Steve (The Deacon) Hunter
/
Steve Hunter is an American guitarist and session player best known for his collaborations with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper. His numerous contributions of talent, tone and style to the projects of other artists such as Peter Gabriel, Dr John, Jack Bruce, Tracy Chapman and Aerosmith are legion.
He began his affinity with the guitar from the age of eight when he learned to play the lap steel and later moved onto the guitar while serving in the army. Starting with Mitch Ryder in 1971, he did an arrangement of Lou Reed's 'Rock and Roll' for Ryder's 'Detroit' album, which caught Reed's attention and moved him to engage Hunter and Bob Ezrin for his follow up to 'Transformer', 'Berlin'. Bob Ezrin would later remark that Hunter's copious contributions to rock music have earned him the designation of "Guitar Hero".
Hunter is also known for playing legendary riffs such as Aerosmith's "Train Kept A Rollin'", the acoustic intro on Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" and he wrote the legendary intro interlude that made Lou Reed's live version of "Sweet Jane" a first gold record (the Rock 'N' Roll Animal live set).
Hunter taught at The Musicians Institute in Hollywood for two years as a private tutor. He credits the late great LA guitar teacher Ted Greene with renewing his interest in playing after a low period in the 80's. He took lessons with Ted for about four years.
Hunter has contributed to seven Alice Cooper albums, starting in 1973 with Billion Dollar Babies up to 2010 when he featured heavily on the new, ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare'. He completed a World tour with Alice in 2011 but left at the end of that year to write and record his new solo album, 'The Manhattan Blues Project'. This was Hunter's fifth self produced solo album. It was released in April of 2013 and featured guests, Joe Satriani, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Marty Friedman, Michael Lee Firkins, Tony Levin, Phil Aaberg, Tommy Henriksen, 2Cellos and Jason Becker.
In 2014 a live DVD/CD (Tone Poems Live) was released with Tony Levin (bass) Phil Aaberg (keyboard) and Alvino Bennett (drums) for a project funded and produced by Brian Brinkerhoff.
After the sad loss of his old boss, Lou Reed, in late 2013, Steve was featured in a documentary about Reed for a BBC4 Documentary by Chris Rodley called, 'Lou Reed Remembered'.
In 2015 after gathering the required evidence, Steve's wife Karen managed to get some long overdue performance royalties for Steve established with the UK based Society PPL for some classic solos that he had never been given credit for, including the opening solos on Aerosmith's 'Train Kept A Rollin' and six 'Billion Dollar Babies' tracks.
Hunter also works on music for licensing out to TV and Film as well as Chillout projects with Karen under the name 'Rue la Mer'. He recently released a solo album called, 'Before The Lights Go Out'.