Vinny Appice recently appeared on The Hook Rocks. The iconic drummer has seen it all and played with some of the most prominent musicians in rock history. During the interview, Vinny shares incredible stories about Dio and Black Sabbath, and reflects on the album The Last In Lin" on its 40th anniversary.
In the following excerpt, Appice reflects on on making music with late Beatles legend, John Lennon:
Says Vinny: "So all nine of us go down and we walk in and we see John Lennon and go, 'Oh shit, it's John Lennon.' So we go into the room and they, we put the headphones on. Now he's talking to you. Yeah. You know, you heard his voice so many times and now he's talking to you. And, uh, so that was just a trip.
"And we wound up doing hand claps on a song called whatever gets you through the night. That's me and my band doing hand claps on that song. So. We got to meet him afterward and we were real cool. We weren't fan boys, you know, we wanted to be cool. And, uh, and then we went back to our room and we were freaking out.
"And, uh, he must've asked Jimmy, where did they come from? Instant nine guys doing hand claps, just what they needed, you know? So Jimmy must've told them, 'uh, they're upstairs rehearsing. It's a great band. I'm producing them.' A couple of days later, he comes in to the room, watches us play. And that's like, I remember my muscles freezing up a bit.
"Never happened before, but I'm there and, uh, like, wow, John sitting there watching us play. So he liked that and I smoked a couple joints with him and, and, uh, you know, we, he used to come up all the time. We played pool. There was a pool table in the room next door and he used to hang out with us. So he wound up asking us to do some videos with him and all this stuff.
"And then he asked us to do this live performance at the New York Hilton. And it was a black tie affair, a big ordeal on TV all, all, all, all over the world. And we did that and we played three songs with him. And, uh, then I find out not long ago that that was his last live appearance. And I'm sitting there going, shit, I played John Lennon's last live appearance."
Appice adds: "I'm sitting there with John in, in our rehearsal room and I'm sitting here, he's to my right, smoking a joint. And, um, he always wanted coke, but I didn't do coke. I was just a pothead back then. And we're talking about Italian food.
"So I said, 'you know, my grandparents are from Italy. My mother makes the killer lasagna, the meatballs, everything, you know,' and we're talking about it. And I said, 'you know what? I'm going to have her make you some.' So I told my mother, 'mom, you got to make some lasagna for John Lennon.' Okay. She makes a pan of lasagna a couple of days later.
"I bring the lasagna into the studio and luckily John was there. And I said, 'uh, Hey John, this is from my mother. She made this specially for you. We talked about Italian food. Here it is.' 'Oh, thank you. Thank you.' He's very, very nice about it and took the pan. Right. And, uh, about a month later, my brother's playing Madison Square Garden with Rod Stewart. They're doing like six nights at Madison Square Garden. And my parents went to the party they had at, up in the city. And I, I don't know, I must've been on the road or something. And my mother is backstage. My mother's a short Italian woman, you know, kind of heavy. And my father, Charlie, and she says, 'look, Charlie, there's John Lennon.' So Carmine says, 'come on, I'll, I'll take you over there to meet him.' So they went over there and Carmine said, 'this is my mother. And this is Vinnie's mom and blah, blah, blah. I made you lasagna.' So they talk for a little bit. And at the end of the conversation, my mother asked John, 'did you bring the pan?'"
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