WINGER WERE GIANTS of the hair metal era, scoring hits and becoming a fixture on MTV with heavy rotation for their over-the-top videos. Like many bands of the era, they suffered the backlash of the grunge movement in the early 1990s when, almost overnight, the excess and extravagance of the big-production metal bands ran up against a cultural movement that considered the notion of fun in music to be almost obscene. Ironically, as we’ll see in guitarist Reb Beach’s five song selections, a fair amount of Winger’s musical output was actually a departure from the bright and glossy excesses of the big, radio-friendly hits.
There are few bands that can say they still have their founding members 40 years down the road, and Winger are one of them. “Offhand, I can’t think of bands who still have their original lineup from when they broke through,” Beach says. “The thing is, there are no jerks in the band — no big egos. In most bands there’s always one guy who’s a real asshole, but not in Winger. We’re all pros. We’ve all been in a ton of
