The Carmine Appice Interview

"Saved My Life"

By Carmine Appice

"I played a few burlesque houses but our manager was connected to the Mafia. Those guys you see in the movie Goodfellas, we used to know Henry Hill. We used to know Paulie (The Don). They all used to go to my managers club.

In the movie the club that was burned down was my managers club, "The Action House." They burned it down to collect insurance and then rebuilt it. It just so happens my managers club had a fire there.

Music probably saved my life. A lot of my friends went on to join the Mafia and being in the gangs. As kids we belonged to a gang to be safe. For me I could have ended up like a bunch of my friends who wound up doing hard time (multiple life terms). A couple of other guys got killed. Music might have saved my life because I was headed in the wrong direction."