Blowin’ Wind with Winger’s Kip Winger: “Metallica had some good stuff in the old days but now they’re just musically bankrupt.”

Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying the fact that if you were a teenager in the 90’s you’ve heard a Winger song. With hits like “Seventeen”, “Madalaine”, and “Can’t Get Enough”, Winger were one of the top tier hard rock bands of the early 90’s. All of the sudden, Beavis & Butthead began to show their hated of the band creating a growing trend to make it cool to hate Winger. As hard rock and metal started to see a decline around 1992, Winger was one of the bands that seemed to disappear. While many of their peers were putting out sub par material to try and keep up with the trend change, Winger managed to keep putting out the stellar album Pull which went sadly ignored.

20 years later Winger is back on the road and flexing their skills to a whole new generation of fans in addition to their older fans. I was lucky enough to get the chance to talk to Kip Winger on the phone and we talked about his thoughts on social networking, what we can look forward to a Winger show in 2012, and just what he’d like to do to Lars Ulrich if given the chance. This was a really fun interview and I hope you all enjoy it!

Winger will be in town here in Atlanta on Saturday night as part of Wild Bill’s Summer Rock Series. Tickets can be purchased here: BUY WINGER TICKETS.

Hey there Kip. Thank for taking the time out to talk to me today. How are things today?

Everything’s cool. Well, actually, it’s really hot here in Nashville [laughs].

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Ah, so you’re having the same hotter than hell summer that we’re having here in Atlanta.

[laughs] Exactly.

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Kip, I’ve been a fan of yours for over 20 years so it’s a real pleasure to talk to you.

No problem Don. Thank you for saying that.

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Ok Kip. To start things off, what is the one question that you get asked so much that if you get asked it again you’ll just go insane?

Oh god there’s a million of those [laughs]. Actually, my biggest pet peeve is when someone just doesn’t do their homework before they do an interview. Other than that, I’m pretty low key.

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Yeah, I’m sure you’ve been asked a zillion times about the Beavis and Butthead thing.

Not so much these days but I used to get that a lot.

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I always thought Winger got a bum rap. I grew up listening to any hard rock and metal that I thought was good. I could care less about what type of metal it was or if other people liked it or not. Winger was definitely, to me, one of the top tier bands.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Yeah, we really did take a lot of shit from people [laughs]. Basically we were just a musician’s band that tried to do songs that people could dig on. When I grew up I was into all those 70’s bands that were good musicians and played their instruments really well. That’s kind of where I was coming from. Let’s put it this way, we’re not a “sell the t-shirt” kind of band. That’s really not our thing. Our thing was focusing on the musicianship and the songs.

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Anytime I hear someone knocking you I just have to say, “Go and listen to what this guy can do. He’s a solid and really talented musician so even if you don’t like the songs, you can’t say the guy isn’t talented.”

I really do appreciate that. A lot of people just never got that bit. For anyone who’s wondering about my abilities should give my classical stuff a listen [laughs]. The whole point for me was just being a good musician. There’s always going to be a “Lars Ulrich” type in the crowds trying to cut you down. [laughs]

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Winger’s most recent album, Karma ,was released in 2009. Are there any plans for a new Winger release any time soon?

I’m actually going to remix the first two records because there are some elements of the first two records that got missed in the mix. We’re probably going to do a new album and then a 25th anniversary thing with some new mixes for next year.

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That would be so awesome to hear. Will the re-issues contain some of these great unreleased songs that have been circulating for years in the bootleg community?

Oh yeah. I’m going through the catalog right now but we’ll see what the record company wants to do. I’m going to go through everything and just try to remix and/or re-master it.

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I’m really psyched to hear my favorite Winger album, In the Heart of the Young, re-mastered and re-released.

Thanks man. Yeah, it’ll probably be heavier. I mean, not heavy like Slayer [laughs].

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Looking back on Winger’s catalog, what album would you say best represents what you and Winger are all about?

The latest record, Karma, is really just the years coming together and gelling after 20 years of us just knowing who we are and knowing how our songwriting partnership works. I would really point to that record as the record of who the band really is. Not because it’s our latest record because before this one I would say Pull was that record.

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In addition to Winger, you’ve been doing many various projects ranging from classical music to doing acoustic tours. I really enjoyed the work you did with Jordan Rudess’ on his album The Road Home where you did the Gentle Giant stuff.

Thanks. Yeah, I was a huge fan of that Gentle Giant stuff. That’s where I come from. I’m actually coming from an older generation. I was playing in a band with my older brothers so the catalog that I draw from is from one decade earlier than what most people my age were drawing from. I was listening to all that early Gentle Giant and Yes stuff. That’s where I cut my teeth.

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So you’re really into a lot of that classic prog stuff.

Yeah, that’s where I originally came from. I mean, Winger was like a pop prog band. Some of the music, if you take away the pop melody and lyrics, is prog.

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Is there anyone else you’d like to see yourself doing another project with?

I’m actually talking to Robert Plant’s drummer Marco Giovinni. We’re talking about maybe doing a project. I’ve always wanted to do an album with Andy Timmons. To be honest with you, I’ve really grown into this classical thing and kind of moved on into that world. I’m working with a lot of people in that world. A lot of the people in the rock world don’t really understand it but it’s the natural progression of growth where I’m going musically. For me, it’s the next logical step to be able to compose the music and put it in front of 45 players or something. That’s just more along the lines of where I’m heading.

