Dick Wagner (born December 14, 1943, in Oelwein, Iowa) is an American rock music guitarist and songwriter best known for his work with Alice Cooper and Lou Reed.
Growing up in the Saginaw area, Wagner's first band, called The Bossmen, was a favorite in the Detroit area and scored radio play with the Wagner penned composition "Baby Boy". His next band, The Frost, was formed in the late 1960s and built up a substantial following in the Michigan area. The band released three albums during their tenure together on Vanguard Records: 1969's Frost Music and Rock and Roll Music, plus 1970's Through the Eyes of Love.
Wagner then formed the short-lived group "Ursa Major" with former Amboy Dukes bassist Greg Arama and released one self-titled album. Wagner was soon recruited for Lou Reed's band along with Steve Hunter. They are best known for the intro to the Rock 'n' Roll Animal live album song "Sweet Jane". Many famous guitarists have stated this intro is some of the most influential guitar playing ever. Soon after, producer Bob Ezrin brought both Wagner and Steve Hunter into sessions with Alice Cooper , Wagner having already featured on the School's Out album playing the memorable guitar solo on the track 'My Stars'.
The result was that after the break up of the Alice Cooper group Wagner became Alice Cooper's right-hand man on the next four studio albums that followed, the 1975 ground breaking Welcome to My Nightmare the revolutionary live show also featuring Wagner and Hunter in a guitar battle captured on the film of the same name released on home video in 1976. Follow up albums Goes To Hell, Lace and Whiskey, From the Inside and DaDa, also saw Wagner helping in songwriting, composing, production and playing lead guitar.
Wagner was assisted in most of these endeavors by Steve Hunter. The two have been best friends since their work with Lou Reed and a film about their work together with Reed, Cooper and others entitled 'Rock and Roll Animals' featuring interviews with Wagner, Hunter and Alice Cooper is currently in production.
One of the best known songs written by Wagner, is "Only Women Bleed". It was written during the days of The Frost, but unhappy with his lyrics was never used. Once his collaboration with Alice Cooper started, Dick played the song for him, and Alice penned the lyrics we know shortly after. Only Women Bleed from the Alice Cooper album Welcome to My Nightmare, has become one of the most covered songs of all time. Artists from Tina Turner, Etta James, Guns N' Roses, Lita Ford, Tori Amos and most recently Wednesday, have put their talents to the first song known to deal with domestic violence, which has been covered at least 25 times over the years by popular musicians.
Another ballad co-written by Wagner; 'Might As Well Be On Mars', featured on Cooper's 1991 album Hey Stoopid and brought Wagner once again public recognition as a great songwriting talent.
Wagner has also played lead guitar or written songs for Aerosmith, Lou Reed, Burton Cummings, KISS, Meat Loaf, Steve Perry, Ringo Starr, Etta James, Peter Gabriel, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Air Supply, Hall & Oates Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and many more.
Some of the other highlighted albums during the 1970s include: Lou Reed's Rock 'n' Roll Animal and Berlin albums, KISS' Destroyer, Aerosmith's Get Your Wings, Peter Gabriel's self-titled solo debut, Hall & Oates' Along the Red Ledge, Mark Farner's solo debut and a pair of albums for the star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tim Curry.
In 2005, Wagner permanently moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he is currently writing again with Alice Cooper for a new album. However, in July 2007, he suffered a major heart attack. He has now partially recovered and is able to work again, although his guitar playing is severely limited for now. Wagner is currently working with the up and coming artist Wensday, who is signed to his independent record label Desert Dreams Records. Her debut album, produced by Wagner, was included on the 2007 50th Anniversary Grammy Awards ballot. Although Wagner and Wensday did not win, it brought attention to his songwriting ability and production work that has been overlooked for many years. He is quoted as saying that Wensday's album 'TORCH ROCK' is his best work yet.
He is continuing to recover from his near fatal heart attack, and will soon be back to playing again. In recent months he has worked with Steve Hunter again, on a yet unnamed single for the artist, Wensday.
Wagner released a new CD in October 2009, called 'Full Meltdown' on his independent record label Desert Dreams Records. Full Meltdown features 15 lost and newly discovered songs recorded by Wagner between 1979 and 1995. He is also currently producing the band Warsaw Pact, and the independent artist Brandon Bullard with releases from both to come in early 2010.
The Biography appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Wagner. Portions of this Biography may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.
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