WINGER's KIP WINGER: 'We're A Very Misunderstood Band'

In a new interview with Japanese music critic and radio personality Masa Ito of TVK‘s “Rock City”, WINGER frontman Kip Winger addressed the fact that many people consider his band to be outliers within the 1980s “hair metal” scene. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We’re a very misunderstood band. We ended up in a section of the music business that doesn’t fully represent what we are all about as individual players or as a band. But when Reb [Beach, WINGER guitarist] and I were writing the first record, we were not very smart about image. And so we were watching MTV, looking at WHITESNAKE and BON JOVI, going, ‘What are we gonna wear? What are they wearing?’ So we just went and wore what they wore and kind of fell into the whole stream of it. And so we were kind of mismanaged. We didn’t have a manager — a really good manager — going, ‘No, you’ve gotta do this, and if you do that…’ So we kind of got lumped into the whole ’80s thing, which we might not have totally been lumped into had we had little bit more of a steering wheel on board. But we were very, very successful, so what are you gonna say? I mean, it worked out fine. But we were very misunderstood. [The WINGER song] ‘Seventeen’ is a great example. Even though the lyric is a pop lyric — and by the way, I was just copying Paul McCartney in ‘I saw her standing there’; total rip-off. But if you open up the hood of the car and look down in there, the guitar riffs are very difficult to play. And to this day, we have never seen a cover band be able to play ‘Seventeen’.”

Kip continued: “So while many people in the masses might listen to us thinking we’re a pop-rock band, it’s a way more credible musicianship than that. Not to take away from pop-rock bands ’cause I love a lot of those bands. But we are very misunderstood. And I think that long after we’re gone, that will reveal itself more and more, because even now it does. We see young people in the audience — very young people — especially guitar players and musicians in the audience for us. In Japan, 60% of the audience is under 30, or maybe under 35. I mean, there’s not a lot of people that have been with us the whole time. They have their kids and then guitar players and musicians that wanna come see. [WINGER drummer] Rod Morgenstein is a legendary drummer. And like I said, not to be redundant, but we’re very misunderstood in that way, and I think time will prove that.”

WINGER issued its seventh studio effort overall in 2023, the appropriately titled “Seven”. Kip is also a respected and successful symphonic composer, having issued recordings under the name C.F. Kip Winger, while Reb has been a member of WHITESNAKE since 2002, and drummer Rod Morgenstein has served as a professor at Berklee College Of Music (in addition to playing in a variety of other more jazz-fusion-based projects).

WINGER formed in the late 1980s and soared to immediate success with its 1988 self-titled release. The album spawned the hit singles “Seventeen” and “Headed For A Heartbreak” and achieved platinum sales status. “Winger” also stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for over 60 weeks where it peaked at #21. Their next album, “In The Heart Of The Young”, also achieved platinum status behind the singles “Can’t Get Enuff” and “Miles Away”. The change in musical climate of the mid-’90s, compounded with unprovoked ridicule on MTV‘s popular “Beavis And Butt-Head” show, led the band to go on hiatus in 1994. In 2001, WINGER reunited and has not looked back since. Kip also earned a 2016 Grammy nomination for the classical album “C.F. Kip Winger: Conversations With Nijinsky”, recorded with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.

WINGER recently completed “farewell” tours of Australia and Japan.

In March, Kip was asked by Steve Mascord of White Line Fever TV what he will miss about playing with WINGER. Kip said: “Listen, I’ve been well-known my whole life. But I was never, like, ‘Hey, I’m a rock star’ or anything like that. It’s very matter of fact to just talk to people. What I’ll miss is playing with these guys that I really love so much, but I’m very excited to move on to this other world that I’m really inspired because I’m hearing so much of the music.

“At some point I’m gonna play a final show with the band,” Kip explained. “I don’t know when it is. But that’s not to say I might not do a cruise or something. I don’t really know. I’m not going, ‘Hey, this is the last show we’re ever gonna do’ because… Well, hey, KISS did it for 10 years, so… [Laughs]”

Asked if he has any thoughts about where the last WINGER show will be, Kip said: “I do have some thoughts about it, but nothing’s totally worked out yet. So as soon as I know, I’ll let you know.”

Regarding the possibility of guests coming up for the final WINGER concert, Kip said: “That would be cool. I did think about that, but it depends on the location, like where we would be. So I don’t know yet.”

Kip also talked about how his daily routine will change once WINGER has stopped touring. He said: “Well, the biggest thing is the traveling. If you do 40 gigs in a year, and sometimes we do more than that, you have twice that many days on each end traveling. So, you spend half of the year of your life sitting in an airport, and it really… Listen, we’re not a huge band — we don’t fly around in our own Learjet — so it tends to take a toll on you. And then, all of a sudden, all my personal goals just end up drifting away in an airport somewhere in Chicago. So my life will be different in that way.”

Kip continued: “Listen, interruption is the death of creativity. So my focus is to get myself into a place where I can be 100 percent creative and keep it rolling because it’s really difficult to have it all broken up so much. And I’ve written every kind of rock song possible. I’ve made my final statement on the last WINGER record. And a lot of people think that’s, like, if not our best record, it’s close to being our best, along with ‘Pull’. And I kind of brought back the original guys and put the original logo on and gave it a nice full circle. So, there’s nothing else that Reb and I could do with WINGER that wouldn’t just be, like, ‘Okay, let’s write another one of those’ or ‘another one of those.’ And now I’m in this whole other mentality where the sky’s the limit and I’ve got 30 more years of expressing myself in a world of things that haven’t been done by me.”