Pandemic forces Wilson to go solo
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.
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,” now available.
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.
This interview with Wilson has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Something special happened when you toured with Van Halen, right?
A: I gave him his first acoustic (guitar). He said, “You play great acoustic,” and I go, “Why don’t you play acoustic guitar?” He’s like, “I don’t have one.” Well, so here it is. You do now. And I always love to tell the story because later, at the crack of dawn, he called my hotel room … and said, “Listen, listen, listen. I wrote the song all night.” And he played me this beautiful piece of music on this guitar, this acoustic. It just broke my heart. It was so beautiful.
Q: How did “4 Edward” come about?
A: After he left us just recently, I was like, “Oh, I’m making an album. I’m going to write an acoustic instrumental for Eddie.” It’s a minute-and-a-half that ends the record. But it’s my take on what his thing sounded kind of like with a bit of classical to start, a little bit of rock in the middle, and like a beautiful sort of sweet classical ending for him.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge when doing a solo record?
A: One of the hardest things about writing songs for me is to feel like you don’t suck. … So, just kind of grappling with the bravery of trying to write new songs outside of the context of the Heart framework was really, you know, a lesson in survival and a lesson in character study of my own original self.
Q: You and Ann have inspired girls around the world to play rock ’n’ roll. How did you become role models?
A: Nobody expected us to be out — frontwomen — rocking like that. We came from a military background … 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 … 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.
May 23 birthdays: Actor Joan Collins is 88. Actor Charles Kimbrough is 85. Actor Lauren Chapin is 76. Comedian Drew Carey is 63. Actor Lea DeLaria is 63. Actor Melissa McBride is 56. Singer Jewel is 47. Actor LaMonica Garrett is 46. Comedian Tim Robinson is 40. Director Ryan Coogler is 35. Singer Sarah Jarosz is 30.