Nancy Wilson of Heart | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Nobody knows where they're going at the beginning of their life like that. I feel like way too lucky.
You were really accepted by a rock audience wholeheartedly.
When the sisters sing together, there's this thing that happens.
There's something magical about when siblings can put their voices together. It's a God-given kind of spookiness.
It is kind of spooky.
Yeah, it is. It's like... Beauty, charisma, sass, fire.
Yeah.
A voice. Not just a voice. A voice that means something to people.
It sounds great on the radio. And you just want to roll down your window, you know, and chew gum or something.
Nancy, thank you for being here.
I'm happy to be here.
It's such a big story, so I'm going to start in a very obvious spot. I'll try to avoid all the obvious, but it seems such a watershed moment when the Beatles start appearing at Ed Sullivan. How many musicians they inspired to say, I want to do that. Completely. And you and your sister kind of had that moment.
That was the same lightning bolt that hit the planet, you know, hit us as well as musicians.
Yeah.
And we were like, we became the zombies for guitars, you know.
Were you already playing?
Well, musical family. Yeah. So kind of the Von Trapps in a lot of ways. We were all singing together in the car.
Yeah.
And ukuleles and pianos. Harmony.
So you're already in a musical mindset and then you see that and you think, okay, that sort of organizes where I want to go.
Completely organized, you know, yeah. Focused in our attentions on the rest of our lives, what we wanted to do. We're so lucky that way.
What was it about the guitar for you that, you know, because, you know, guitar players are a particular breed.
Yeah, they're weird.
Yeah, thank you. It's kind of a nerdish thing that goes on.
Do you have a guitar pick on you?
What's that?
Do you have a guitar pick on you?
I think I do, actually. I'll trade you. Okay.
Yeah, a Steely for a Peary.
Yeah.
How did seeing The Beatles on TV shape Nancy Wilson’s decision to play guitar?
It's kind of like trading marbles.
What was it about the guitar that spoke to you?
Well, it's... I have a musical, uh, facility, I guess, as a, I'm just a musical person born into it, um, with parents, you know, that taught us harmony singing and piano lessons and, uh, flute and clarinet. And, and so with the Beatles showed up, it was like, must have guitar. And, um, I just took to it. It absorbed me. It still does. But when I was nine, it was like, this is my purpose, is to learn how to play every Beatles song.
Wow.
Every hit song that was on the top 40 radio station, the terrestrial radio station. Sure, yeah. I learned how to read music a couple of times, but I never needed it really. I just use your ears. When you have good ears, you have good ears.
Yeah.
So you can imitate what you hear. and approximate what you want to hear.
Yeah.
But the guitar was, I got the worst guitar of all time. It was the first one, $30 rental from the bandstand music store down the street. And it was a Lyle.
I was going to say you remember the brand. Yeah. A Lyle, okay.
It was like a three-quarter size plywood guitar with like a dowel neck. Yeah, yeah. And the strings were about that far off the fretboard.
Yeah.
So it was like, it was life without F, you know, you cannot... You can't play Fs.
There's a guitar player joke. I know exactly what you mean.
No bar chords allowed.
I didn't play any Fs for, like, the first 10 years of my life. It was like, this is too hard.
That's a guitar player joke. Right, yeah. It truly is. But Anne got a good guitar from her grandma because we were all interested in being, like, not like the Beatles. We wanted to be the actual Beatles, you know, have a band.
Yeah.
Be like the guys.
Yeah.
Not... Be the guys.
Yeah, yeah.
Not like the guys or girlfriends of the guys, but be them.
Yeah.
And her guitar was playable, so I would sneak off with her guitar. Yeah. And she'd get really pissed off at me.
What early musical experiences and instruments formed Nancy and Ann Wilson’s harmony foundation?
You took my guitar, give it back. Yeah, so, yeah.
It's striking that you were so young and both you kind of arrived at this.
She had this facility for her vocal facility, like God given or from the great spirit.
It is kind of frightening how.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:12
2
How did seeing The Beatles on TV shape Nancy Wilson’s decision to play guitar?
2:12–4:45
3
What early musical experiences and instruments formed Nancy and Ann Wilson’s harmony foundation?
4:45–1:13:06
4
How did Nancy join Ann’s Vancouver club bands and prove herself as a young guitarist?
1:13:06–1:36:57
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
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