Steve Hunter/Dick Wagner Interview
Posted: 13 Mar 2005 18:44
Thought y'all would like this. Peep the whole article at http://www.vguitar.com/artists/details.asp?ID=27 :
The Great Guitars of Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter
By Greg Pedersen
Even the world?s greatest rock and roll showmen can?t monopolize the affections of the world?s youth without some help. Sorry, Alice Cooper. Sorry, Lou Reed.
Yeah, they had help. Big time! Especially from Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter! Both Cooper and Reed enlisted hired-gun guitarists Wagner and Hunter to help sustain their creative zenith during the 1970s.
Indeed, Wagner and Hunter were the session community?s dynamic duo during the era of cocaine and casual wear. When your recording session needed some monster guitar solos, you called Wagner and Hunter first. Period. Just ask Kiss. Or better yet, ask Aerosmith. After the post-Van Halen explosion, however, the need for high-octane blues players like Wagner and Hunter diminished significantly.
Thankfully, both guitarists are still active in professional music circles. Check out Wagner?s beautiful reworking of songs he penned with Alice Cooper and others on his retrospective release HITStory. If you?re in L.A., check out Hunter?s killer blues outfit, The Blues Counsel. Certainly, we have not heard the last of these two guitar icons.
Vintage Guitar: You?ve done tons of session work for many of rock?s most notable talents. Let?s start with your tenure in Lou Reed?s band, sharing lead guitar chores with your longtime partner in crime, Steve Hunter.
Dick Wagner: That band definitely took Lou Reed into a different direction. Reed talks bad about the Rock and Roll Animal and Lou Reed, Live albums we played on, now. He puts that whole era down. Well, in every place we ever played back then, the press was always putting down Lou Reed and talking about the great guitars of Hunter and Wagner. He hated that! He came to us during the tour and made us stop playing to the audience and entertaining them because we were stealing his show. We didn?t mean to, we were just hot! We did a lot of great work together and I?m very proud of it. Playing guitar with Steve Hunter was one of the highlights of my career.
How did you and Steve meet?
We were aware of each other in Detroit, when he was playing with Mitch Ryder and I was playing with The Frost (a Michigan band that enjoyed success in the late ?60s), which was real popular in the Midwest. Then, we met in Ft. Lauderdale, where my band, Ursa Major, was playing a club. We talked, and I invited him to come up onstage and play. It sounded fabulous right away! At times, it was hard to tell who played which parts, but it was real distinctive.
Have you talked to Hunter lately?
Actually, Steve and I have talked about doing an album together.
What equipment did you use in Reed?s band?
I was playing a Les Paul TV Special, which has since been stolen. I used a 100-watt Marshall half-stack. A guy named Red Rhodes did some work on it. I was also playing through an old Echoplex and a MXR phaser.
Although your tenure with Reed is historically significant, it was your longtime partnership with Alice Cooper that really etched your name in the history books. When did you first meet Alice?
I knew Alice back in Detroit, when The Frost was really huge. He was just getting started. We were playing this high school gig and Alice came back in the dressing room and introduced himself. He loved The Frost.
The first time I heard Alice live was at the Toledo Pop Festival, when he was doing the electric chair. I couldn?t believe it! The Frost was a pretty straightforward rock and roll band, and Alice?s band was definitely a little weird! I?ve always loved theatrics in rock, though. It seems most of the records I?ve played on are with pretty theatrical people.
The Great Guitars of Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter
By Greg Pedersen
Even the world?s greatest rock and roll showmen can?t monopolize the affections of the world?s youth without some help. Sorry, Alice Cooper. Sorry, Lou Reed.
Yeah, they had help. Big time! Especially from Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter! Both Cooper and Reed enlisted hired-gun guitarists Wagner and Hunter to help sustain their creative zenith during the 1970s.
Indeed, Wagner and Hunter were the session community?s dynamic duo during the era of cocaine and casual wear. When your recording session needed some monster guitar solos, you called Wagner and Hunter first. Period. Just ask Kiss. Or better yet, ask Aerosmith. After the post-Van Halen explosion, however, the need for high-octane blues players like Wagner and Hunter diminished significantly.
Thankfully, both guitarists are still active in professional music circles. Check out Wagner?s beautiful reworking of songs he penned with Alice Cooper and others on his retrospective release HITStory. If you?re in L.A., check out Hunter?s killer blues outfit, The Blues Counsel. Certainly, we have not heard the last of these two guitar icons.
Vintage Guitar: You?ve done tons of session work for many of rock?s most notable talents. Let?s start with your tenure in Lou Reed?s band, sharing lead guitar chores with your longtime partner in crime, Steve Hunter.
Dick Wagner: That band definitely took Lou Reed into a different direction. Reed talks bad about the Rock and Roll Animal and Lou Reed, Live albums we played on, now. He puts that whole era down. Well, in every place we ever played back then, the press was always putting down Lou Reed and talking about the great guitars of Hunter and Wagner. He hated that! He came to us during the tour and made us stop playing to the audience and entertaining them because we were stealing his show. We didn?t mean to, we were just hot! We did a lot of great work together and I?m very proud of it. Playing guitar with Steve Hunter was one of the highlights of my career.
How did you and Steve meet?
We were aware of each other in Detroit, when he was playing with Mitch Ryder and I was playing with The Frost (a Michigan band that enjoyed success in the late ?60s), which was real popular in the Midwest. Then, we met in Ft. Lauderdale, where my band, Ursa Major, was playing a club. We talked, and I invited him to come up onstage and play. It sounded fabulous right away! At times, it was hard to tell who played which parts, but it was real distinctive.
Have you talked to Hunter lately?
Actually, Steve and I have talked about doing an album together.
What equipment did you use in Reed?s band?
I was playing a Les Paul TV Special, which has since been stolen. I used a 100-watt Marshall half-stack. A guy named Red Rhodes did some work on it. I was also playing through an old Echoplex and a MXR phaser.
Although your tenure with Reed is historically significant, it was your longtime partnership with Alice Cooper that really etched your name in the history books. When did you first meet Alice?
I knew Alice back in Detroit, when The Frost was really huge. He was just getting started. We were playing this high school gig and Alice came back in the dressing room and introduced himself. He loved The Frost.
The first time I heard Alice live was at the Toledo Pop Festival, when he was doing the electric chair. I couldn?t believe it! The Frost was a pretty straightforward rock and roll band, and Alice?s band was definitely a little weird! I?ve always loved theatrics in rock, though. It seems most of the records I?ve played on are with pretty theatrical people.