Metal-Rules.com caught with original Vinnie Vincent Invasion vocalist Robert Fleischman and how he reconnected with Vinnie Vincent at the Atlanta KISS Expo this past January.

Fleischman summed it up by saying, “My experience there was great, really great. It was very emotional. You know, we all hadn’t seen Vinnie in many, many years and I hadn’t seen him for over 30 something years. During those thirty years and all the, all the things that you heard on the news and all that stuff, you know, apparently you’ve heard it all, but then to see him. It was just great to see him because, despite all the things that happened to him, I’ve always been in his corner rooting for him, whatever he’s done. I told him that I hated seeing him shoot himself in the foot all the time with bad decisions and handing his career over to a bunch of jerks who just ran his life into the ground; he’s partly to blame for that. His talent is so big that all that stuff kind of gets eclipsed by it. I’ve always had great respect for him and a lot of love for him, and it was just great to see him. I was just so happy that he was OK.  And I think that day when he was there talking about his whole life and when he picked up the guitar and started singing it was like…it was very melancholy. It was very kind of sad, and it was very somber. Let’s say it that way and be polite.”

About working with Vinnie in the future: “Yeah, they would like to get Vinnie back in the limelight again. They asked me if I’d be interested in going to the Nashville Expo and doing some songs with Vinnie and I said yes if it’s another kind of acoustic kind of thing, I’m all up for it. But doing an electric thing? It would just take too much time and practice to get to that point, but I know a lot of people would love to see that. I think people would be forgiving if we just went up there and did a couple of acoustic songs. Everybody’s a lot older now, and they would appreciate that, and maybe eventually, something will happen. After the show in Atlanta, Vinnie got sick. He was sick for like three and a half weeks. I spoke to him last week for a very short time, and we’re going to talk more next week, and we’re going to hash out some ideas and see what he’s got in mind and see if I’d like to go along with it or not.”

On the band’s image in the ‘80s: “I didn’t like it. I told Vinnie; ‘You should just go there and play with just jeans and a T-shirt and be a guy. Just be that guy, like Jeff Beck or whatever.’ But he liked to dress up, and that’s why the band looked as it did.”

On seeing the “Boyz Are Gonna Rock” video with Mark Slaughter: “The video was a carnivore. I had all kinds of people calling me up, telling me that the Vinnie Vincent Invasion was going to be on television. They go, it’s on right now. So, I’m ready to go on, and I put on the TV, and I am sitting there and hear that intro. There is the intro, and now I see this guy up there. All of a sudden, my voice is coming out of his mouth. I’m just going, ‘Wow, what a lot of nerve.’ What nerve to do something like that and to think that it was okay to do something like that. I’m telling you, that was the first Milli Vanilli, before the whole Milli Vanilli thing, that was the first one.”

Vinnie Vincent and Robert Fleischman performed together at the Expo. Fan-filmed video can be seen below:

Video footage of Vinnie's Q&A session at Atlanta KISS Expo 2018 can be seen below in two parts, courtesy of Mike Brunn:

Prior to the Expo, Vincent spoke with Eddie Trunk on Sirius XM. Check it out below:

(Photo - Emily Strigl)