By Mitch Lafon

KISS’ Destroyer, ALICE COOPER’s Welcome To My Nightmare and LOU REED’s Rock N’ Roll Animal. Does Dick Wagner really need an introduction? The long-time guitarist has changed the face of rock in his forty-plus career. He was kind enough to sit down with BraveWords.com for a quick update on his current musical adventures which includes Cooper's anxiously-anticipated Welcome 2 My Nightmare release.

BraveWords.com: How’s your health?

Dick Wagner: “It’s been difficult, but I’m on the mend. I had a heart attack in 2007 with a stroke at the same time. I woke up from my heart attack with a totally paralyzed left arm. It’s taken me four years to get back to playing relatively well. I’m certainly not back to where I was, but I’m certainly trying to get there. Hopefully, I will someday, but I just don’t know when.”

BraveWords.com: Have you had to re-learn playing the guitar?

Wagner: “I still know the guitar, but I just can’t get there (if you know what I mean). I’ve done physical therapy and I’m on medication, but a year ago I got stricken with water on the brain (a condition known as ‘hydrocephalus’). I started falling down flat on my face and I had to have brain surgery. I’ve been a lot better since the surgery, but it’s tough. My days have not been as good as they used to be, but I’m working on playing a couple of live dates in Michigan in September. These will be my first lives dates in over four-and-a-half years. I hope people will come out and see me.”

BraveWords.com: You’ve recently written a book. What can you tell me about it?

Wagner: “The book is finished and it’s really good. It’s not like a lot of these rock n’ roll books. It’s a life story.”

BraveWords.com: Is it an autobiography?

Wagner: “I’ve always thought that doing an autobiography was always a bit of an egotistical thing, so this is ‘vignettes’ from my life. It’s separate stories and you can start reading it anywhere in the book and it wouldn’t matter.”

BraveWords.com: Does the book have a title yet?

Wagner: “It’s called Not Only Women Bleed.”

BraveWords.com: In September, ALICE COOPER releases Welcome 2 My Nightmare. Knowing that the original Nightmare is a masterpiece, what was your initial reaction to the news that Alice was preparing a sequel?

Wagner: “I said, ‘it’s about time’. I’ve wanted him to do that for years. I’ve always thought we should. Just like I’ve always thought we should take the Welcome To My Nightmare band back on the road.”

BraveWords.com: He’s got Steve Hunter with him on the current tour.

Wagner: “It would have been great if it could have been Hunter and myself, but I’m just not playing well enough to do it. That’s just a matter of fact.”

BraveWords.com: Do you think, that at some point, you’ll be in good enough shape to join him?

Wagner: “I think so and hope springs eternal. Right now, I’m good enough to have played on the album. I played guitar on The Underture and I think I did a pretty damn good job. When I got that piece of music, I was like ‘wow - that’s beautiful’. That was my first recording session in four-and-a-half years, so I see that I can do recording sessions. I know I can play on the records, but as far as live appearances go I just don’t know when. I’m doing these lives gigs in Michigan and I’m proving to myself that I can do two hours of live music and if I can do that, then of course, I can play an Alice Cooper show. There’s no doubt about it.”

BraveWords.com: You also wrote a song for the new Alice Cooper album...

Wagner: “I wrote 'Something To Remember Me By'. I’ve had it for many years and Alice has always wanted to record it. This became the right moment to do it and I think it’s a potential hit. It’s one of those Alice Cooper/Dick Wagner ballads. When we hit into a ballad, it somehow translates to radio. Alice has never been a big radio guy, but it just seems that every time that we write a ballad... It’s an immediate radio song. I can’t explain it. It’s just the way it is. We have a couple of ballads waiting in the wings that I think we should do.”

BraveWords.com: When did you first bring this song to him?

Wagner: “Probably ten years ago.”

BraveWords.com: The last time you worked with Bob Ezrin (PINK FLOYD) was in 1992 on the KISS Revenge album. Have you worked with him since?

Wagner: “No, I haven’t.”

BraveWords.com: How was it working with Bob again and what kind of producer is he?

