www.hardrockhideout.com

I’ll start by saying my name is Donnie Vie,you most likely would remeber me as the red haired lipstick big mouthed,drugged up pretty boy,that sings like the beatles,from the “new thing” or “fly high michelle” mtv videos back in 1989-90.I am and have been the singer songwriter producer for the band Enuff Znuff for the last 20 years.we are a power pop band that revolves around melodies and catchy hooks.Much to the likes of (dare I say The beatles)aerosmith,led zepplin,rolling stones,squeeze,elvis costello..Since 1985 when myself along with Chip Znuff(whom i also named,hahaha)put the band together with various different members,Gino Martino,Bo Pallacard(1st version) then Derek Frigo(r.i.p)Vikki Foxx(R.I.H{rot in hell haha}) then Ricky parent(R.I.p) and John Monaco(O.p.p)and now Randy Scott and Tori, though the new record “Dissonance” features Vinnie Castaldo on drums and Jake E Lee on lead guitar.

The band has released 13 studio albums,two greatest hits,two live records and A home video.as a solo artist I have released one studio album, a home dvd that comes with a 6 song cd,a reunion album from a concert where after not playing together for 15 years, Derek frigo, Vikki Foxx and myself played a short set at the cat club and taped and filmed it.Then I released an accoustic performance of the second ezn album”strength” titled “Extra strength” and a ton of demos and other accoustically performed versions of a lot of the favorite
Ezn and DV songs at my website”DonnieVie.com. Most of these critically aclaimed albums and songs  unfortunately flew under the radar and got lost in the shuffle with the decline of the 80s metal hairband era. Though I do agree that most of those bands were musically retarded,and had nothing to offer musical history except for damn good time, Enuff znuff was nothing like those bands,except for,and if i do say so myself,the best looking of the glam bands.We had the worst possible luck when it came to guidance and business from our first manager,(who was a rich coked up frustrated musician,that got carried away with controlling and manipulating, financially and creatively,the band ,and basically offered us ability to survive and get off the streets,along with fancy limos,guitars,recording facilities,and all the drugs we could consume for our souls.)to being used as a pawn in a political label  power battle between presidents of Atlantic records and its sister label Atco records.Atco was a big 70s label that took a 10 year hiedouse, to be
reopened in the late 80s by Derek Shullman (discovered Bon Jovi) and a super team that he hand picked of all the best in the biz. He signed The Rembrandts (theme from friends tv show), new ACDC (thunderstruck) a few big black artists, and a couple of other really good bands that fell off the face of the earth as a result of this occurance.

To be brief, Enuff Znuff was being geared up to be the Beatles of the 90s,came out of the box with back to back #1 Mtv hits, The “hot band of Rolling stone magazine”, a favorite of radio shock jock Howard Stern and David Letterman, and pretty much found our selves hailed by all of the great bands we grew up loving like
Kiss, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Paul McCartney, Heart etc…you name it ,they loved us. Hell we had the look of the world, great musicianship, catchy melodic power pop hooks,and lead vocals and harmonies that were compared to John Lennon and Paul McCartney.It all started out like a dream,but turned quickly into a nightmare. We were out touring and selling out everywhere for a while, not to mention heavily induldging in the whole sex DRUGS and rocknroll lifestyle. We were on the cover of all the magazines I was the pinup centerfold singer,we did every Tv show around,went on every radio station in US, Japan, UK etc…and walked in front of the line and given the Vip treatment at all the cool clubs, til with a blink of an eye fell off the charts as quick as we came on. The actual true story (that hasnt been told in print till this day) is,the owner of Atlantic/Atco was grooming our president at Atco to take over running atlantic itself(that was run by a president that saturated the music business with any and every hair metal band that had any following at all,with no concern for talent or good songs,it was just churn em out,make some more money or write em off at tax time) So when this became obvious,he promised the same radio aor guy that would toot up the program directors to get us and other bands air play,the presidency of Atco( which was conveniently merging with east west records at the time) to put our president out of business. Which he did and became,and later admitted to my face drunk and coked up at a party. He said,”I loved you guys and it was
nothing personal, but you guys going huge would have made the difference, and that wasn’t going to be allowed. “NOTHING PERSONAL”that’s a fucking laugh, cause it sure personally affected me and my bands lives and careers. In fact it affected music period. Once we wizened up and dumped the makeup and spandex, we really would have probably been the biggest thing in the world, over Guns and Roses, and
Nirvana. When the band was firing on all cylinders nothing could touch us and no one( regardless of musical preference) could resist us.

We could open for any one from metallica to John cougar mellencamp(in fact we did), hit the stage to skeptical faces and left it with the place going nuts. Well to make a long story short,we filed a bankruptcy to get out of our 8 record 13 million dollar deal with Time Warner (we showed them huh?) then had a brief run with Clive Davis at Arista who loved my voice and my songwriting, unfortunately couldn’t do anything with the rest of the band or the heavier side of us which was the rest of the band,so we were given a release from our deal after a little ego chess game with our then manager Herbie Herbert (Journey ,Mr. Big)and Clive only with our lives as the pieces. I was still young, naive,and trusted that everyone was willing to give what I was giving, which was my life, blood sweat and mostly tears. No one it turned out was willing to give shit,it was all about what they could get out of it.That has never been a factor for me when it came to making the music and the message it would put out. To the point of, here I am in my early 40s, broke, divorced, second guessing my abilities and debating if this is even the path I still wish to travel. On the bright side, I have just now finally found out what love is and what life is truly all about.So back to the facts.After flushing Time Warner and then Clive Davis (the single most influential record exec in the history of music), It was a big step down into the world of Indie labels and finally not really dealing with labels anymore at all. This world is a much more depressing, slower paced and less glorious place than that of the majors and everyone kissing your ass and giving you what ever you want, just to be affiliated. The whole process much more resembles work and cost money ya don’t have and promises nothing more than keeping a little hope alive.

Unless you are me, and the next block of inspiration overcomes you and brings with it the next chapter of songs that are still better and have grown since the last batch or record. And that is where I am now. Just got back into Enuff Znuff after a 8 year break( to regenerate the love for it and to repair all the damage done mentally and physically from all the years of basically killing myself for the cause). Just to find the whole mess exactly in the state I left it in,only older,and the name more ground into the carpet with the remaining members deciding to try to squeeze every last drop of life out of the name and reputation by continuing on performing mediocre vibeless shows opening for anything for whatever minute amounts of money offered (like block parties and local fairs just like Spinal Tap. The problem being , I forgot how there is still no one with a clue or potential taking charge,or running the business side of things, the dying music industry has become more dead and impossible to find a way into. Basically its hopeless and you have to appreciate the things that you’ve done and the places youve been, the people youve met and the lives that youve touched with what you created out of thin air. Hell I was an abused child with no family, money or support, and made it to number one on MTV despite all the odds, distractions, and bad luck that came our way. Anyways, til this whole shithouse goes up in flames, and deservingly so,,,,,I’ll still be making great music, in fact Ive already started the ball rolling on a new solo record for next year, if anyone is interested, you can check it all out at DonnieVie.com. No big budgets, or fancy bells and whistles,,,,just great songs, and killer pipes!!!! You can check out the complete Enuff Znuff discography at EnuffZnuff.com