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Kip Winger

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Kip Winger is an American rock musician, formerly of the hair metal band Winger and currently a solo artist.

The Early Days

Born in Denver, Colorado in 1961. His parents were Jazz musicians and growing up Kip was always involved in music. At the age of 5 he was enrolled in a pilot Yamaha music program for preschoolers. Blessed with supportive parents, he was given music lessons and supplied with instruments. When he was 7 years old, Kip, his brothers and a neighborhood friend, Pete Fletcher, started a band, "Blackwood Creek". Kip grew up listening to pop radio and what is now considered progressive rock. As a band his favorites were Yes, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Rush, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, C.S.N.Y, and, of course, the Beatles.

When Kip was 9, he did a gig at his elementary school and later a few gigs at different schools. Kip eventually left school after the tenth grade because he felt school was getting in the way of his musical education. Around that time, 1976, Kip became interested in classical music and started studying classical guitar. At the same time he started appreciating dance. Kip's girl friend at the time wanted to take ballet, and since none of her friends would do it with her, she convinced Kip to. This was a broadening experience for him, considering his eclectic schedule--in the morning ballet class listening to Tchaikovsky or Mozart, then on to the gig, doing a sound check, and playing Van Halen and Zepplin all night.

Later that year, Kip's manager Cliff Powers was back stage at a Heart concert and met another Denver local, Beau Hill. He asked him to produce a demo tape for Kip's fledgling band. They were the first band, other than Beau's own, that Beau produced. At that time the band were calling themselves Colorado but the group changed their name to Wingerz. A lot of writing and recording went on in those days despite Wingerz lacking an actual record deal.

Rise To Fame

In 1979, now a three-piece band, Kip and the boys ventured to New York to try to "make it." They played all over a tri-state area and opened for bands that were big in clubs at the time like Twisted sister, Zebra, and The Good Rats. They had no luck getting a record deal, and after about eight months, the group decided to go back to Denver and concentrate on writing and recording. Unfortunately, soon after the band started drifting apart wanting to go in different directions. Kip was living near Denver University, and after he got his GED, Kip enrolled in music theory, guitar, voice, and acting. He obtained a small role that year in Follies, a musical by Sondheim and got a small taste of musical theatre, but Kip knew that school wasn't for him. Kip was really into writing songs and dance classes, and he soon started taking dance classes with the Colorado State Ballet. Because of the shortage of guys, Kip got recruited into the company. When Kip wasn't painting apartments as a job, he was Studying dance three hours a day, then going home to write songs or going to a gig to do 3 sets of Heavy metal. The myth of Kip being a "dancer" is bogus, although studied ballet for years.

Kip stayed in Denver writing and studying for about two years, but he desperately wanted a record deal, and it wasn't happening anytime soon. So, Kip set off to New York again in 1982 at the age of 21. Beau Hill was in and out of New York and had a place across the river in Hoboken, NJ. He let Kip stay there. Kip slept on his living room floor for a year or so and got a job waiting tables at the Madison Café on the corner of 14th and Washington. He had an 8-track tape machine, and Kip wrote and recorded songs when he wasn't working.

It was at that time that Kip met Sandy Stewart, who had previously written songs with Stevie Nicks. She was writing for her second album, and the two co-wrote a lot of songs, but none of them made it to her second LP, Blue Yonder.

Kip also found himself studying composition with Edgar Grana on 53rd Street. This was a profound and enlightening experience for Kip. He encouraged Kip to analyze music by deconstructing and reconstructing. It was late 1984, and Kip had written 57 songs that year. Beau was starting to have a lot of success, having just produced a then new band called Ratt, which was really taking off. He hired Kip to do bass and vocals here and there, and Kip got his first writing credit on "Bang Bang," a song on an album by Kix called "Midnight Dynamite."

Beau was working on Fiona's (Flanagan) second LP, Beyond the Pale, and for that, Kip had also written a chorus part on a song called "Tragedy." One day Kip was introduced to Reb Beach, a new studio guitar player. The two hit it off, and Kip had him play on his demos. This group, besides Kip, consisted of Reb, and a drummer named David Rosenberg. They called themselves ViceVersa. But they still had no luck getting a record deal.

Beau's next production was Alice Cooper. Kip had been a big Alice fan for a long time. Fortunately for Kip, Alice and Kane Roberts needed a bass player for the Constrictor album. It was Kane who suggested that Kip tell Alice that if he needed a bass player on the road, he'd love to go. A few months later Kip got a call to come to L.A. and start rehearsing for "The Nightmare Returns" tour. This was when Kip met Paul Taylor.

The Winger Days

Kip roomed with Ken Mary, the drummer who went on to House of Lords and is currently producing. Ken and Kip were conceptualizing a band and began including Paul Taylor who was a good writer. After about nine months on the road with Alice, there was a break before the recording of Raise Your Fist and Yell. During the break Ken, Paul and Kip went to Boulder to record demos. Kip's brother, Paul, had a studio, and he let the group record there. The group worked a week with the working title, Rome. They recorded four songs. "Miles Away," which Paul had written a few years earlier, was one of them. The tape was sent around without much luck. It was time to return to L.A. to begin recording Raise Your Fist. This album was produced by Michael Wagner. To his own delight, Kip got to write a little classical bit which ended up as "Gail."

All this time Kip had been in contact with Reb, who was becoming quite the session guitarist in New York. Twisted Sister wanted him to go on the road at the same time as Alice was getting ready to go back out. This was the turning point. Reb and Kip made a pact not to take anymore outside work and just write and record. A friend and potential manager, Eiichi Naito, currently the owner of Domo Records, let them use a room in his office to work. Reb and Kip pulled out all their best riffs and just went for it. 6 months later, they got signed to Atlantic. Ironically, the song that got them signed was "State of Emergency," which never really did anything on the charts.

