Kip Winger

Charles Frederick Kip Winger (born June 21, 1961) is an American singer and bass guitarist, active as a member of the rock band Winger and as a solo artist.^[1] He initially gained notability as a member of Alice Cooper's band, contributing bass to his Constrictor (1986) and Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987) albums.

Kip Winger
Kip Winger in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Charles Frederick Kip Winger
Born	(1961-06-21) June 21, 1961 (age 62) Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Genres	Hard rock glam metal heavy metal progressive metal progressive rock classical music
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Vocals bass guitar
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Frontiers Records
Member of	Winger
Formerly of	Alice Cooper The Mob Blackwood Creek
Website	kipwinger.com

Biography

Early days

Winger was born in Colorado to parents who were both musicians. At age 16, Winger began studying classical music after hearing the works of composers such as Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky in ballet class. At that time he sent a demo tape to Alan Parsons, from whom he received a personal reply.^[a]

As a teenager, Winger played in a band named Blackwood Creek with his brothers Nate and Paul plus friend Peter Fletcher (formerly in Pigmy Love Circus). Blackwood Creek disbanded in 1980. Kip, his brothers, and Fletcher also played the Denver area bar scene as the band Colorado. Winger's first release was a Rainbow Music Hall live recording of the song "Wizard of the Key" on the KAZY Thunder on the Mountain compilation in 1980 under the band name Winger which was the Colorado band line-up under a different name.^[3]

In 1982, he studied with Sam Guarnaccia in Denver then moved to New York City and waited tables while studying composition with Edgar Grana.^[4]

Success

Kip Winger's first commercial break came in 1984, when he co-wrote the song "Bang Bang" for Kix's third album, Midnite Dynamite.^[5] During that time he was working closely with the record producer Beau Hill, recording bass and vocals on various records. While Reb Beach was working on Fiona Flanagan's Beyond the Pale record at Atlantic, Winger and Beach were introduced to each other and later began recording demos. In 1985, Winger joined Alice Cooper's band. After making two albums and touring with Cooper, much of the time alongside keyboardist/guitarist Paul Taylor, Winger left in March 1987 to focus on his own band.

Winger returned to New York to work on songs with Reb Beach, and they were soon joined by Paul Taylor and drummer Rod Morgenstein. They initially performed under the name Sahara, but eventually changed their name to Winger, at Alice Cooper's suggestion.

The band Winger released three albums (Winger (1988), In the Heart of the Young (1990), and Pull (1993)) before moving on to solo careers.

Solo career

Kip Winger then moved to New Mexico to work on his solo career, and study with Richard Hermann at the University of New Mexico.

He worked and recorded three solo records in Santa Fe, New Mexico: This Conversation Seems Like a Dream, Down Incognito and Songs from the Ocean Floor.

In 2002 Winger moved to Nashville, Tennessee and began working on his fourth solo record, From the Moon to the Sun (2008), which he co-produced with Cenk Eroglu.

Reunited Winger

 

Kip Winger performing with Winger in 2007

In September 2006, it was announced that Winger would be reformed, with the Pull era line-up, to record the band's fourth studio album, IV, and to go on tour^[6] to support it. During this tour, Winger recorded Winger Live which was released on CD and DVD in 2007. It was also confirmed that an anthology of rare tracks and early recordings, Demo Anthology (2007) would be released, as well as an autographed limited-edition album, Seventeen: The Demos, where only 300 copies were made.

In 2009, Winger recorded their fifth studio album, Karma, which was hailed as their best record.^[7] The band toured the US, Europe and South America.

Classical music

Following the release of From the Moon to the Sun, Winger studied with Michael Kurek and composed a thirty-minute symphonic piece, "Ghosts", written for strings, piano and harp for a ballet commission. The work had its premiere with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra on November 14–15, 2009. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon created the ballet "Ghosts", which premiered at the San Francisco Ballet on February 9, 2010, with set design by Laura Jellinek, lighting design by M.L. Geiger and costume design by Mark Zappone.^[8]

Winger was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Award for Excellence in Music.^[9] The ballet was a hit and was brought back for a second season in 2010.

Winger then composed a four-part work entitled C.F. Kip Winger: Conversations with Nijinsky, intended to celebrate the life of ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky.^[10] The album was recorded by the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and reached the top of the Traditional Classical Chart on the Billboard music charts.^[11]

C.F. Kip Winger: Conversations with Nijinsky was nominated in the Best Classical Contemporary Composition category at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.^[12][13]

Get Jack, A Musical Thriller

Kip Winger's theatrical composing debut is the musical thriller Get Jack, with book/lyrics by Damien Gray (Atomic the Musical, Animagique, Sing On Tour). The story revolves around the five female victims of Jack the Ripper. Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly—known as the "canonical five"—who rise from the dead to track down Jack and take revenge.

Get Jack is currently on development stage, with director Kelly Devine and musical director Andy Peterson, and was presented in concert in October 2019 in New York.^[14][15]

Winger and Gray released the rock/orchestral Get Jack concept album in July 2019, which entered at #7 on Billboard's Cast Albums chart.

Miscellaneous

Winger's composition "Blue Suede Shoes" from the album IV honored the service and sacrifice of United States armed forces and their families. In appreciation, General Harold Cross presented Winger with an honorary plaque and historic United States of America flag. The presentation occurred in a surprise ceremony during the taping of the PBS television program Legends & Lyrics.^[16][17]

On the television program Beavis and Butt-Head, one of the recurring characters, Stewart Stevenson, wears a Winger T-shirt^[18] in contrast to the AC/DC and Metallica shirts worn by Beavis and Butt-Head.^[18]

He has participated and performed as head counselor in the Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp with other musicians including Roger Daltrey, Steven Tyler, Todd Rundgren, Jack Blades, Kelly Keagy, Bruce Kulick, Bill Leverty, Steve Lukather, Duff McKagan, Mark Slaughter, Carmine Appice, and Rudy Sarzo. He was featured in an episode of the American TV show Pawn Stars in May 2013 as helping the host, Rick Harrison, through Rock Fantasy Camp.

