Gene Simmons “Vinnie Vincent is in for some legal problems for trying to trademark Kiss

Gene Simmons says that he believes Vinnie Vincent is “his own worst enemy.”

The KISS bassist/vocalist made his comments during a question-and-answer session in Adelaide, Australia, where he is currently on tour with his solo band, supported by original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley.

Speaking about Vincent, who originally joined KISS in 1982 as Frehley‘s replacement, Simmons said (see video below, starting at around 15-minute mark): “He’s about to get into some more legal problems, because he tried to trademark the makeup and to trademark ‘Vinnie Vincent Kiss‘, the logo.

“There’s something called the classic failure mechanism, which I was told by doctors and everything — I’m not saying he is one,” Gene continued. “But there are people who simply cannot handle when things are starting to go their way — success — so they torpedo it by making stupid decisions to make sure they don’t succeeed, so they can deal with that. Some people just can’t fathom being up there, so they turn to other stuff and torpedo it.”