Steve Hunter & Dick Wagner: The Guitars That Destroyed The Stars

Steve Hunter & Dick Wagner: The Guitars That Destroyed The Stars

Alice is certainly lucky in one respect, he’s got what may well be the finest rock ‘n’ roll band in America backing him up on this four. Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner, Jozef Chirowsky, Prakash John and Whitey Glan came from disparate backgrounds to form one of the most respected and prestigious session bands in the business, and what’s even better news is that they may soon quit being underpinnings for the stars and take to the road and the studio on their own, with their own material.

Prakash (bass) , Joey (keyboards) and Whitey (drums) all got here by way of Mandala, the house band at a Toronto club Called the Blue Note. They gigged throughout the western United States, the band broke yp, and Whitey and Prakash were Eventually reunited when producer Bob Ezrin formed a band to tour with Lou Reed, which was especially ironic for Whitey, as he came fresh to that gig from doing sessidns for Anne Murray. They worked with Steve and Dick on Lou’s late ’73 tour, which resulted in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal album, which was where this band without a name first began to gain a reputation. When Alice was collar berating With Dick on Welcome to My Nightmare songs and looking to form a touring band, it vyas only natural to resurrect this aggregation, which in various configurations had functioned as the house band at Ezrin’s studios in Toronto.

The mainstays of the group , and one of the all-time great lead guitar combinations, are Hunter and Wagner. Their leads soar and swoop, and the two styles mesh perfectly: Steve lyrical and fluid, Dick inclined toward harsher, rawer lines. They appeared on Berlin but stole Rock n Roll Animal away from Lou, turning it into a classic guitar player’s album, and for any true rock ‘n’ roll fiend they’re the best thing in Alice’s ,new show. Not only that, but they provided much of the raunch on the last three albums by Alice’s old group, ^ filling in often for the ailing Glen Buxton. Previous to that Steve worked with Mitch Ryder, and Dick led a succession of bands in the Midwest, the best known of which were the Frost and Ursa Major. Both view their recent stints as sound-behind-the-stars with equanimity, biding their time till doing it therjnselves feels right—they’re pros among pros. “Lou and I didn’t really . socialize much,” says Steve, “in fact we didn’t even talk much. It was more like mutual respect, and we got along fine. When we did Rock n Roll Animal we’d worked tl^ose songs up touring Europe, so we rehearsed for two weeks, went down and did it. I’ll tell you one thing: that is Lou Reed—he’s the same onstage and off. Hard to get to know, for me at least. .y /

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“Alice is different. He’s easygoing, and I dig hanging out with him. Working with all these-different people is fine to me—it’s just getting more professional discipline. After this tour I don’t know what I’m gonna be doing. I don’t even have a regular place where I live, although I’m thinking about moving to L. A. We might just keep this band and go out on our own. Tve been writing songs, but they’re all instrumentals so far.

“I don’t personally give shit-all about being a star; I just want to be a good guitar player. But if that means becoming a star then I’ll become one on a natural basis. I go on pure gut feeling; I was invited to play on Bowie’s tour, but I turned it down even though I really liked David, because it didn’t feel right. One thing I’ll never do is let this business make me crazy. I always try to pace myself when I’m Qn the road, and when I get some time off I go hang out with my friends that don’t have nothin’ to do with it.”

Wagner is even more specific: “Welcome To My Nightmare is a disciplined thing, where you’ve gotta feel the music out of the total package of the show, as opposed to playing to some beautiful chick down in the front row. And playing with Alice is very different than playing with Lou, because you have to take a different role. Although getting along with Lou wasn’t always the easiest thing in the world, it could be very inspiring, there were some phenomenal nights. There was a tremendous interplay between the guys in the band, as well as between us and Lou, all getting off on each other. It was closer than it is with Alice, because Alice is so out front on this set. Lou’s the only guy I’ve ever seen that could lean forward and fall on his ass. Lou was very uncoordinated and the band was super-coordinated, and I think the juxtaposition of the two things made for .one thing that was really fascinating. There was something about that that had charm.

“But I don’t think there’s any doubt that the people in this band are eventually going to make a record or records as a unit, under some guise of other— whether it’s as a band with a name or ^albums under each others’ names. Each guy has the ability to put out a whole album of his writing. We know npw that we’re gonna'do something; we just have to sit down and figure out how. And when we get out on our own., not backing up Alice of Lou, it’s definitely going to be more exciting. Because with Alice, he’s the star and the singer, and we’ve gotta fit everything around him. But when it’s our band, we can fuckin’ p/ay.”

I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait.

Lester Bangs