Kip Winger recently sat down with Chuck Shute, discussing his decision to leave the Alice Cooper band and carry on with his own act, Winger.
It’s surely not easy to score a place in Cooper’s celebrated act, so it might make anyone question why Kip, then early on his career, left such a prestigious band behind to launch his own. It definitely was a bold move, as the host also pointed out, but it was also apparent that Winger never backed away from taking the long and winding road during the early days of his career.
The rocker discussed how he knew that if he became Alice’s sideman, that would stick with him for the rest of his musical life. He wanted to be the lead, or as we might put it, become Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, rather than being tossed aside as Robin. So, as writing music had always been Kip’s strong suit and with his wish to perform his own material, the rocker decided to depart the Alice camp.
However, Winger also honorably pointed out how supportive Cooper had been during the challenging period, giving his blessings to the young rocker to take his own path. Alice’s blessing surely made it easier for Kip to leave and take the next step to carve his own name into the rock scene for once and all.
Kip recalls his wish not to become a side character, writing his material and Alice’s encouragement:
“I just felt like once a side man, always a side man. It was a great opportunity, but I felt like that was such a cushy gig that it would be very easy to get super comfortable and never jump.
My main thing was writing music, so I wanted to write and perform my own music, and that was never going to happen in that camp; having said that, I mean Alice is the most generous, awesome individual ever.
He actually encouraged me to go, so it was like he gave me his full-on blessing. It really just came down to just, that, first and foremost, I wanted to write songs and perform my own sh*t.”
So, it was apparent that Winger always had been enthusiastic to write and perform his own material, and the fact that Cooper was supportive while he departed the act made things easier for him to make the bold move to try and establish his own name and brand into the rock scene.
