Ever since I could remember, women's issues have been pretty urgent.
— Nancy Wilson
The '80s was an interesting, confining time for songwriters, so we were just sort of riffing in our own language, off to the side.
We really had boundless optimism about the place of music in the culture - and in the world.
I've been through a lot of heartache in my day, and you turn to music to prop yourself up. It's a healing thing, and it's a powerful, powerful, beautiful thing.
Most of our great influences were male rockers, like Led Zeppelin.
I play a lot of classical music around the house.
We always had a lot of admiration for feminists who were out there trying to change things for the better for women, who were trying to find equality in the workplace and at home.
We've never been as active politically as we have been as artists. But politics always brush up against the arts, oh, about every four years in this country.
When you're 12, you have no gauge for what's hip or not hip - or even who you are.
The high road and positivity is never the easy way but always the best way.
A dream set would include songs by other artists like Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, and other favorites. More obscure Heart songs like 'Wait For an Answer' and 'Nada One' would be fun, plus fan favorites like 'Love Mistake' and 'Language of Love.' Endless possibilities.
Heart is fun for the whole family!
There is a definite sound with all-girl bands, a good rudimentary sound, and that's what's cool and punk about all-girl bands that you still find, largely - it's really kind of primal.
People started to ask me, 'Do you really play guitar?' They thought it was a prop. It was just interesting, because of all the imaging stuff.
Being taken seriously was always the biggest challenge.
There were not very many girls in rock n' roll together with men that had a heavy rock sound as well as a more acoustic sound like Heart.
You need to know how to play live. The ones who can do that are the ones you'll see around for a long time.
With 'Brigade,' we sort of decided to kind of revamp ourselves and put on the military garb and become more of a fighting unit, you know, like the title of the album, and sort of fight for it.
I think if there's a support system in place, and you're acting adult-to-adult with a sense of unconditional love and forgiveness, only good things will come from any relationship between men and women.
We were wild-eyed hippies from the late '60s. We still had the exuberance of the mind-expanding '60s - that Tolkienesque, Zeppelin, androgynous, wood nymph, forest fairy kind of innocence. It sounds stupid now, but we felt we were changing the world with music.
I love singing, and whenever I can sing some more vocal leads, I always covet the chance.
Our very first group was called The Prunes.' We did a lot of campgrounds, living rooms, and backyards.
Ann and I were the main writers in Heart. We had the leadership role, and the guys in the band sometimes had a hard time with that.
Being mothers, we try to stay home as much as possible and attend to the children.
It is nice to be an American and to be able to have an opinion.
There's nothing quite as raw and honest as one person and one instrument.
'Say Hello' was inspired by optimism.
Grace Slick was a total trip to work with. Lots of jokes and opinions. A strident individual and super talented!
We had the idea as women that we could walk into music and be good at it and be as good as any man and have a career in it without being taken advantage of. So basically, those things came true. The obstacle course was just more difficult than we ever anticipated. We were optimistic and very naive.
We see what music can do for people. Hell, we see what music does for us! When you see thousands of people out in front of you, it's fixing their lives. It's helping. It's healing. It's bigger than the inconvenience of jealousy or emotional storm clouds.
I have endless admiration for people like Chrissie Hynde who've been out as the only girl in a band. I'm not sure that, even as a little Marine Corps brat, I would've been able to deal with that.
We struck out on our own in suburbia with parents who actually helped us get where we needed to go.
We don't really intentionally try to sound like ourselves. I think that would be overthinking.
There are some beautiful things about people like Katy Perry, who are bold enough to go up on a pink cotton-candy cloud, with a guitar, in a tutu, and sing all by herself.
A lot of times, women are pigeonholed.
I tried to play 'Barracuda' on 'Guitar Hero,' and because you have to anticipate and push buttons, it's really counterintuitive.
I'll work my butt off to do something well.
Harmony singing is my favorite thing to do in music!
As a songwriter, simplicity - what not to do, what not to play - can be the hardest thing to achieve.
In our band, we had such an interesting democracy, and it worked really well.
We're trying to elevate humanity and not preach to humanity in the way we approach our art. We're always just trying to get a good party going.
I've always been a little bit in the background as a singer and even as an acoustic-guitar player, although I crank it up and rock with my Marshall stacks, too.
My favorite acoustic is the Nancy Wilson Signature Martin.
The Seattle explosion was what saved rock from becoming too pompous! A great moment in music!
I have done a few solo projects that I really enjoyed and would love to have time to do more. Key word here is time!
We've always been more... weird compared to most bands, girls or no.
Sleazy people are always in this business. They run the business, pretty much. There are a lot of barracudas.
When we're home, we like to cook and be together and do mom things when we can.
In many ways, we might compare to The Pretenders more than others, but still, we created our own category.
I always have dogs with me, even on the road. We call them port-o-pups.
