Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson – HuffPost 9.20.10
Mike Ragogna: I feel like there’s so much that you’ve gone through over the years that you could probably write a book about life on the road, about music, and about the music industry, right?
Nancy Wilson: It would be like when people ask, “What do you say to people that are coming up?” What is it really? It is a business, even though you don’t really want to think of it as a business. I think without some kind of true calling and dogged determination and survival mechanisms built in, you shouldn’t even try. Turn back, unless you’re really burning up with passion, desire, and a purpose to do this, you know? I think, like probably a lot of things in the world, to do something really well, especially something a little bit outside of the box, there just isn’t a lot of context for it, and it can be the loneliest, most heartbreaking world you can try to do something in. Ann and I, I think, should consider ourselves really lucky because we have each other and we’re sisters and confidants. But there are others–like Sarah McLachlan and Chrissie Hynde–who have sort of done it on their own, and I don’t know how they do that. I don’t know if I could do that. Anyway, becoming an upstart now, with the way the attention span is so short and the pitch correction aspect of music making people kind of anonymous, it narrows the field, and I think it might even be tougher than before.
Ann Wilson: Yeah, I think it probably is.
NW: With the imaging of everything now, I’d just say that if you have a soulful, poetic ear for doing some music, go underground or go rock, and do all the work.
AW: Do the work. Don’t expect one day be in your bedroom with your hairbrush, looking at the mirror, and the next day be like Lady Gaga. That happens to, maybe, one millionth of one percent of all the people in the world. If you want to spend ten years in the pipeline, forming a musical soul and putting all the miles in, then maybe you’re going to be unusual, and you might stay around a little bit.
MR: I always ask artists the question, “What advice do you have for new artists,” and you’ve already answered it perfectly.
NW: Becoming competent takes a little time, and that will give you enough time to figure out whether you’re built for it, too.
MR: That’s good advice because a lot of people go into it without realizing that they’re in it for the long haul once they’ve committed.
NW: Yeah, for better and for worse.
MR: Seriously, the whole fantasy of the American Idol ”win” is exactly that, and for people that are getting into this for their art, it’s not going to matter. They’re going to do exactly what you said.
NW: People always ask us, and it always really amazes me because we have some albums that have been “hits” and some that aren’t. So, when we have one that isn’t, people say, “Well, why do you make albums? Are you going to make any more albums?” The answer, of course is, “Yes,” because that’s what we do as functioning musicians. We don’t live and die by our sales. And it’s for the love of music and the way people come back to us and say, “Oh, you saved my life with your music.” It’s so meaningful to people when you can reach them and they can hear your music and you can share your music with them. It’s completely meaningful.