Q&A: Nancy Wilson on Eddie Van Halen and her 1st solo album
NEW YORK — When Nancy Wilson befriended Eddie Van Halen, she learned the famed musician never played acoustic guitar. So she gifted him one.
Wilson said Van Halen called her the next morning to say he stayed up all night and penned a song with it.
“It just broke my heart,” Wilson said.
After the guitar virtuoso succumbed to cancer last year, Wilson thought it was fitting to honor him on her new album. “4 Edward,” inspired by that first song he played for her on acoustic guitar, is the closing track on Wilson’s first solo album “You and Me,” released Friday.
As for the album, the Heart guitarist and co-founder had not considered doing a solo record in the past but being stuck at home during the pandemic changed things.
“It was kind of a forced opportunity to actually do the solo record,” she said.
While most of the songs on the album were written by Wilson, she recorded a few covers, including Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” and Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising.” The album also has collaborators like former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer spoke about her solo album, her day job in Heart and her friendship with Van Halen. Remarks
“We just wanted to be the Beatles.” – NANCY WILSON ON HEART
have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: What made this the right time for your first solo album?
Wilson: It’s been a long time since I was off the road. I’ve been on the road since my early 20s. And so, you know, being on the road with Heart has been the main job for decades in my life. And having had the shutdown happen, for me was actually such a blessing in disguise.
AP: What’s the status of your day job, you know, in Heart?
Wilson: There’s an offer from Live Nation for a Heart tour, which would be 2022 most likely, probably not until the spring. So that offer is still on the table and I hope it stays there before everybody else, like, sweeps it up before we can get it. … I would love to get back onstage with my sister because we’re a really good band together and we have some good songs that people love.
AP: You and Ann have inspired girls around the world to play rock ‘n’ roll. How did you become role models?
Wilson: Nobody expected us to be out frontwomen rocking like that. We came from a military background, so, you know, our dad retired as a major in the Marine Corps and we traveled all the time, and we were tight knit, and our mom was strong because he was gone. And she raised us like as a dad and a mom. And she got a lot of music under our skin as well. So, we just felt like, “Why can’t we be the Beatles?” Like, we love the Beatles, but not going to marry the Beatles. We just wanted to be the Beatles.