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I’ve always enjoyed the versatility of your work. As a fan of an artist, it’s always cool to see and hear someone exercising their talents.

I appreciate that man. It’s always great to know that someone’s out there listening.

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Kip, I’m curious about your thoughts on social networking. Do you feel like Social Networking has kind of diminished the rock star icon status now that fans can have a direct connection with their favorite bands?

Yeah, somewhat. It doesn’t affect me personally because I’m not one of those people that wants to isolate myself from everybody. I don’t put myself on a pedestal or make myself into a god. That’s not where I’m coming from. I think the new rock stars are the people that are in touch and really connected with their fans. It’s a whole new template but it’s a little more real and accessible than it was before.

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I’ve noticed that you don’t have much of an online social networking presence. Is there a reason for that?

I have a Twitter account where we tweet my gigs and what not. I don’t use twitter to say stuff like, “God. I just took a shit and there’s corn in it.” [laughs] That’s not my thing. I’m really private and it’s just boring for me. “My dog just chased a rabbit!” I mean, who gives a fuck about that? I mean, some people do and they eat that shit up. It’s just not for me and probably to my own detriment [laughs]. I probably should be one of those people but I just don’t have the time to sit around and do that.

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Scott Ian from Anthrax seems to tweet like 75 times day or something. Even then I’m find myself saying, “I could care less how much you love the Sopranos” or what you’re making for dinner. I almost feel like I know too much about some of my favorite acts that do this so much.

See, that’s what I thought but I mean some people eat that shit up. My wife is a songwriter/producer and she wrote and produced the single for Megan and Liz called “Are You Happy Now.” These chicks have like 10,000,000 hits on YouTube, they tweet every 5 minutes and their fans love that. It’s the new thing but I guess we’re too for it maybe [laughs].

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I remember reading all those rock magazines as a kid, reading interviews with you, Nikki Sixx, Sebastian Bach or whoever and wondering what it would be like to just have a conversation with you guys and talk about music. Nowadays there’s no mystique. There’s no mystery and sometimes I wish there was because I find myself feeling like I know a little too much about some of these people.

Well, there’s plenty of mystery with me [laughs]. You won’t find anything out there about me [laughs]. I think that this is the day and age where the average joe can be famous and all of these things like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have enabled that. There’s that kind of thing especially in this day’s human mentality where everyone wants to be noticed or get some recognition and mostly it’s for the wrong reasons in my opinion. It is what it is and I’m not calling it stupid or anything. It’s just not for me and I find it incredibly boring. I just don’t know where these people get the time.

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Kip, I have to ask you a serious question. If you could hit any member of Metallica with a dart who would it be?

[laughs] Oh man. I don’t know but I would like to write Lars Ulrich a drum concerto and see if he could play it.

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Lars can barely play his own stuff these days.

[laughs] I mean, that whole bullying mentality was just so ridiculous. Back then, they were acting like children; like bullies. I don’t know them now but back then they were just like little kids. I grew up with brothers and we teased each other and beat each other up and shit like that. I can dig on it but why not do it to my face [laughs]. Hell, you’re still buying their stuff right?

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Man, I haven’t bought a Metallica album since 1991.

Metallica had some good stuff in the old days but now they’re just musically bankrupt. They’re in it for the t-shirt sales and the ticket count and all that stuff. All the Metallica fans will probably read this and go, “Aw, you’re an asshole. Who the fuck are you?” I’m just saying that I know good music.

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The last time I remember seeing Winger here in Atlanta was on the “In The Heart of the Young” tour with Extreme and Tangier at the Civic Center. I’m really looking forward to seeing Winger back in Atlanta this week.

Wow. That’s a bit of a blur [laughs]. I do like Atlanta though. The fans there are great. Where are we playing anyways? [laughs]

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You guys are playing at a venue called Wild Bills which has a huge stage and a pretty kick ass PA system.

Is it any good [laughs]?

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Oh yeah, it’s a cool venue. It’s normally a country bar but they do a Summer Rock Series every year where they bring in bands like Cinderella, Jackyl, Dokken, bands like that.

Oh right. Yeah, we have a place like that here in Nashville called Wild Horse Saloon which is basically a country bar but they do a rock series.

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So being a fan that hasn’t seen Winger in nearly 20 years, what can I look forward to from the Winger show on Friday night?

Well, we do all the hits and we do a bunch of the new songs so it’s pretty much a straight down the pike mix of the most popular songs plus some new ones. We only do one off of Winger IV. We do a couple off of Karma, and all of the hits off of the first three albums. It’s just a little bit of everything. Lots of solos ]laughs].

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I know that you have been doing some amazing acoustic shows for a while now. Will you incorporate that at all into the Winger set?

Thank you. No, we don’t do any of that. It’s just a straight ahead rock show. I’ve been touring acoustic for years and years. The last time I played Atlanta was a really long time ago though. It’s just straight ahead rock and people seem to like it. We’re a lot better than people seem to remember us being [laughs].

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Kip, thanks so much for taking the time out to talk today. It was really a great time getting to know you and I’m looking forward to seeing you guys on Friday night.

Thank you Don. You have a good one.

For more on Winger, head on over to http://www.wingertheband.com

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