Wagner: “He’s a genius producer. He’s fantastic. He not only knows how to put music together and make it sound right, but he knows how to control the sessions and who to get to play. He’s what I would like to be as a producer. He’s just got that innate ability.”

BraveWords.com: Will there be more collaborations with Bob?

Wagner: “I don’t know, but I’d like to. We’re friends, so I can ask him.”

BraveWords.com: What made Welcome To My Nightmare so special (that thirty-five years later people are still talking about it)?

Wagner: “It was our first album together, Alice and I had gone down to the Bahamas to start writing. We were on the beach and a huge storm came up. We were trying to write in thirty or forty miles per hour winds. I started playing this riff and out of the blue, Alice says ‘welcome to my nightmare’. I assume he was just reflecting on the position we were in at the moment, but there it was... The germ... The concept. So, we started writing around that and just came up with those songs and with Bob understanding what we were all about; it just came to fruition. We had started writing for the album in Hollywood at Alice’s house before we went to the Bahamas, but we didn’t have the concept. We had written 'Department Of Youth' and 'Only Women Bleed'. We had those two songs, but nothing more. Then we got this inspiration and with Alice, it’s so easy to write songs.”

BraveWords.com: When the first Nightmare came out, you essentially ended up replacing the original members of The Alice Cooper Group, but with Nightmare 2 the band is back. Was that awkward or exciting?

Wagner: “Well, I was here in Arizona. I didn’t go to Nashville to do the recording. They sent me the stems and I put the guitar parts on them. I was never part of that camaraderie. I wanted to be, but physically I wasn’t quite ready for it.”

BraveWords.com: But you knew that your work was going to end up on an album with their work. Thirty-five years later, it came full circle...

Wagner: “Yeah, it did. I haven’t heard the album yet, but Alice told me that Bob is at his peak and when he’s at his peak putting an album together, you just know it’s going to be brilliant on some level or another. I do know that Bob had called me and said, ‘I need another Only Women Bleed’. So, I made a demo of a song that I knew Alice loved (Something To Remember Me By) and I sent it down to him. They loved it and changed a few little words in it for Alice.”

BraveWords.com: Back to your new book - when will it be released?

Wagner: “We’re trying to get it out before Christmas. That’s the plan. I’d like to get it out early enough to have it tied in with Alice and his new album.”

BraveWords.com: Are you working on any new solo material?

Wagner: “I’m writing for a couple of projects. I’ve written several songs that I really love and I just want to get into the studio and record them. One project is called EL GUITARISTA with Vicki Blue (used to be the bass player in THE RUNAWAYS). It’s about a guitar player at the turn of the century (1800’s) who lives in the Southwest, mesmerizes his crowds, and he crosses over into being a rock star (like JIMI HENDRIX) in the modern era. He goes back and forth. We’re still writing it, but I have five songs written for it already mainly having to do with the southwest. It’s got that flavor (southwestern music). The other project I have is a movie called Silas Gore. It’s a horror film about a rock star serial killer.  I’ve written a bunch of songs (seven) for that, too. All this time that I’ve been sick, I’ve been writing songs, so I have this backlog of songs...”

BraveWords.com: Are these songs for yourself, for Alice or...

Wagner: “These are for me. I’d like to put out a solo album or two.”

BraveWords.com: Was it bittersweet to see Alice and the ‘original’ guys get inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame, but not you?

Wagner: “No, not at all. I was very happy to see that happened and I think they deserve it. I understand they have a section in the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame for sidemen, so maybe I’ll get a chance someday, but the original band (with Alice) created such a movement in music. They allowed... lead into DAVID BOWIE, LOU REED, KISS, MARILYN MANSON. It all started with Alice.”

BraveWords.com: Do you think that KISS deserve to be in the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame?

Wagner: “I do. They became stars and took that whole theatrical thing to the very max.”

BraveWords.com: The also took rock n’ roll marketing to the next level...

Wagner: “Absolutely. I’m assuming they’ll be the next to get in.”

For more visit Wagner online at Wagnermusic.com.