Vinny started playing drums at age 9 and went for drum lessons from the same teacher as Carmine. This all took place in Brooklyn, N.Y.

At age 16 Vinny met John Lennon at Record Plant Studios in NYC. John asked Vinny (and his band at the time BOMF) if they would do hand claps on a song John was recording with Elton John called "What ever gets you through the night"

From there Vinny played on a few projects that John Lennon was producing at the time. Vinny also appeared in 3 videos with John that were aired in the US & Europe. Clips of these videos appear in "The John Lennon Video Collection " released in 1994.

The year is 1976, Vinny started playing with Rick Derringer in a band called DERRINGER. They recorded 3 albums together.

The year is 1977, Vinny formed his own band call AXIS. They recorded 1 album called "It's A Circus World"

In the year 1980 Vinny joins the legendary BLACK SABBATH. Together they record "Mob Rules" and "Live Evil".

The year is 1983 Vinny and Ronnie James Dio form the band DIO. They recorded 7 albums of which 3 are platinum and 2 gold. Vinny also writes his first drum instruction book called "ROCK STEADY" on WB.

The year is 1990 ,Vinny leaves DIO and joins WORLD WAR III, 1 album recorded very loudly!

The year is 1992, BLACK SABBATH reforms and records "Dehumanizer," tours and then breaks up again!

The year (whoo!) is 1993 Vinny and Ronnie reform DIO, and record 1 album " Strange Highways" and tour .

The year is 1996, DIO have finished their new record titled "Angry Machine" (released in Oct. 96 on Mayhem Records - US and SVP Records - Europe) and have hit the road in the US and Europe in Nov. 96 and continuing into the summer of 97 with shows in Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, South America and New Jersey!

June 1998 BLACK SABBATH request the presence of Vinny on their first European tour since their breakup 20 years ago.
It's the first time Vinny joins Ozzy on the same stage!

Appice formed the band Kill Devil Hill with former Down and Pantera bassist Rex Brown, guitar slinger Mark Zavon and lead vocalist Dewey Bragg.

Following the death of Dio frontman Ronnie James Dio in 2010, the original lineup of Vinny Appice on drums, Jimmy Bain on bass, Vivian Campbell on guitar and Claude Schnell on keyboards reunited along with vocalist Andrew Freeman to perform covers of Dio songs they originally recorded under the name "Last In Line"
The band released a studio album of original material without Schnell titled Heavy Crown in February 2016.

In early 2014 Appice joined hard rock band Hollywood Monsters where he played on the album Big Trouble which was released in 2014 on Mausoleum Records.

On January 18, 2017 Vinnie was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History for his contributions to Heavy Metal drumming.