(metal music) – The year is 1988; big
hair and denim are in. (“Seventeen” by Winger) The ultimate lead singer
in hair metal, Kip Winger, and his band are at the top of the charts. But the party that seemed
like it would never end suddenly came crashing down. (birds singing) No air play, no singles, nothing. But it turns out this
was just the beginning for Kip Winger. – This is, uh, you know, at
home with Kip Winger. (laughs) This is so exciting. (banjo music) – I’m Chris Funk. I’m a musician in a band
called The Decemberists, and I’m on a journey looking
for the most surprising and extraordinary people in music. My next stop takes me
to Nashville, Tennessee. There I will meet a rock
legend with one of the most unexpected transformations in music. – Hi guys, we’re The Decemberists. We’re from Portland, Oregon,
United States of America. (audience cheers) A Decemberists tour
brought me to Nashville where we played the
historic Ryman Theater. A day between shows gave me
a chance to explore the city known for its honky tonks and live shows. But I was here for something
else; to track down an ‘80s icon. – What’s up?
– Hello. – I’m Kip Winger, and I’m
in the band, Winger, and I’m also a classical composer. At the height of my career,
we were playing for thousands of people every night and
gold and platinum albums. Beavis and Butthead was the
biggest show in MTVs history at the time, and it ushered in a whole new genre of music, grunge. And it completely ripped
apart the ‘80s hair bands, and I was at the scene of the crime. My name was on the little
geeky guy’s T-shirt that represented everything that sucked. Lost the record deal, lost the publishing. I was at my very lowest point. I did say, well there’s
nothing else to do now except that thing that
I’ve always wanted to do, (subtle bagpipe music) which is really learn how to
wield an orchestra organically. – To go from a rock bass
player to composer is learning music all over again. To do so later in life, as
Kip did, is almost unheard of. (classical music) – I could never even
read an orchestral score until I was 35. 10, 15 years into it to
finally start to hear orchestras play my music,
and realize, oh my God, this is really what I’m here to be doing. – Dude, that’s awesome. Amazing. – In this case I took a,
I’m calling it a riff, ’cause that’s my terminology
from being a rock guy. (piano riff) (musical sounds) turns into… (orchestral music) It was a scary and lonely path. I’ve got a record company
that’s going, why are you doing that? You’re a rocker. You need to rock. And I’m like, no, no, no, I
don’t need to rock; I need to be doing this. This just kind of starts
all on a rock riff, really. You know, you kinda go
against all odds when you just believe in something. – Despite the challenges
with learning how to compose, Kip’s persistence ultimately
led to a Grammy nomination in Contemporary Classical Composition. (pleasant music) – It’s very cathartic,
healing experience to overcome my illiteracy in music
at a late age, with not so much self-confidence. It was like, okay, you know what? I don’t suck. Like, it wasn’t true, what they all said. To be acknowledged with
a composer nomination from the Grammys was the greatest feeling of accomplishment of my whole life. (pleasant music)
T
Early Squad
This seems interesting
i love you
as the best friend
THIS GUY MUST BE HAIRY PUTTER
u do good shows i wish i was you
lololololololololololol
first one to talk
7th
Oshit im 3 minutes late
Add a public comment…
Can this comment get 100 likes?
Cool
L8 affff
Beavis and Butthead is garbage anyway
Thought it was gonna be about Yoshiki from X Japan lol. But ayeee The Decemberists are great too
Walking with a guitar 😂
So fake 🤦🏻♂️
🙏🙏
Wow that’s a long way from when I saw him open for Cinderella when I was 15!
This is just like Yoshiki the drummer from japanese rock band X japan, who wrote this kind of music and plays piano as well
Talented musicians are talented.
who thouht that this was linked to metal hair
Not to be a pedant, but Danny Elfman blazed this path years before Winger decided to get into composition…
Winger sucked. All he did was prance around with a guitar squealing like a teen age girl getting her cherry popped.
Never heard of Winger, certainly never heard the song featured for the band.
Nice that he found a second career.
Hey it's December decemberst
Kip Winger the ultimate leader in hair metal? I want what this guy's smoking.
Love your content! Each.one.of.em.
holy crap, Kip Winger!
lol I love how all of the parts of the classical pieces they played sounded exactly like guitar riffs on different instruments.
