Dick Wagner

As one of renowned producer Bob Ezrin's hired guns throughout much of the '70s, guitarist Dick Wagner lent his playing (and in some cases, songwriting) talents to some of the decade's biggest hard rock albums, including Lou Reed's Rock N Roll Animal, Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare, and Kiss' Destroyer. Hailing from the Detroit area, Wagner's first true band, the Frost, formed in the late '60s as they built up a substantial following in the Michigan area (which at the time also nurtured such other outfits as the Stooges, MC5, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, and Grand Funk Railroad, to name a few), and issued a total of three albums during their tenure together: 1969's Frost Music and Rock and Roll Music, plus 1970's Through the Eyes of Love. After relocating to New York and forming a new outfit, Ursa Major, the group was introduced to Ezrin, who handled the production chores on their 1972 self-titled release. Although the group would break up shortly thereafter, Ezrin and Wagner had struck up a friendship, as he began inviting him (as well as another guitarist, Steve Hunter), to play on sessions by other artists he was working with. Wagner and Hunter's playing meshed well together as the duo was able to construct seamless guitar lines that complimented each other nicely. Ezrin used the duo on Lou Reed's controversial 1973 studio release Berlin (a dark concept album that followed a pair of seedy characters beset by drug addiction, which leads to spousal abuse, prostitution, child welfare, and ultimately, death). Seeking to lighten the mood a bit on the album's ensuing tour, Ezrin aided Reed in assembling a stellar touring band including both Wagner and Hunter, who helped reconstruct Reed's tunes (including classics from his Velvet Underground days) as jamming arena...