Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart have never served in any branch of the military. But the sisters credit growing up at Camp Pendleton — and on other military bases where their U.S. Marine officer father was stationed — as a key to their ability to still persevere today, 50 years after the release of their Seattle-bred band’s hard-rocking debut album, 1975’s “Dreamboat Annie.”
“Ann was born in San Diego. Our older sister, Lynne, was born in Taiwan. And I was born in San Francisco,” said Nancy Wilson, who will perform Aug. 13 with Ann and the current iteration of Heart at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
“We lived in Panama, Taiwan, North Carolina, Washington state, Camp Pendleton and in La Jolla, where our grandmother lived,” she continued. “We parlayed the experience of doing all that traveling into a sensibility that allowed Ann and me to strongly go forward with our touring life in the band. And because we were military brats who had traveled so much as kids, we were able to tour with Heart without any stress or issues of being homesick. We had each other as a family support system and our military upbringing helped us in many ways.”
Ann Wilson shares her sister’s sentiments.
“It made me adaptable. We were constantly the ‘new kids,’ always moving, always adjusting,” she said.
“You learn early how to observe, how to read a room, how to be flexible. That served me well in music. Touring is a constant change of scene, and those early years (as a military dependent) taught me how to stay grounded no matter where I was.”
Did the Wilson sisters take advantage of lower album prices at the PX (an on-base department store) at Camp Pendleton and other bases?
“Oh yeah,” Ann replied. “I remember getting (The Beatles’) ‘Rubber Soul’ at the PX. That was a moment. It felt like holding a sacred object. I probably played that record until the grooves wore out.”
“That’s right!” Nancy said. “The PX had great discounts, so we’d shop for everything there. And all the bases had a movie theater kids could walk to, or the commissary, or the officer’s club, or the swimming pool. There was a great community and moms would babysit for other moms when they had appointments to go to. So, there was a really good support system.”
The Wilson sisters no longer shop at the PX, although they did perform in December 2010 at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
Their MCAS Miramar appearance was as part of the USO show-themed “VH1 Divas Salute the Troops” concert special. The lineup also featured Katy Perry, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Nicki Minaj, Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and more.
‘Opened the door’
“Ann and Nancy opened the door in rock for women to look beautiful and be so talented,” Potter said in a Union-Tribune article previewing the 2010 Miramar show.
How effectively the Wilsons-led Heart have opened doors is a matter of record.
Since its inception in 1973, the band has sold 35 million albums worldwide. Heart has had two chart-topping hits, 1986’s “These Dreams” and 1987’s “Alone,” nine Top 10 songs and 29 Billboard Hot 100 singles, including such perennial fan favorites as “Barracuda,” “Crazy On You,” “Magic Man” and “Dog and Butterfly.”
At the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors, the Wilson sisters brought Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to tears when Heart performed “Stairway to Heaven.” In 2023, Heart received the Recording Academy’s 2023 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Awards. That honor came a decade after the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 by Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, who died four years later.
“I am here tonight to induct an amazing band,” Cornell told the audience of more than 5,000 at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.
“Somehow, it never occurred to us that Ann and Nancy Wilson were women existing authentically in a world dominated by men,” Cornell said. “Heart was (led by) two Joan of Arcs standing up front, kicking total ass… Heart was important to us, not just as musicians, but also as proof of the fact that Seattle could produce something beautiful and rocking that the rest of the world might actually care about… The heart of that band comes from the singular synergy in the sisterhood of Ann and Nancy Wilson.”
Fab inspiration
The sisters grew up in a musical family. But it was a February 1964 TV show that provided the pivotal artistic inspiration that set Ann, who was 13 at the time, and Nancy, who was 9, on their shared musical path.
It was then that they went to their grandmother Maudie’s apartment in La Jolla to watch The Beatles’ live U.S. television performance debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” For the Wilsons, like millions of other young people, the world would never be the same again.
“That was a call to the future — and from the future,” Nancy said, speaking from her Santa Rosa home in Northern California during a recent break on Heart’s summer tour.
“Me and Ann felt like it was our destiny. A lot of musicians say that about the first time they saw The Beatles. It was a cultural moment that just called you to sing, play guitar, form bands, become a songwriter, get on stage and follow your inspiration.”
She chuckled.
“I never thought we would not have success,” Nancy continued, “maybe because I was young and naive enough to not think that we wouldn’t. Ann being such a gifted singer at such a young age; it was already obvious she had an insanely great voice. And I was hellbent at becoming proficient on guitar, just because it was my purpose.
“Those two things combined were pretty hard to sneeze at. You know, we were pretty good at a young age and we knew it. Then, we got our 10,000 hours of practice and we just figured it would work out. Now, sitting here in my house — 50-ish years later — apparently it did work out quite well for a couple of wide-eyed rock musicians like us.”
Does music mean something more to the Wilson sisters now than it did when Heart was a young club nicknamed “Little Led Zeppelin” and was striving to get a record contract?
“The love of music is still the same, the incredible feeling of creating art!” Ann replied via email from her Florida home.
“Ooh, that’s a really good question,” Nancy said.
“As a music fan, I think it’s still the same for me. When I heard a great new song, or a cool album that just came out, or something I grew up loving, it defines your life. And it’s also your survival technique, to create music and songs that become the soundtrack of your life experience. Music helps you to deal with the curveballs, hardships and losses you have to endure, as well as with the joyful things, love and romance.
