Carmine Appice Points to Rod Stewart for Confusion Around His Last Name

Carmine Appice and Vinny Appice are brothers and legendary rock drummers, yet for some reason they pronounce their last names differently.

Carmine is known for providing the backbeat for Rod Stewart, Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and many other groups. Vinny is best known for his association with Dio, Black Sabbath and Heaven & Hell.  

The "Uh-piece"/"App-uh-cee" conundrum has confounded fans of both drummers for decades. But in a recent interview, Carmine has straightened out why and how this happened. 

Carmine tells "Jim Kerr's 9 Cups of Coffee, Half Drunk" podcast, that the "correct" (Italian) pronunciation of his name is "app-uh-cee," which is how most of his family members—including his brother Vinny—pronounce it. But things changed when he began working with Rod Stewart. 

"What happened was when I went with Rod Stewart, Rod said, 'You gotta get one way to say your name,'" Carmine recalls. "I used to correct everybody...I got fed up with it. So I went with the flow."

And the flow worked for Carmine. His drum company, Ludwig, put out ads playing off the Uh-piece pronunciation and his career was going great. 

Then his little brother Vinny joined the Ronnie James Dio-fronted version of Black Sabbath during the band's tour for its masterpiece Heaven & Hell album.   

"Then my brother Vinny came out with Sabbath, 'Vinny App-uh-cee.' Confused everybody," he laughed.

Of course a proud Italian-American like Dio wasn't about to dumb-down his drummer's last name!

Listen to the full podcast above.

Carmine and Vinny just put out an album, APPICE, together. You can get more informatio about the album here. 

Carmine also released an autobiography earlier this year, Stick It! My Life of Sex, Drums, and Rock 'N' Roll. Learn more about that here. 

Photo: Getty Images