I know from experience that being used to the formula of rock/metal riffs which mainly rely on pentatonic scales and pedal tones (that thing where you strum one note and then play that note between a bunch of other notes) means that it's really hard to write music that doesn't sound like that.
As someone who loves both rock and classical music, I loved this story.
I've never heard of Winger and I'm not a fan of hair metal either, but the story is amazing!
Another amazing story!
He’s my cousin
in 20 years How 21 Savage turned into 21 octaves, a classical composer.
I can listen to the heaviest black or death metal band, but will always have time for Vivaldi, Mozart, Debussy, Rachmanioff… classical music is just freakin amazing.
This was a great video! I hope to see more like it!!
Loved this story! Looking forward to more stories!
I love Beavis and Butthead
WOW, I am really digging his compositions!
That shameless band plug you do you man lmao
This was great I really hope there are more of these coming soon
A lot can be said for short, pithy videos, but I wish all of these were longer.
This is why I admire Kip for. Not only for his musicianship but resilience.
"She's only seventeen!"
Surprised he didn't turn to symphonic heavy metal, it's the best of both worlds.
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
Been a fan from the beginning. I always said when this beavis and butthead stuff came out Kip should have embraced it and came out on stage wearing a B%B T-shirt. lol Either way he's where is now because of adversity. Rock on.
Kip is such an inspiration, you can even hear on the early winger albums how complex his arrangements were. One of my idols
Very good story.
I'm glad Kip did well after the genre ended.
Btw, fuck Beavis and Butthead.
anyone know what song is playing at 1:31?
Kip you never sucked there was just a lot of jealous guys that wanted to be you.
What really made me smile here… rock has been borrowing from classical for ages, so it was really cool to see him come up with something and say, "It all started with a rock riff." Very, very cool.
Great to see stories like this instead of the tragic ones we hear so frequently of past rock stars. Reminds me a bit of Duff McKagan… quit GNR and got a Finance Degree from the University of Seattle. He has a financial firm now and still makes music.
Good for you Kip.
It's a great story! This matters to him, it's inspiring!
Kip is an inspiration
Kip great musican
This guy's big hit song in the 80's was about raping an underage girl. Now he's making mediocre orchestral music and wants everyone to sympathize with him because Beavis and Butthead hurt his precious little feelings? Screw him.
I respect him for his resilience (and singing abilities)
amazing story,legendary
Dammit kip can't you do both? Rock and classical? Don't give up on our music that happened during our time, just because some record executive's thought it was time to change to grunge, we never changed, and you shouldn't either.
Winger NEVER sucked. out of all hard rock bands of the time they were the one with complex arrangements compared to their pears…good on him.
im only seventeen
most of hair bands still go out and play shows , most of grunge bands just did drugs and then kill themselves
"I don't suck" – Kip Winger
Beavis and butt head did not usher in shit to the music world. Nirvana and others early grunge bands did that..
The super talented Kip Winger! I really enjoyed watching this.
Absolutely brilliant.Kip Winger is up there on the same level as Jon Lord and Bach! Cheers from Singapore💯
great story, although I wish it was a bit longer and more in depth. I think you barely scratched the surface.
it was too short. Winger was my favorite 80s band back in the days.
This guy is for real.
Google…the drummer and guitar player for Winger…very talented.
Kip Winger…is a man who loves music.
the business as well as many fans of rock did him and his band dirty. He was 100% correct when he said his band could play rings around metallica. they were that good. not a popular thing to say back in the 90s….but it was true.
Kip Winger is the best singer I've ever seen!
80s is so much better than grunge
No doubt, Kip Winger one of rocks all-time best composers/musicians !Been a fan from the start and never swayed. Kip= ICON
This should have been a longer documentary. Would have been nice to hear Kip talk about "Rainbow In The Rose" off Winger's 2nd album and the intro to "Hungry" off the debut Winger album and how he constructed and composed them. So much could have been talked about. Definitely too short of a doc.
He rocks.
🥀Well thank you for grunge oh yeah. You Guys are Amazing keep Rock n Roll and what ever you need to keep music going. You Guys were under rated for so long but I love your song's 🥀🤘