FUN GUITARIST PROFILE: NANCY WILSON!

Nancy Wilson with her Epiphone Les Paul Ultra

"I am so excited about this guitar. It is a dream to play and sounds amazing. I used it yesterday for some score cues and the weight is perfect. I also love the tone of the body due to the hollow section inside. It makes for a new, sweeter tone" says Nancy Wilson . "Then when I got the prototype, I took it into the studio and was able to find that certain type of distortion that I’m always looking for....and is hard to find. The one where there's enough “clean” in it that if you want to play open strings like an acoustic, you can....like the way Neil Young’s distortion often sounds. It’s beautiful enough to pull off any style of playing, not just big rock block chords, you know? You can play open strings or acoustic type figures and the distortion doesn’t cancel the open strings out. The Ultra brought that to me. I think it's partially due to the open spaces inside the body".

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Nancy and her sister Ann created "Heart", arguably the most successful female-fronted band in hard rock history three decades ago. Six Top 10 hits and worldwide sales of 20 million albums with sold-out stadiums, they are still relevant today.

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Born in San Francisco, California Nancy married Rolling Stone writer Cameron Crowe in 1986 and gave birth to twins in 2000. She has composed music for her hubby's films films including Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown. While Ann handles a majority of the lead vocals, Nancy has sung lead in hits such as "These Dreams", "Stranded", "There's the Girl" and "Will You Be There in the Morning". She is Heart's rhythm guitarist. In 1999 she released her solo effort, "Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop".

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Nancy grew up in a musical family and began playing ukulele and piano at an early age. By the mid 1960's she was struck by the lightning bolt that was The Beatles and knew she had to have a guitar. She almost immediately began to write songs and put bands together, ultimately settled into a collaboration with her sister Ann that became "Heart" with huge hits such as "Barracuda", "Dog and Butterfly", "Even It Up", "Magic Man", and "All I Wanna Do" which afforded them the opportunity to play to sold out audiences around the world. The band is still going very strong today!

On 24 May 2007 at the second annual Vh1 Rock Honors, Heart was an honoree and performer! Nancy and Ann continue to inspire new guitarists worldwide.