Former Alice Cooper bassist and Winger frontman Kip Winger had an interview with Metal Edge, explaining grunge’s effects on glam metal while answering whether grunge ‘killed’ glam rock:
“Oh, of course, it did [kill] it. Whoever said it didn’t [kill] is in complete denial. Even big bands like Bon Jovi were struggling to sell tickets. So, whoever said that is misinformed. That grunge thing totally wiped everything out.”
However, Winger then pointed out how the Seattle scene didn’t ‘last very long,’ even after all the trouble it caused to glam rock:
“The funny thing is the grunge thing didn’t last very long. There weren’t that many great bands that came out of there, and not many good songs. Don’t get me wrong – some great guys came out of there, like Dave Grohl, but it was short-lived, which was nothing new.”
Then, when the rocker was asked if he didn’t like grunge, Kip was quick to clarify his honest opinion on the genre, answering whether his ‘hatred’ was the reason for his negative criticisms:
“No, it wasn’t that. I could recognize that Kurt Cobain wrote some genius lyrics on ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ And I could see that the energy was raw and cool. It was kind of like the antidote to all the shit we were doing. It was so oversaturated that any buffoon could see that – unless you, like I say, were in total denial. So, it wasn’t that I wasn’t a fan.”
The singer then named a few of his favorite grunge acts to prove his point, though also defended his earlier take on the genre as well, saying:
“I really thought a lot of shit was cool, like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, and maybe Stone Temple Pilots. They were great. I love them. But the scene didn’t really produce that many great bands beyond that, you know?”
This wasn’t the only time Kip took on grunge and stated his ‘distaste’ for the genre, however. In another interview in May with Guitar Interactive Magazine, the Winger frontman had also expressed his dislike for grunge, discussing how it altered public opinion towards his own music, reminding:
“You gotta remember, we were up against a lot [at the time]. Grunge was taking over, and everybody thought we sucked; there was all this shit going on then. I felt like, ‘I’m gonna aim my arrow right at that fucking target’, and I think I hit a bullseye with [‘Pull’]. We sold a lot of records, especially by today’s standards. But it was viewed as a failure back then because we’d sold so many before that.”
Still, with all the ‘hardships’ he’s been through over the years, Winger’s seventh album ‘Seven’ came out in May. You can listen to the whole album below.
