Let’s talk about Heart. In retrospect it seems that you and Ann were the first women to achieve success fronting a hard rock band without sacrificing some of your femininity. Do you agree?
Nancy Wilson: I do. I think maybe it’s because we came from a sort of romantic, “rose colored glasses” background, but also from a family that was strong and capable, a military family. Plus there were two of us—two women—in the front-and-center role, in a big live rock band, with men and women playing together. That was the difference between us and a lot of other female rock acts. We weren’t afraid to be romantic gypsies. We were also coming from a kind of folk-rock ethic, not unlike what Led Zeppelin did, except with two women in front. That was our ideology. I think a lot of girls felt they had to try to put the toughest appearance forward in order to sing and play rock guitar. We just had this other place we came from, where we didn’t go into it feeling like we had to compete in the world of men. We started in folk music and made our way to rock.
Was there a point where you recognized that you were blazing a trail, that besides making great music you were also carrying a banner?
People would say that to us all the time: “You’re pioneers for women in rock!” We were like, “Uh, okay.” We just did what we wanted to do. But we also happened to have a strong mother in our lives. She was a fiercely independent, self-educated woman from a military background. Both my parents were pretty enlightened. They encouraged us to follow our bliss, as they used to put it. They gave us permission to get out there and do that, without a lot of gender specifics. But [being a woman] did make it harder on many levels. It was harder to be taken seriously. “See, I actually play the guitar—it’s not a prop. I’m actually doing this for real. We’re not just ornamental up there—we’re the creators and the front people.” It was interesting to see how shocking we appeared to everyone else, when we were just doing what felt natural for us.
There are so many classic Heart songs. Do you have a sense of what makes a song endure?
I’m really happy about that, happy that in addition to maintaining this great thing we call Heart, the songs themselves have floated as well. One of the reasons is that we were steeped in the music of the late ’60s and early ’70s—the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, so many amazing bands and writers. We felt that was our territory, to also try to write about things that weren’t just shallow, girl-boy relationship stuff, but things that were more poetic, that touched people on a human level. “Dog and Butterfly,” for instance, offers sort of a Zen lesson. And “Barracuda” addresses how much you want to call out somebody when they’re an asshole sometimes. People can certainly relate to that. And of course there’s the music. The music and the words need to describe each other.
Some bands that emerged in the ’70s have essentially become “oldies” acts. How has Heart avoided that?
We love putting together new material, and continuing to update. It’s like being in a marriage where you want to renew your vows every five years or so. It’s also about remembering what you started out trying to do, instead of just resting on your laurels and letting the songs be a cash cow. A “jukebox” situation is not where the band wants to be, and it’s not where I want us to be. Keeping things fresh is definitely tough, especially when you’re on tour as much as we are. But that’s okay—it works.
You and Ann saw the Beatles perform live when you were just young schoolgirls. What was that experience like?
It was transformative, really cool just to be in the same room. We were already fanatical about the Beatles. In 1966 they came to the Seattle Coliseum and played live for about 30 minutes. You could almost hear them. (laughs) Even prior to that performance, we already had a band, with four girls. Our mom made us costumes that looked like the Beatles’ costumes, except with skirts instead of slacks. We took our binoculars to the show, and we weren’t screaming. We were really trying to see and hear them. We didn’t want to marry them—we wanted to be them. And in a way, we sort of got to do that.
People still talk about the performance of “Stairway to Heaven” at the Kennedy Center Honors. Were you surprised by the attention that performance received?
At the time, as we actually performed it, we couldn’t tell how it was going over. We were super nervous—after all, it’s only “Stairway to “Heaven,” in front of the president and Led Zeppelin and everybody else who was there. No pressure, right? There were really big butterflies, right up until the moment we stepped out there. Ann and I took a deep breath, looked at each other, bumped our skull rings and walked out onstage. We were thinking, “Try not to be nervous, get through it, play it deliberately and carefully and well.” I felt we did a good job, but we didn’t realize [how special it was] until we saw how it had been put together—saw how Led Zeppelin reacted, and saw how beautifully it played, with all the various reveals that came throughout the song. Not to mention that Jason Bonham was the drummer. I’m sure that was a factor in why it was so emotional for Led Zeppelin to see that performance played out in front of them.
From: https://bestclassicbands.com/nancy-wilson-heart-interview-4-21-17/
