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Steve Hunter | |
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Hunter in March 2013 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Stephen John Hunter |
Also known as | The Deacon |
Born | Decatur, Illinois | June 14, 1948
Genres | Blues, pop, rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Guitar |
Years active | 1971–present |
Labels | Atco, I.R.S. |
Website | Official website |
Stephen John Hunter (born June 14, 1948) is an American guitarist, primarily a session player. He has worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, acquiring the moniker "The Deacon". [1] Hunter first played with Mitch Ryder's Detroit, beginning a long association with record producer Bob Ezrin who has said Steve Hunter has contributed so much to rock music in general that he truly deserves the designation of "Guitar Hero". [2] Steve Hunter has played some of the greatest riffs in rock history [3] - the first solo in Aerosmith's "Train Kept A Rollin'", the acoustic intro on Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" and he wrote the intro interlude on Lou Reed's live version of "Sweet Jane" on Reed's first gold record (the Rock 'N' Roll Animal live set).
Steve Hunter was born and raised in Decatur, Illinois. He was first introduced to music when, as a young child, he would listen to country and western music on a Zenith console radio and his father would play the guitar. He watched the Lawrence Welk show on TV at his grandparents' home where he saw Neil LeVang and Buddy Merrill. His grandparents had a Harmonium; his father would pump the organ while Steve sat on his lap and worked out melodies on the keyboard. When he was eight years old, he began taking guitar lessons on a Lap steel guitar. He saw and heard Jerry Byrd play lap steel and learned what could be done on the instrument. Inspired by the music of Chet Atkins, The Ventures and Duane Eddy, [4] Steve eventually switched to standard guitar.
Hunter continued playing guitar throughout high school as a member of a group called the Weejuns, [5] which took their name from G.H. Bass & Co.'s perennially-popular penny loafers. He subsequently joined the Light Brigade, a rock and soul group that played in the Decatur area.
In 1967, during the Vietnam War, Hunter was drafted into the U.S. Army. There he trained as an x-ray technician, ultimately serving at an air evacuation hospital in Okinawa, Japan where Vietnam combat casualties were being treated. He considered becoming a doctor but he enjoyed music so much he knew he would follow a career in music. [6]
Upon completion of his service in the Army, he returned to Decatur where he built a reputation as an outstanding guitar player.
One day he got a telephone call from his Decatur friend, John "Polar Bear" Sauter, that changed his life.
Hunter has had an illustrious 40-year career as a session musician, band member and as a solo performer.
John Sauter called Hunter to tell him that he was playing with Mitch Ryder in Detroit and that Ryder was auditioning for guitar players. He suggested that Hunter come to Detroit and try out. Hunter packed up his guitar and made the eight-hour drive to Detroit. Hunter made the cut and became part of Mitch Ryder's new band Detroit. There Hunter met and formed a long-time professional association with producer Bob Ezrin. Detroit released one self-titled album on Paramount Records. They had a hit with a cover of Lou Reed's "Rock & Roll". Reed was so impressed with Hunter's arrangement and performance on that song that he recruited Hunter to join his band. [3]
In the 1970s, he appeared on five Alice Cooper albums, all of which were produced by Ezrin. His first recording with Cooper was in 1973 as a session musician on the second-to-last and most successful album recorded by the Alice Cooper Group, Billion Dollar Babies . [7] When Alice Cooper became a solo artist, Hunter followed and appeared on the 1975 groundbreaking album and live show Welcome to My Nightmare alongside guitarist Dick Wagner as seen in the film Welcome to My Nightmare . Released on home video in 1976, it features the celebrated guitar face-off between Hunter and Wagner that formed part of Cooper's 1975 live show. In 2010, Hunter also worked on the basic tracks and solos for Cooper's album Welcome 2 My Nightmare , touring with Cooper throughout 2011 on the No More Mr. Nice Guy Tour. [8] Steve notched up his ninth Alice Cooper release with Paranormal , released in 2017.
His first collaboration with Lou Reed was for the Berlin album. He also played with Dick Wagner in the band captured on Reed's live albums, Rock 'n' Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live , including the "Intro" to "Sweet Jane", which was composed by Hunter, [9] who plays the solo up to Lou walking on stage. In 2006, Reed and Hunter presented a new live version of Berlin, released in 2008 as a DVD and CD Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse .
In 1974, he played the (uncredited) opening-half solo on Aerosmith's "Train Kept a Rollin" from Get Your Wings. In a February 2015 interview in Detroit Rock N Roll Magazine Hunter tells how it came about that he recorded that solo: "Aerosmith was in Studio C of The Record Plant and I was doing work with Bob Ezrin in Studio A. I had a long wait between dubs and was waiting in the lobby. Jack Douglas popped his head out of Studio C and asked 'Hey, do you feel like playing?' I said sure, so I grabbed my guitar and went in. I had two run thru's, then Jack said 'great, that's it!' That turned out to be the opening solos on 'Train Kept A Rollin’'." [10]
In 1974, shortly after his work with the band on the live Reed albums, Hunter played guitar on former Cream bassist Jack Bruce's solo album Out of the Storm .
He played on Peter Gabriel's self-titled first solo album (1977) that included the classic single "Solsbury Hill" which was likewise produced by Ezrin. [11] He also played on tour with Gabriel for the North American leg and a few shows in the UK during March / April 1977, sharing guitar duties with Robert Fripp.
Other artists Hunter has worked with include David Lee Roth (in the mid-1990s), Julian Lennon, Dr. John, Tracy Chapman and more recently Glen Campbell and 2Cellos. It was while recording Roth's A Little Ain't Enough that Hunter met Jason Becker. Hunter and Becker have remained the best of friends since. [12] He wrote "Camelia", which is featured on the soundtrack of the film The Rose, starring Bette Midler, and performed as part of the backing band. Additionally, he appears in the film Blame it on the Night, a movie co-written by Mick Jagger, featured as one of the guitarists in the band.
Hunter's first solo album, 1977's critically acclaimed Swept Away , was produced by Bob Ezrin. [13]
Hunter opted to leave Alice Cooper's touring band in 2012 to concentrate on solo projects. [14]
His fifth solo album The Manhattan Blues Project was released on April 30, 2013, and features contributions from Joe Satriani, Tony Levin, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, Marty Friedman, Michael Lee Firkins, Phil Aaberg, 2Cellos and Tommy Henriksen, with background vocals provided by Karen Ann Hunter. [15]
In September 2014, a DVD and soundtrack CD entitled Tone Poems Live was released, featuring Hunter, bassist Tony Levin, pianist Phil Aaberg and drummer Alvino Bennett. In 2017 Steve released a new solo album called ‘Before The Lights Go Out’ the title making reference to his failing eyesight. A mix of Rock and Blues, he had his friends Erik Scott, Andy Stoller and Joe Satriani guesting. His wife Karen Hunter performs the only vocal (on the final track) of the album, a cover of ’Happy Trails’.
A new opportunity arose in 2019 when Steve was invited to score and play on an Audio Book by film director Hamlet Sarkissian, called ‘Lovers In The Fog’. A soundtrack of this will be available late Summer of 2019.
Hunter lives in Altea, Spain, with his wife, Cornish singer/songwriter, Karen Ann Hunter. [19] He suffers from pigmentary glaucoma, which has rendered him legally blind. [4]
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by many music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences.
Robert Alan Ezrin is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist, best known for his work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Andrea Bocelli and Phish. As of 2010, Ezrin's career in music had spanned four decades and his production work continued into the 21st century, with acts such as Deftones and Thirty Seconds to Mars. Ezrin is the winner of three Juno Awards. In 2011, he was awarded the Special Achievement Award at the 2011 SOCAN Awards held in Toronto. On 29 December 2022, Ezrin was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, the second-highest civilian honour in Canada.
Neal Smith is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock group Alice Cooper from 1967 to 1974. He performed on the group's early albums Pretties for You and Easy Action, their breakout album Love It to Death and the subsequent successful albums Killer, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies. The last new studio album with the five original Alice Cooper group members participating in new music was Muscle of Love in 1973. The original group's Greatest Hits studio album was released in 1974. In 2018, a live performance album Live from the Astroturf recorded in 2015 was released, featuring four of the original group members performing eight of their hit songs, with long-time Alice Cooper solo band guitarist and friend Ryan Roxie interplaying lead guitar parts with original group rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, on behalf of original group lead guitarist Glen Buxton, who died in 1997 of pneumonia three weeks before his 50th birthday.
William Sherille Levise Jr., known professionally as Mitch Ryder, is an American rock singer who has recorded more than 25 albums over more than four decades.