In 1988, the boys went into the studio. Kip knew Paul would be in the band, but he was still touring with Alice. They did manage to get Rod to do the album. Going into the studio, the group spent about four months on the first album. Reb and Kip went through a lot of band name ideas. Call Your Doctor was one that stuck for awhile. They ended up with the name Sahara, but changed it when they received a letter from another band's attorney stating that they already owned the name. Alice Cooper had suggested Winger. Kip didn't like the name, but they were under the gun, and without any better ideas. Thus, they became Winger. They decided to call the album Sahara, but there was a communication breakdown at Atlantic, and that fell through the cracks. (But if you look at the bottom right, you'll see the word Sahara.)

The album was stagnant at first before it finally broke. MTV put "Madalaine" on Headbangers' Ball, then radio picked it up. The group also went on six weeks of a Scorpion's tour to help boost popularity. When the second single, "Seventeen," came out, they decided to go all-out on a tour. Winger were on the road for over a year, writing as they went along. After the first tour, Kip took about two weeks off before starting work on the second LP. The second album took about six months. Two versions were made. The first version had "All I Ever Wanted," and "Never." Everyone had a listen, and the group decided to go back to the drawing board to write a couple more songs. Those sessions produced "Can't Get Enough," and "Easy Come, Easy Go." They replaced the other two songs and used them for B sides.

In the Heart of the Young came out in 1990 and went gold in two weeks. Winger jumped on the Kiss tour and started the touring process over again. The second tour was even longer than the first. However, it wasn't long before the group wanted to take a break. During the tour in Europe the Gulf War broke out. Winger cancelled a few dates in England and went home. Without a place to go, Kip headed to New York and got a loft in Tribecca. It was during this period that Paul decided to go a different direction, and he left in November of '91. Reb, Rod and Kip pressed on. However, grunge was hitting big, and Kip began to feel unsure of the group's place in the rock world now that the scene was changing.

All in all, it took a year to write Winger's next album, Pull, which Kip noted was his favorite Winger album. During the second tour, Winger managed to get Mike Shipley to do the record.

During work in the studio, Kip bought a house just north of South Beach. Reb and Kip were finishing up the writing, and, one day Reb played a riff on the acoustic, C D C G. Kip quickly grabbed the guitar away from him and messed around with a couple of other chords and "Who's the One" was born. It went on to be Kip's favorite Winger song. The group also continued to record Pull in L.A. for about six months. Grunge had taken over, and the perception of Winger was far from cool. Despite the musical climate at the time, Pull did pretty well. John Roth took Paul Taylor's place on guitar and keyboards. The tour lasted six months ending in Japan.

Solo Career

Afterwards, Kip went back to Florida to start thinking about his solo career. He eventually moved on to Santa Fe, and took a long break, spending the better part of eight months swinging a hammer under the direction of his old friends, Kevin Walsh, who helped Kip remodel and build a studio in his home. Without expectation, Kip began experimenting with different sounds seperate from Winger. After three or four months a few songs began to emerge. "Monster" was the first song Kip felt was strong enough for an album, and the rest unfurled from there. Many of the songs Kip wrote during this time ended up as out-takes that didn't fit the sound he was going for at the time. The album was finished around July of 1996. Kip was already working on the follow-up music to This Conversation, because he had some time before the release.

On a cold November day, Kip's wife at the time died in a tragic car accident. After the burial in December, Kip went to Egypt to escape. The music he heard in Egypt became very influential on the songs he was working on. With a DAT, Kip recorded a lot of sound from his travels, many of which showed up on Kip's latest record, Songs From the Ocean Floor.

THIS CONVERSATION SEEMS LIKE A DREAM was released in February of 1997. Kip toured solo acoustic to support it. In total he performed 110 shows in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The response to the album and to the acoustic shows was a warm one, although nowhere near matching the success of the Winger years. However, the positive feedback inspired Kip to release an acoustic record. The record was released in three incarnations. In Europe it is called, Made By Hand, in Japan it is called Another Way, and in the U.S. it is called Down Incognito. The difference is that Down Incognito has two live cuts from a show in Paris in 1998.

In May of 1998, Kip produced an album for a very talented acoustic guitar player named Rob Eberhard Young. The mostly instrumental album is called Speak.

Meanwhile, during this time Kip had been working on Ocean Floor. On six of these songs, Noble Kime co-wrote lyrics with Kip. Unlike Conversation, Kip knew which songs would work all along. Songs From the Ocean Floor became the culmination of all of Kip's influences in music. False speculation arose soon after release that Conversation was the album that reflected Kip's process about Beatrice's death. In actuality, the album was a culmination of songs dealing with loss, redemption, and struggles we all have in common.

Currently...

In 1999, Kip scored the music to a movie called 'The Greenskeeper" and in 2004 Kip also scored another movie called "Sorority".

In 2002, WINGER reformed to do the Poison tour. After the tour Kip moved to Nashville and remodled another house while keeping busy with various projects in between all of his acoustic performances.

During this time, Kip was also offered the position of lead singer in The Alan Parsons Project. Kip sang for them briefly, but scheduling problems made it impossible for Kip to be a peminant member.

In 2003, Kip went on the Whitesnake's "Rock never stops" tour as a solo acoustic performer.

Currently, Kip is recording a new solo cd, a record with Cenk, working with the power trio "Blackwood Creek", producing a band "Ligion" and studying with composer Michael Kurek.

Former Winger Line Up

sorted alphabetically

Discography

Studio Albums

Winger

Solo

Live

Compilations

Other Appearances

Kix

Alice Cooper

Fiona

Blue Yonder

Hearts of Fire

Videos

See Also

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