavy metal - which made the band so successful in the first place. Prime cuts are 'Creatures of the Night,' 'I Love It Loud,' 'Killer' and 'Saint and Sinner'" (Billboard, 11/20/82). While that was undoubtedly more kind than the usual tone of review that the band was used to, it did not light up sales the album would not attain Gold certification from the RIAA until May 1994. Vinnie's co-written "I Love It Loud" was issued as the sole single off the album, backed with "Danger" in the US, though it struggled to #102 on the Billboard singles charts.
After returning to the United States in late November, Ace officially left KISS. At the time it was reported that this only a temporary move and that Ace would (re)join the rest of the band on tour at some point. It would seem logical to suggest that it was in the period following the end of the European promotional tour that Vinnie was finally engaged for the position. Preparations began for the start of the North American Tour in the December of 1982. Initially the tour had been planned to encompass more than 100 dates, though it was reduced in scale by nearly half. Even before the tour began there were problems outside of KISS that would have a negative impact on the tour, especially one with KISS' cost and scale. KISS hadn't properly toured the United States since 1979 and the music industry was in recession with lower record sales and smaller audiences for many touring acts. Overall the country was faced with a generally poor economic climate nationally. KISS seemed to think that their return to touring with a heavy album would fly in the face of reality. In an interview with Joel Denver, Gene didn't seem particularly bothered by the national situation: "You go for broke is the whole point. Through bad times, through good times, through disco, KISS has weathered the storm" (Earth News Network). Paul echoed this almost desperate sentiment, commenting, "We don't really think too much about what the climate or the atmosphere is out on the road. What we try and do, and we're doing now, is putting all our energy into making it happen... So that's what we have to go do. We don't concern ourselves with the possibilities of mess-ups or anything like that" (Earth News Network).
During mid-December the band convened in Dallas to rehearse for the tour that was due to begin towards the end of the month. Vinnie Vincent was on hand to fulfill the lead guitarist position with not much time to become familiar with the material or the 60' stage with tank center-piece. Like Eric Carr before him, Vinnie was given a new makeup design and character that had been designed by Paul. Unfortunately, promoters were bailing out on the band and they were unable to book many venues. KISS could no longer guarantee sales for, in the existing economic climate coupled with their own decline in popularity. "KISS refused to play any buildings that weren't arenas or big auditoriums," (Lendt, C.K., KISS & Sell) and as a result the tour took on a strange schedule with plenty of gaps. To pay the bills the band had to play wherever they could, but the time off between shows essentially ate money. In many markets ads still featured Ace Frehley as a member of the band, possibly surprising some concert attendees when seeing Vinnie for the first time. Between the challenges of economy and attendance, there wasn't much for the band to celebrate during their 10th anniversary tour.
One of the first things Vinnie did after joining KISS was get himself a kick-ass and cool guitar worthy of a lead guitarist in his position. Where Ace had used the Les Paul as his signature guitar, Vinnie needed an equally striking took of the trade. Vinnie recalled, "When I joined KISS, I said, 'Look, I really want a cool guitar, something I can take to the fans and really show them it's a cool thing.' He [Ed. Grover Jackson] told me he had just the thing. He showed me the Randy Rhoads guitar body. He didn't even have one put together at that point because Randy unfortunately passed away and it never got into a big production stage. He told me to show that to Gene and Paul and see what they thought. They really loved it. I was just crazy about it so he put one together for me. He makes the best guitars" (KF, 1984). Vinnie had fallen in love with Charvel Jacksons after seeing Eddie Van Halen playing one in the studio. He soon gave Grover a call and became friendly with him. The striking Jackson "shark-fin" design was often seen in gold livery during the tour (along with other guitars). Randy had seen the guitar, which he had named "The Original SIN," but had only received two of four prototypes to road test with Ozzy prior to his untimely death in March 1982. It was unfortunate that the design came to Vinnie through the death of Randy, but Vinnie was proud to represent Jackson's first custom guitar under that name (rather than Charvel), commenting, "To me it's the guitar of the future... I just hope I'm doing it justice" (Kerrang #41). The maple bodied/neck guitar included a pair of humbuckers and old-style TB-4 Floyd bridge and provided thick vibrato. Initially overlooked, the guitar in pink guise quickly became Vinnie's trademark during the "Lick It Up" tour.
The tour kicked off at the Bismarck's Civic Center in North Dakota, on December 29, 1982. The tour had been scheduled to start in Rapid City, South Dakota, two days earlier, but that date had to be postponed due to bad weather resulting in the band's equipment being stranded in transit. Rumors persist that the band were forced to play this first show wearing a combination of costume components dating back to the "Love Gun" era that been scrounged up and flown in due to the equipment problem. No photographic evidence of this has yet surfaced to confirm this. 3,335 fans (of a maximum audience of 8,200) witnessed Vinnie's live debut with KISS. Several new songs were added to the set initially: "Keep Me Comin'," "Rock And Roll Hell," "Creatures of the Night," "I Love It Loud," and "I Still Love You." Neither "Keep Me Comin'" nor "Rock And Roll Hell" survived into 1983 and were quickly dropped. Vinnie was given a guitar solo spot that followed "I Want You" and it wasn't long before a violin bow started being used. Absent from the set was any material from "Unmasked" or "The Elder." With Vinnie and Eric in the line-up the band's sound had transformed from the classic era signature taking on more of a sonic overdrive that competing bands were presenting. And if nothing else, Vinnie was initially enthused to be in the band, commenting: "It's just beyond my wildest dreams that this is happening... This band enables me to live out all my fantasies as both a guitar player and a rock star" (Kerrang #41).
The decline in KISS' popularity was very noticeable and the band transformed from kings of popular culture to confused dinosaurs. As an example, one show review commented: When "They first appeared in Rupp Arena in March 1977, the 16,700 people who saw the show made up the largest Rupp concert audience until that time. Then when the band came back to an iced-over Lexington the following January about 10,500 KISS army troops braved the cold (Andy Mead, Herald). By the time KISS returned to Rupp Arena, with Night Ranger in support, for their January 6, 1983 show, a low point had been reached. Local music critic Glenn White reviewed the show and suggested, "Maybe this would be a good time for KISS to call it quits. The heavy metal rock theatre group brought its act back into Rupp Arena last night to a less than spirited reception from about 2,500 survivors of the KISS Army" (Herald, 1/7/83). The tour struggled to a conclusion at San Francisco's Civic Auditorium on April 3...