Get Your Wings is the second studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on March 15, 1974. The album was their first to be produced by Jack Douglas, who also was responsible for the band's next three albums. Three singles were released from the album, but none reached the singles charts.
Dennis Dunaway is an American musician, best known as the original bass guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper . He co-wrote some of the band's most notable songs, including "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out".
Welcome to My Nightmare is the debut solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released on February 28, 1975. It is his only album for the Atlantic Records label in North America; in the rest of the world, it was released on the ABC subsidiary Anchor Records. Welcome to My Nightmare is a concept album. Played in sequence, the songs form a journey through the nightmares of a child named Steven. The album inspired the Alice Cooper: The Nightmare TV special, a worldwide concert tour in 1975, and his Welcome to My Nightmare concert film in 1976. The ensuing tour was one of the most over-the-top excursions of that era. Most of Lou Reed's band joined Cooper for this record.
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell is the second solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A continuation of Welcome to My Nightmare as it continues the story of Steven, the concept album was written by Cooper with guitar player Dick Wagner and producer Bob Ezrin.
Richard Allen Wagner was an American rock guitarist, songwriter and author best known for his work with Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, and Kiss. He also fronted his own Michigan-based bands, the Frost and the Bossmen.
Rock 'n' Roll Animal is a live album by American musician Lou Reed, released in February 1974 by RCA Records. In its original form, it features five songs, four of which were initially recorded by The Velvet Underground. Reed's band included Pentti Glan (drums), Prakash John (bass), Ray Colcord (keyboards), and Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter (guitars).
The Detroit Wheels were an American rock band, formed in Detroit in 1964. They served as Mitch Ryder's backup band from 1964 to 1967.
"Sweet Jane" is a song by American rock band the Velvet Underground. Appearing on their fourth studio album Loaded (1970), the song was written by band leader and primary songwriter Lou Reed, who continued to incorporate the piece into live performances as a solo artist.
Prakash John is a Canadian rock and rhythm & blues bassist. He is known as one of the originators of the 'Toronto sound'.
Detroit was a spinoff of rock group The Detroit Wheels. This revised version of that band was formed by Mitch Ryder as a successor to The Wheels in 1970. The only original Wheel in the group was the drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek; other members were guitarists Steve Hunter and Brett Tuggle, organist Harry Phillips and bassists W.R. Cooke and John Sauter. A single album was released by this grouping, a 1971 self-titled LP issued on Paramount Records. They had a hit with their version of the Lou Reed - penned song "Rock & Roll", which Reed liked enough to ask Steve Hunter to join his backing band. Ryder quit the group because of voice problems in 1972, and Detroit vocalist Rusty Day took over his spot; without Ryder, the group floundered, and eventually broke up in 1974.
"Rock & Roll" is a song by the Velvet Underground, originally appearing on their 1970 album Loaded. The song was written by the Velvets' leader Lou Reed, who continued to incorporate the song into his own live performances years later as a solo artist.
Pentti "Whitey" Glan was a Finnish-Canadian rock drummer, best known for his work with Alice Cooper and Lou Reed.
Welcome 2 My Nightmare is the nineteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in September 2011. Peaking at No. 22 in the Billboard 200 it is Cooper's highest-charting album in the US since 1989's Trash. The album is a sequel to his 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare.
The Manhattan Blues Project is the fifth studio album by guitarist Steve Hunter. Released in 2013, the blues guitar album features instrumental interpretations of New York City. It is particularly notable for its all-star lineup of guest musicians: Phil Aaberg, 2Cellos, actor/musician Johnny Depp, Marty Friedman, Michael Lee Firkins, Tommy Henriksen, Tony Levin, Joe Perry, and Joe Satriani. The album also includes a composition by Jason Becker, co-founder of Cacophony.
John Sauter is an American rock and blues musician and bass guitarist from Decatur, Illinois. He has played in Mitch Ryder's band Detroit and with Ted Nugent.
Detroit Stories is the twenty-first solo and twenty-eighth overall studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper. The album was released on February 26, 2021, by Earmusic. It crowned Billboard's Top Album Sales chart debuting at No. 1 and was the first chart-topper for Cooper in the 29-year history of the Top Album Sales chart. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also added various instruments. As a solo album, it incorporates a variety of artists contributing on a number of instruments.
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