# Vinnie Moore

Vincent Moore (born April 14, 1964) is an American guitarist and a former member of the British hard rock band UFO.

## Biography

Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. He began his professional career at age 12 after receiving a guitar as a Christmas present. During a 2018 interview, Moore stated, "I got my first guitar for Christmas when I was like 12, basically just because I saw a picture of a guitar in a catalog, a JCPenney's catalog. I thought, 'Hey that looks pretty cool. I want that.' That was my motivation at the time, and I got it for Christmas, and really didn't bother with it a whole lot. Then, I started taking lessons for the next year. Then I really started to get obsessed with it." During that same interview, Moore was asked who his earliest teachers were, and he stated, "The first teacher was Mary Biddle, and I studied for a year with her, just some basic lessons at the local music shop. After about a year, I had advanced, and she referred me to another guy named Nick Bucci, who was a great player in my local area. He was studying jazz guitar with Pat Martino, and was also a rock guy, and he just taught me a lot of stuff; theory, and exercises, and all different kinds of stuff to make me become a better player and musician." Moore played clubs and bars until Shrapnel executive Mike Varney discovered him via a demo and biography that Moore submitted to the Spotlight column, which Varney headed for Guitar Player. His connection to Varney led to an opportunity to appear in a Pepsi commercial in 1985 (only Vinnie's hands appeared in the commercial as his guitar playing is heard). Following this, Moore recorded his first solo album, Mind's Eye (1986), released on Shrapnel Records and featuring Tony MacAlpine on keyboards. The album received several awards from guitar magazines and sold over 100,000 copies.
Moore played lead guitar with the heavy metal band Vicious Rumors on their debut album, Soldiers of the Night (1985). The album featured Moore's solo-song "Invader", which was in the style of Van Halen's "Eruption". The shred guitar craze of the late 1980s led to more releases for Shrapnel. Moore also began performing with other hard rock and heavy metal bands.
Moore joined Alice Cooper's band for a tour and then appeared on the Hey Stoopid (1991) album. Moore released two instructional videos on guitar playing, in 1987 and 1989.
Moore had been the lead guitarist of UFO for 21 years, joining in June 2003 and remaining until their breakup in April 2024. He performed on six studio albums with the band: You Are Here (2004), The Monkey Puzzle (2006), The Visitor (2009), Seven Deadly (2012), A Conspiracy of Stars (2015) and the covers album The Salentino Cuts (2017).
On August 5, 2013, Moore came on stage to perform live with Peter Frampton on Frampton's Guitar Circus concert at Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Moore played guitar on Red Zone Rider's debut album Red Zone Rider released on September 16, 2014.

## Equipment

Vinnie Moore currently endorses Kramer guitars. Moore was previously sponsored by Dean guitars, who produced several Vinnie Moore signature models for their instrument lineup. Prior to his endorsement of Dean, he played various other brands of guitars over the years, including Ibanez and Fender, most notably the Talon model that was manufactured by Heartfield, one of Fender's subsidiary brands. Moore also currently uses ENGL amplifiers and DiMarzio pickups.

## Discography
### Discography

| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales |
| Title | Album details | US | Sales |
| Mind's Eye | Released: 1986 Label: Shrapnel Records Formats: CD, CS, LP, DL | – | US: 6,719+ |
| Time Odyssey | Released: 1988 Label: Shrapnel Records Formats: CD, LP | 147 | US: 12,101+ |
| Meltdown | Released: 1991 Label: Relativity Formats: CD, CS, LP | – | US: 49,661+ |
| Out of Nowhere | Released: April 16, 1996 Label: Mayhem Formats: CD | – | US: 6,777+ |
| The Maze | Released: March 23, 1999 Label: Shrapnel Records Formats: CD, DL | – | US: 5,852+ |
| Defying Gravity | Released: July 10, 2001 Label: Shrapnel Records Formats: CD, DL | – | |
| To the Core | Released: May 26, 2009 Label: Mascot Formats: CD, DL | – | |
| Aerial Visions | Released: October 23, 2015 Label: Mind's Eye Music Formats: Digital, CD | – | |
| Soul Shifter | Released: October 4, 2019 Label: Mind's Eye Music Formats: Digital, CD | – | |
| Double exposure | Released: November 8, 2022 Label: Mind's Eye Music Formats: | – | |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. ||||

### Compilation albums

| Title | Album details |
| Collection: The Shrapnel Years | Released: March 14, 2006 Label: Shrapnel Records Formats: CD, DL |

### Live albums

| Title | Album details |
| Live! | Released: January 25, 2000 Label: Shrapnel Records Formats: CD, DL |

### Instructional videos

| Title | Album details |
| Advanced Lead Guitar Techniques | Released: 1987 Label: Hot Licks Formats: VHS |
| Speed, Accuracy, & Articulation | Released: 1989 Label: Hot Licks Formats: VHS |

### Other appearances

| Title | Year | Notes |
| Vicious Rumors – Soldiers of the Night | 1985 | band member |
| Alice Cooper – Hey Stoopid | 1991 | band member |
| UFO – You Are Here | 2004 | band member |
| Jordan Rudess – Rhythm of Time | 2004 | guest |
| UFO – Showtime | 2005 | band member |
| UFO – The Monkey Puzzle | 2006 | band member |
| Destruction – D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. | 2008 | guest |
| Michael Angelo Batio – Hands Without Shadows 2 – Voices | 2009 | guest |
| UFO – The Visitor | 2009 | band member |
| Glen Drover – Metalusion | 2011 | guest |
| UFO – Seven Deadly | 2012 | band member |
| Red Zone Rider – Red Zone Rider | 2014 | band member |
| UFO – A Conspiracy of Stars | 2015 | band member |
| UFO – The Salentino Cuts | 2017 | band member |