“Music is there for a bigger purpose than just enjoyment. It’s the fabric of life and survival.”
The importance of music takes on even more significance now for Ann, who announced in July 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer. The volcanic-voiced singer subsequently underwent surgery and Heart rescheduled a slew of its now-resumed “Royal Flush” tour dates.
“I’m feeling strong and grateful,” Ann said. “I’ve always believed in the healing power of music, and that belief carried me through (having cancer). The love from fans, friends, and family was medicinal.”
Siblings, no rivalry
Prior to Heart’s ascent, there had been a number of talented, all-female American rock bands in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
They included Goldie & The Gingerbreads, The Pleasure Seekers, The Enchanted Forest, The Ace of Cups, The Hairem, Fanny, The Sandoval Sisters, The Debutantes, The Untouchable, Birtha and San Diego’s Penelope’s Children. But only The Pleasure Seekers, Fanny and Birtha scored album contracts at the time, and commercial success eluded all of them.
By coincidence, the lineups of at least two of those bands — Fanny and The Pleasure Seekers — each also featured a pair of sisters. That similarity notwithstanding, neither band fared remotely as well as Heart.
“When we started, there was a lot more proving to do,” said Ann, whose “After Dinner Thinks” podcast debuted in February. “As young women in the male-dominated rock scene, there was an urgency to make space for ourselves.”
“I’m convinced,” Nancy said, “that Ann and me, as sisters doing it together, was extremely important for us. Because we had each other when we were kind of an anomaly in music. We still are an anomaly. We do real rock ‘n’ roll. And we’re not pop artists — we’re singers and songwriters.”
A number of artists, female and male, have in recent years cited mental health issues as the primary reason they canceled or postponed some concerts or entire tours. The list includes Justin Bieber, Summer Walker, Shawn Mendes, Doja Cat, Wet Leg, Lewis Capaldi, Arlo Parks, Sam Fender and Chappell Roan, who used her 2024 Grammy Awards acceptance speech to implore record companies to provide healthcare and more support for young artists.
Of course, the Wilson sisters have had their own challenges to contend with over the years.
In 1980s, Heart was dropped by its record company after the group’s sales and popularity dropped. The band’s new label brought in outside songwriters to craft hits for the group. The advent of MTV saw Ann and Nancy recast as video vixens with big hair, lots of makeup and revealing stage attire.
“The focus shifted from the music to the image-making machinery,” Nancy lamented. “And there was a cocaine-driven, ego-driven cultural shift. We had to scrape by to keep some of our artistic integrity intact. All of a sudden we were dinosaurs, then we became cool again. We had to fight for our survival.”
Upheavals and reunions
Nancy left Heart for three years in 1995 to start a family with her then-husband, San Diego-bred writer and film director Cameron Crowe. In 2015, Ann began touring with her own band, The Ann Wilson Thing. In 2016, Ann’s husband, Dean Wetter, assaulted Nancy’s two teenage sons backstage at a Heart concert and was sentenced as part of a plea deal to 364 days in jail, with all the time suspended. The sisters were estranged for the next three years before coming back together again as Heart.
In 2022, Nancy began touring as the leader of Nancy Wilson’s Heart, a band that saw Kimberly Nichole, a finalist on season 8 of “The Voice,” handing Ann’s lead vocal duties In early 2024, Ann underwent knee surgery. A few months later came her announcement that she had cancer.
“Music has always meant so much to me,” Ann said. “But with everything I’ve been through, I don’t take anything for granted anymore.”
Heart’s longevity has been a gift to the Wilson sisters. Both have made solo albums and led their own groups, but have always returned to the Heart fold. And both are well aware that the average shelf life for a rock band is measured in months or years, not decades.
“People ask us: ‘What advice would you give to young, talented artists starting out?’ ” said Nancy, who in 2023 launched her Roadcase Management company.
“I joke about this — and Ann says it, too — because my advice would be to turn back! It’s tigers, lions and bears out there in the music industry. And unless you’ve got a burning desire — and are willing to withstand the slings, the arrows, all of the disappointments and the ego-melting sieges you have to live through — unless you are hellbent and can’t live without it, then I would really encourage you not to do it.
“Because it’s really not as glamorous as it might appear. I mean, it looks good on paper and it looks good on album covers. But living through it is challenging. It is rewarding, when it works, and when you can survive and rise above the petty schoolyard and high school bulls—t.”
Ann turned 75 on June 15. Nancy turned 71 on March 16. While the road may not go on forever, as Stephen Stills sang in his 1970 hit, “Love The One You’re With,” the path Heart has forged over the past 52 years has yet to reach an end.
What would prompt either of the Wilson sisters to retire?
“I think I’ll stop when it stops feeling joyful,” Ann said.
“It’s sweeter than ever to do it,” Nancy said. “Because with all the setbacks we’ve had, with our family drama in 2016 and then health issues, we were never sure we would be able to keep doing it. Things are really looking good. Right now, we’ve got shows in the works with Heart until next spring.
“If you can get the rock ‘n’ roll job — and keep doing it and keep getting out there — well, it’s a really good job!”
Heart, with Todd Rundgren
When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 13
Where: Pechanga Arena San Diego, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway District
Tickets: $34.50-$114.50
Online: axs.com
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