Guitarist Dick Wagner Undergoes Surgery

Guitarist Dick Wagner, who is best known for his work with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, has been hospitalized for a blocked artery and further complications.

Wagner went into the hospital on July 8 with breathing difficulties, leading to a washing out of his lungs and the cleaning of a major artery, restoring 30% of the blood flow. Unfortunately, Dick continues to have a bad lung infection that his necessitated further treatment. He had played his last date on July 2 in Windsor, ON.

The guitarist has had some serious health problems over the last few years including a heart attack, kidney failure and a misdiagnosis of dementia.

Wagner’s long career has included his first band, The Frost, which recorded three albums for Vanguard Records, Ursa Major with a young Billy Joel and Rick Mangone, Lou Reed’s band, playing on Berlin and Rock and Roll Animal and Alice Cooper’s band for which he wrote the hits Only Women Bleed, I Never Cry and You and Me. His dueling guitars with Steve Hunter can be heard on Aerosmith’s Train Kept A Rollin’ and he was brought in by Aerosmith to play on tracks from Destroyer and Revenge.