In the early 1990s, the Jackson Guitar Company made a Kip Winger Signature Bass.

Personal life

During the late 1980s, Winger was in a relationship with New Zealand supermodel Rachel Hunter who married musician Rod Stewart soon after her breakup with Winger.^[19]

Discography

Studio albums

• This Conversation Seems Like a Dream (1997)
• Down Incognito (1999)
• Songs from the Ocean Floor (2001)
• From the Moon to the Sun (2008)
• Ghosts – Suite No. 1 (2010)
• Conversations with Nijinsky (2016)

Soundtrack albums

• Get Jack with Damien Gray (2019)

Box sets

• Solo Box Set Collection (2018)

with Winger

• Winger (1988)
• In the Heart of the Young (1990)
• Pull (1993)
• IV (2006)
• Karma (2009)
• Better Days Comin' (2014)
• Seven (2023)

with Alice Cooper

• Constrictor (1986)
• Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987)
• Trash (1989)
• Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)

with Fiona

• Heart Like a Gun (1989)

with The Mob

• The Mob (2005)

with Blackwood Creek

• Blackwood Creek (2009)

Other contributions

• Kix – Midnite Dynamite (1985)
• Fiona – Beyond the Pale (1986)
• Alice Cooper – Trash (1989)
• Kane Roberts – Kane Roberts (1987)
• Twisted Sister – Love Is for Suckers (1987)
• Bob Dylan – Down in the Groove (1988)
• Various artists – Hearts of Fire soundtrack (1987)
• Blue Yonder – Blue Yonder (1987)
• Orange Swirl – Orange Swirl (1998)
• Seven Days – Ride (1998)
• Rob Eberhard Young – Speak (1999)
• Under Suspicion – Under Suspicion (2001)
• Jordan Rudess – Rhythm of Time (2004)
• Twenty Flight Rockers – The New York Sessions 1988 (2004)
• XCarnation – Grounded (2005)
• Jordan Rudess – The Road Home (2007)
• Northern Light Orchestra – Orchestra Arrangements (2009)
• Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)

Tributes

• "Space Truckin'" – Smoke on the Water – A Tribute to Deep Purple (1994)
• "I'm in Love with My Car" – Stone Cold Queen: A Tribute (2001)
• "I Want You" – Spin the Bottle: An All-Star Tribute to Kiss (2004)
• "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday)" – What's Love? a Tribute to Tina Turner (2004)
• "Limelight" & "The Spirit of Radio" – Subdivisions: A Tribute to Rush (2005)
• "Send Her My Love" – An '80s Metal Tribute to Journey (2006)
• "Drive My Car" – Butchering the Beatles: A Headbashing Tribute (2006)
• "Holding Back the Years" (by Simply Red) – Hair Metal Greatest Power Ballad Covers (2009)

Videos/DVDs

• Alice Cooper – The Nightmare Returns (1986)
• Winger – The Videos, Vol. 1 (1989)
• Winger – In the Heart of the Young, Vol. 1 (1990)
• Winger – In the Heart of the Young, Vol. 2 (1991)
• Winger – Live in Tokyo (1991)
• Winger – The Making of Pull (1993)
• Various artists – VH1 Metal Mania Stripped Across America Tour Live (2006)
• Winger – The Making of Winger IV (2007)
• Winger Live (2007)
• Winger DVD – Then & Now: The Making of Pull & Winger IV (2009)

Notes

1. Years later, when Winger was chosen to be the lead singer of The Alan Parsons Live Project, he presented Parsons with that letter from 30 years prior.^[2]

References

1. Hyden, Steven (April 24, 2014). "A Very Serious Conversation With Kip Winger About Being Taken Seriously, Prog-Rock, and Metallica's Scorn". Grantland.
2. . Ccbanana.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2009.
3. "KAZY: Thunder on the Mountain LP 1980". TheCorroseum.org. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
4. . Myspace.com. Archived from the original on November 14, 2008.
5. Gallagher, Mitch. "Interview with Kip Winger – Sweetwater Minute Vol. 216". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
6. . Kipwinger.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2006. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
7. "Winger CD 'Karma'". WINGER – Karma Hits Top Album Lists For 2009 Worldwide.
8. For a review of the work: The New York Times
9. . Ghosts. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 9, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
10. . Archived from the original on August 23, 2016. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
11. [1] ^{[dead link]}
12. "Kip Winger Nominated For A Grammy In Classical Category". Stereogum.com. December 6, 2016.
13. "C. F. Kip Winger". Grammy.com. November 19, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
14. "Jackie Evancho, Eden Espinosa, Jeanna De Waal and More to Star in GET JACK In Concert". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
15. Hetrick, Adam (October 9, 2019). "Eden Espinosa to Headline Concert of New Musical Thriller Get Jack". Playbill.com. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
16. . legendsandlyrics.com. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
17. . artisttrove.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
18. Gallo, Phil (August 1, 2011). "Beavis and Butt-Head Return to MTV – with Licensed Videos". Billboard.
19. Herrman, Brenda (April 24, 1991). "Facing the Music". Chicago Tribune.

Reviews and interviews

• RockReport Review May 2008
• Retrieved on 2009-01-01.
• October 2008
• November 2007
• Ghosts and Simpler Times by Mike Ward San Francisco Bay Times February 2010
• February 2010
• June 2010
• Winger's True Passion: Music For Ballet by Amy Sciarretto October 2010

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kip Winger.

• Official website