Edgar Winter

About

Also known as: Edgar Holland Winter, Winter, Edgar

Few rock musicians can claim they invented a piece of gear that changed live performance, but Edgar Winter did exactly that with the keyboard body strap, letting him sling his keys like a guitar and tear across the stage while playing. Born in Beaumont, Texas, Winter is a genuine multi instrumentalist, fluent on keyboards, saxophone, and percussion, and his genre blending approach has always been his calling card. His 1970 debut Entrance signalled something different was coming, and he followed it up with two records backed by White Trash before forming the Edgar Winter Group. That band is where his legacy really crystallised. They Only Come Out at Night hit number 3 on the Billboard 200, stayed on the charts for 80 weeks, and gave classic rock radio two permanent fixtures in the instrumental "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride". Beyond his own records, Winter has played session saxophone on tracks by Meat Loaf, Tina Turner, and David Lee Roth, and his song "Dying to Live" was sampled for the Tupac documentary soundtrack, reaching number 5 on the R&B chart. He has kept busy across the decades touring with Ringo Starr's All Starr Band and releasing archival compilations.