Last year, a packed Puyallup Fair grandstand witnessed pop star Fergie channel her inner rock vixen as she sang Heart’s arena rock classic “Barracuda.”
But on Thursday, Heart sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson will storm the grandstand to give us the real deal. To commemorate the occasion, we caught up with guitar hero Nancy to talk about, for starters, the resurgence in popularity of one of her band’s signature songs.
I wanted to start with “Barracuda” in part because last year one of my memorable Puyallup Fair experiences was seeing Fergie not quite do it justice. In my mind you’re comin’ to set the record straight.
(Laughs.) Well, we are gonna come in there, and the first song we are gonna play is “Barracuda.”
Fergie actually sang the song with you at some point, right?
Yeah, we did a show with her. You know, she does a good job with it. We heard about it, so we did it with her.
It was crazy because she did those one-arm handstands across the stage. I usually kind of bounce around and fly through the air. But with Fergie I was a little more subdued, because you only need one person to be over-digging on a song like that.
Plus, with a guitar it’s kind of hard for you to do the one-handed handstands, too.
(Laughs.) Right, I do a lot of other things, but not that with a guitar.
But that’s not the only misuse of “Barracuda” last year. You made headlines with the GOP thing. Where were you when you first heard Sarah Palin was using that as her theme song?
Well, we were on the road watching the convention ’cause we were following the whole thing, as much as we could see when we were on the road last summer. Our jaws just fell open, you know.
(Laughs.) We fired off some calls. We thought it was not very fair to be represented in a way that we didn’t want to be represented. Even though there’s no legality that supports our position on that, we thought we’d let … our opinions be heard.
There’s been a lot of resistance (regarding) various other songs that have been used, mainly in Republican conventions and stuff like that. We just added ourselves to the list.
Was your being incensed more about the political context or about having your stuff used without permission?
Well, you know, it was both. We’re good Americans, but we don’t hold a lot of the same viewpoints, especially (as) the far right does. Plus, artistic property is important to us ’cause that’s our line of work.
We were kind of scared to go play the next show, though, because we weren’t sure how many of our people in the audience would take issue with it.
You thought you might get Dixie Chicked?
Yeah, exactly. We thought we might be heckled. (Laughs.)
If I can totally switch gears: A few years ago, Rolling Stone released that controversial list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. There were only two women, and what’s worse neither one of them was you. Did you feel slighted?
(Laughs.) Oh, you know, they’ve never really put us on many of their lists. I don’t think we rubbed enough shoulders on the East Coast. We’ve never been in the boy’s club there. So we’re not surprised. But (I thought), “Dang, that would have been good to be recognized that way.”
What kind of set are you putting together? And do you have new material that you’re playing?
We’re doing one of the new songs on some of the shows. Usually, it needs to be an indoor situation where there’s more of a magical atmosphere, or a theater atmosphere. And the bigger outdoor shows … largely, we’re playing a lot of really recognizable things. But we change up the way we’re doing them so it’s kind of fresh again for everybody. It’s been really exciting this summer. It’s just been a really great turnout. All ages are showing up. You know, “Guitar Hero” and “American Idol” are bringing out a lot of the much younger kids.
Speaking of “Barracuda.” What’s your other song on “Guitar Hero”? “Crazy On You?”
Yeah, I think it’s “Crazy On You,” and they do “Alone” a lot on “American Idol.” Yeah, there’s a lot of really young people in the front rows lately.
Is it especially gratifying for you to see?
Oh, yes, it’s extremely gratifying to know that our stuff is connecting the dots into the next generation, and that the songs are still chuggin’. We’re also working on a new album right now and in between the tours. So we’re excited about that, too.
Well, what can you tell me about that?
Oh, we’re working with producer Ben Mink right now, who’s somebody we’ve been actually trying to get ahold of and work with for almost 20 years, really. This is the type of album we’ve wanted to make for a long, long time, and we should get it out early in the new year. So far we’re just extremely happy with the results.
Ernest A. Jasmin: 253-274-7389
ernest.jasmin@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/tacomarockcity
Heart in concert
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Puyallup Fair & Events Center, 110 Ninth Ave. S.W., Puyallup
Tickets: $20 to $50
Information: 253-841-5045 or www.thefair.com
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