Talking rock and roll with Carmine Appice
By Alex Lloyd Gross
Carmine Appice was scheduled to meet his fans and do a book signing at Barnes and Noble in Center City Philadelphia yesterday, May 9 2016. At 7:00 PM he arrives and eschews a seat behind the table set up for him. He would rather stand. He gets right down to business. “I have a book out called Stick It, and a chapter in it is called Ask Sharon”. It’s very timely and it deals with Sharon Obsbourne. Carmine relates about how he was on tour with Ozzy in 1984 when he and Sharon would clash. “She was a fat cow back then”, laughs Appice. She disapproved of him doing drum clinics. “You look tired” was all she would say. It all came to a boil in Texas when Appice did an interview where he touted his drum solo. The entire kit would move and shoot sparks. it was conceived by Sharon and Ozzy. However, the interview was too much for Sharon to bear. According to Appice, she sabotaged the show by disabling his drum kit from moving. Less than a week later, he would be off the tour. He sued her in court and won.
Stories like this along with a few questions from fans kept the program interesting. Appice played drums for Rod Stewart, Vanilla Fudge , and Paul Stanley from KISS to name a few. The stories were many. Just a few excepts from his new book Stick It. Carmine was very down to earth during the show. No pretentious crap . Fans could take photos. He was selling his book but he was signing anything even if you did not buy a book. A true gentleman, not a rock star.
Appice could not tell every story, such as the Mud Shark, with Led Zeppelin. The incident took place at the Edgewater Inn in Washington State. It involves a groupie and a fish. Nudity is involved too. It’s explored in it’s entirety in his book. One clean story he related was when he and Paul Stanley went to get a muffler put on his car. They are waiting and the mechanic an aspiring rock star approached them to ask if they were in a band. “We told him yes and made up a fake name”, laughed Carmine.
Recently, he is playing with his brother Vinnie in a show called Drum wars. Both of them play songs and drum to the biggest songs they have done. Carmine’s book is a good read. Right down to the nitty gritty with very little boring stuff about him that fans really don’t care about. Go to his website to see when and where he will be next.
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