Entertainment, Music - Army Times

Winger returns with rock salute to troops

Thirteen years after their last album came out, during the waning days of hair metal and the rise of grunge, Winger is back.

But don't go channel-surfing in hopes of finding Kip Winger on VH1's has-been shame-fest, "The Surreal Life." He's already turned them down -- twice.

Yes, the band that soared up the radio charts on the strength of its 1989 single "Seventeen" has been out of the spotlight for a long time. But the Winger crew doesn't intend to sell out for another 15 minutes of fame.

With a new batch of progressive rock-tinged songs -- and a new appreciation for the military --Winger went back into the studio after many years on hiatus to cut its fourth album, "Winger IV." The album, distributed by the Italian record label Frontiers, was scheduled for European release Oct. 20, with U.S. release to follow shortly.

We caught up with Kip, 45, in late September as the band was gearing up for a monthlong European tour. In a telephone interview from his Nashville, Tenn., home, he talked about the new album and its military connections.

While it has been more than a decade since the last Winger album, the band's lead singer and bass player has been far from idle. His interests outside of rock music are too diverse for him to let that happen.

He counts three solo records to his credit, "This Conversation Seems Like a Dream," "Songs from the Ocean Floor" and "Down Incognito," an all-acoustic album that includes "Headed for a Heartbreak" and other Winger hits. "Songs from the Ocean Floor" includes tracks with a distinctly Middle Eastern feel; after the death of his wife, Beatrice, in a single-car accident in November 1996, he traveled to Egypt to clear his head and was strongly influenced by the music he heard there. He says "Ocean Floor" is the album that reflects the process of dealing with her death.

He also produced albums for fellow musicians, wrote musical scores for two movies, hit the road for a Winger reunion tour with fellow hair-metal veterans Poison, sang briefly with The Alan Parsons Project, toured as a solo acoustic act and began studying classical music, writing with composer Michael Kurek at Nashville's Vanderbilt University. He just finished a classical piece for a string quartet and said he "won't die happy until I hear a symphony of mine played in a hall."

Among his more recent tour dates was a series of gigs at military bases as part of a VH1 tour. It was his first significant exposure to the military and that experience hit home. "I was just blown away by the people," he said.

So when he and the rest of the old Winger crew were out from under other commitments and ready to do another album, that time among the troops shaped his songwriting.

"How cool would it be," he explained, "to write some songs from the perspective of what they actually experienced?"

The album has a darker, heavier sound than the first two Winger albums. "It picks up where 'Pull' left off," he said of the group's 1993 release.

Military themes figure most prominently in three songs on "Winger IV" -- "Blue Suede Shoes," "Right Up Ahead" and "M16." In particular, "'Blue Suede Shoes' is definitely a dedication to the troops," he said. "I'm writing as if I'm in the shoes of one of those guys. I wanted to give it some dignity -- I didn't want it to be hypocritical."

In the dramatic power ballad, he sings of a service member in a combat zone who explains his reason for going to war.

I am the son who believed in the call.

Standing beside you I witness it all.

Walk hand and hand through cities of clay.

Far from the ocean, so far from the ocean.

You wonder why.

Don't you know someone you'd die for?

The military also figures prominently in the album art, drawn by veteran comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver. The 32-year-old artist has worked for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics on titles including "Flash," "Wolverine," "New X-Men," "Batman," "Green Lantern" and "Superman."

As he talked with Kip Winger about the concept, "over the course of a few conversations with him, I started to understand his feelings that led to the songs he wrote for the album," Van Sciver said in an e-mail interview. "He really tried to put himself into the shoes of a soldier, to feel what they must feel. And a lot of this album is something like a prayer for them."

The cover depicts a service member clad in desert camouflage and body armor and carrying an M16 rifle, looking into the distance as three angelic figures watch over his shoulder.

"The angels are the prayers and hopes and best wishes from us, to them," Van Sciver said. "We hope they're being looked after as they risk their lives each day. I hope each of them has their own little angel. Or three."