She is one of the godmothers of Grunge and she has a "Heart" of gold that together with her sister influenced the world of music !!
(Photo: Nancy Wilson)
1. Her full name is Nancy Lamoureaux Wilson and she was born on March 16, 1954, in San Francisco, California.
2. She has two older sisters, Lynn and Ann Wilson.
(Photo: George Rose)
3. Since her father served in the military, the family traveled extensively around the world and she grew up in Southern California and Taiwan until the age of six when her father retired from the military and they moved to Seattle.
4. She remembers the moment of enlightenment when she and her sister Ann knew they were going to be rock stars. It was when they watched together "The Ed Sullivan Show," which hosted The Beatles that evening, she was 8 at the time.
5. During high school her parents bought Ann an acoustic guitar and later they bought Nancy a smaller guitar (children's guitar). Nancy did not like her guitar and often "stole" her sister's guitar.
6. The two began performing together at community church events, amusement parks, and local festivals. They felt they were able to touch the audience, and even though in almost every show half of the people would leave it only strengthened them.
7. In 1973, Nancy joined her sister's band called "Heart". She said it was not that simple. The men in the band did not agree to have Nancy and decided that she must audition. They gave her a task, she had to learn to play the song "Clap" by the band "Yes" in one evening, she, of course, passed successfully!
8. That same year the whole band moved to Vancouver, Canada to record their debut album.
(Photo: Michael Putland)
9. In 1975 they released their debut album "Dreamboat Annie". Producer Mike Flicker helped the band polish the sound and to sign a recording contract with Mushroom Records. They released 4 singles from the album that gained momentum one after the other, including the mighty "Crazy on You". From there, the band also broke into the United States, via Seattle, the birthplace of the Wilson sisters.
10. Following a "miss conduct" by the record company in the form of a full-page article in Rolling Stone magazine, which includes a picture of the Wilson sisters bare-shouldered side by side and the phrase: "It Was Only Our First Time," the band broke the contract with the record label.
11. In 1977 the band released their second album "Little Queen" recorded in Seattle. One of the band's most famous songs "Barracuda" conquered the charts and brought "Heart" back to dizzying success. This is a particularly angry song about the record company Mushroom Records, which released their picture in Rolling Stone and spread a rumor that the sisters are allegedly having an affair, all to arouse public opinion. Ann found out about the article by chance when a fan came to her after a show and asked her "how is the relationship"? She thought he was talking about her boyfriend, but when she realized what it was about her and her sister, she was shocked and went to write the song.
12. However, this was not the end of the story with the record company and as a result of a legal commitment the band had with the company, they were required to release another album under its name. They worked a marathon for 4 days to record another album called "Magazine" which was also released in 1977, only to end the contract with the same company.
13. As a result, the band reached an extraordinary achievement with three of their albums marching simultaneously in the charts.
14. If that's not enough, then a year later, in 1978, they released their fourth album "Dog & Butterfly". The album was split in two when the first part was the "Dog" and included more rockish and powerful songs, while the second part the "Butterfly" included ballads and softer songs. The album reached number 17 on Billboard.
15. During the band's tour, Nancy discovered that the band guitarist and producer Roger Fisher, who was also her spouse, was cheating on her. After the tour ended, the band members decided to oust Fischer and fired him. This allowed Nancy to take the lead and she took on the lead guitar role.
(Photo: Norman Seeff)
16. In 1980 the band released their fifth album "Bébé le Strange". This is the first album without Fisher. The Wilson sisters have always led the band, but from then on they formed the hardcore of "Heart". The album was a resounding success and reached number 5 on the Billboard charts as it spent 22 weeks there.
17. Since the early 1980s, the band has undergone musical changes, mainly softening and squinting in the mainstream direction, with elements of pop, hard rock, and glam metal. The sisters testified that at that time the drugs were all around and the white cocaine powder was scattered everywhere. The climax of the musical revolution was on the album "Heart" which was released in 1985 and included many hits such as: "These Dreams" which was the band's first song to conquer the top of the charts, "What About Love", "Never", "Nothin 'at All" and more. The transition to glam was also reflected in the external appearance as reflected on the album cover.
18. In 1987 came the album "Bad Animals", from which came the single "Alone" which was the band's second single to reach number one. The success was dizzying and tremendous to the point that the tour to promote the album was sold out even before it started and it included 3 consecutive performances at Wembley Stadium.
19. During the tour Ann began to experience anxiety attacks and stage fright, to cover up for her sister, Nancy would perform improvised solos and guitar pieces to hold the audience.
(Photo: Daniel Knighton)
20. The Wilson sisters released a total of 16 albums under the band "Heart" with the latest "Beautiful Broken" being released in 2016. They were a great success and appreciated by listeners and critics and many singles conquered the charts and radio stations.
21. In 1991 the sisters set up the recording studio "Bad Animals" named after Heart's ninth album. The famous studio known today as "Studio X" was a huge part of the development of the Grunge scene, where many bands recorded there: Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and many more ...
22. That same year they also formed a side band called "The Lovemongers" which recorded a cover version of Led Zeppelin's song "The Battle of Evermore", for the big soundtrack of the movie "Singles". A few years later, in 1997, the band released the EP "Whirlygig".
23. Nancy married the film's director Cameron Crowe and later recorded guitar pieces for his films and even wrote soundtracks, including a soundtrack for the film "Almost Famous". The two divorced in 2010.
24. In those years before and during the blossoming of Grunge, the stars of the scene like Chris Cornell Andrew Wood, Layne Staley, and more, were among the fans of the Wilson sisters. This fact earned them the nickname "Grunge Godmothers". They said that their house was open to all the guys from Nirvana, Alice, and Soundgarden, who would come to their house for parties and play together.
25. In 1995 they released an Unplugged album called "The Road Home" produced by John Paul Jones featuring Layne Staley and Chris Cornell.
26. In 2004, "Heart" released their 13th album called "Jupiters Darling". The album featured Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez from Alice In Chains and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, among others.
27. In 2012 the sisters received a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
28. In 2013, the band was inducted into the "Music Hall of Fame". The speaker for the band's induction was Chris Cornell. In his speech, he explained with great emotion how much the Wilson sisters influenced him and his friends from the Grunge scene.
29. In 2016 the album "Beautiful Broken" was released which is "Heart" sixth album, which combined new songs and old songs of the band in a renewed performance. The album features James Hetfield from the band Metallica.
30. That same year, Ann's husband was arrested on charges of assaulting one of Nancy's children. This allegedly happened during the band's performance at the White River Epithet in Washington. Rumor has it that following that incident, the sisters stopped talking and switched to communicating through texts.
31. In the same year, Nancy and Liv Warfield (who was in Prince's band) formed the band "Roadcase Royale". They released one album called "First Things First" in 2017.
(Photo: Jeremy Danger)
32. In 2019 the sisters announced that the band "Heart" had returned from the "hiatus" they had taken and that they were performing again together.
33. They went on a "Love Alive Tour" tour. The round was so successful that the sisters even extended it, but it was stopped due to the COVID-19 crisis. Maybe we'll see them in the Holy Land again !!
34. In 2021, Nancy released her first solo album "You and Me". She created the album without any prior planning and mostly because she was bored at home, so instead of putting together puzzles she created music, like a lot of artists we know.
Listen to the album on Spotify, Apple Music