Speaking with Japanese music journalist Masa Ito on TVK’s Rock City, Kip explained how early image decisions led to the band being lumped into the “hair metal” category — a label he believes has overshadowed their true musical complexity.

“We’re a very misunderstood band. We ended up in a section of the music business that doesn’t fully represent what we are all about as individual players or as a band,” Kip said. “But when Reb [Beach, WINGER guitarist] and I were writing the first record, we were not very smart about image. And so we were watching MTV, looking at WHITESNAKE and BON JOVI, going, ‘What are we gonna wear? What are they wearing?’ So we just went and wore what they wore and kind of fell into the whole stream of it.”

“We were kind of mismanaged. We didn’t have a manager — a really good manager — going, ‘No, you’ve gotta do this, and if you do that…’ So we kind of got lumped into the whole ’80s thing, which we might not have totally been lumped into had we had little bit more of a steering wheel on board. But we were very, very successful, so what are you gonna say? I mean, it worked out fine. But we were very misunderstood.”

Kip pointed to the hit song “Seventeen” as a prime example of how the band’s musical complexity has often been overlooked.

“[The WINGER song] ‘Seventeen’ is a great example. Even though the lyric is a pop lyric — and by the way, I was just copying Paul McCartney in ‘I Saw Her Standing There’; total rip-off. But if you open up the hood of the car and look down in there, the guitar riffs are very difficult to play. And to this day, we have never seen a cover band be able to play ‘Seventeen’.”

According to Kip, the band’s technical skill is often lost on casual listeners who associate WINGER with glam rock aesthetics rather than deep musicality.

“So while many people in the masses might listen to us thinking we’re a pop-rock band, it’s a way more credible musicianship than that. Not to take away from pop-rock bands ’cause I love a lot of those bands. But we are very misunderstood.”

“I think that long after we’re gone, that will reveal itself more and more, because even now it does. We see young people in the audience — very young people — especially guitar players and musicians in the audience for us. In Japan, 60% of the audience is under 30, or maybe under 35. I mean, there’s not a lot of people that have been with us the whole time. They have their kids and then guitar players and musicians that wanna come see. [WINGER drummer] Rod Morgenstein is a legendary drummer. And like I said, not to be redundant, but we’re very misunderstood in that way, and I think time will prove that.”