The five guitarists who influenced Nancy Wilson the most
The world wasn’t ready for the Wilson sisters. In fact, Nancy Wilson once recalled hearing the common backhanded compliment: “You’re pretty good – for a girl”. As a guitar player, Wilson learned from the best, transforming her interests into world-class instrumentation while challenging prevalent misogynistic viewpoints as she did.
Wilson’s guitar playing wasn’t just your typical, everyday, good-enough-to-get-by approach. She generally outperformed her peers, who were left wondering how she accrued such an effortless talent in the first place. “[peoples’] jaws would kind of drop because I had a real natural knack for playing the guitar,” she once explained, admitting that showing off about it made her feel empowered.
Often, being a woman skilled at a historically masculine craft causes shyness as those with true potential become eclipsed by their louder male counterparts. In Wilson’s case, however, she saw it as a challenge: those walking into the music store seeing her playing the guitar would often make their shock known, but Wilson played on anyway, soaking up their reactions as newfound strength.
Regarding her own influences, one that she deems the most obvious is The Beatles. She specifically appreciated the understated guitar skills of John Lennon and his ability to keep up, even when resources fell short. As she explained: “John Lennon is such a good rhythm guitar player, he was never ahead of the tempo, he was always just perfectly behind, relaxed sounding rhythm player.”
Naturally, her affinity for legendary rock guitarists also led her to Jimmy Page, who played a significant role in the mainstream popularisation of stadium rock and creating larger-than-life tunes that could catapult an entire audience into the ether. However, it’s not just big musical blowouts that caught her eye, she also learnt a lot about the intricacy of the craft from a number of other major players.
“A lot of the acoustic stuff I got from Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, a huge influence on my acoustic playing,” she explained, adding: “As a matter of fact, I think I play a lot like Neil Young on the acoustic because I use it as a percussion instrument, you’re kind of beating on it instead of delicately plucking on it.”
Moreover, Heart’s song ‘Crazy on You’ began as a direct offshoot of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Anji’, which incorporated a delicate and intriguing introductory acoustic progression that inspired Wilson to do the exact same thing. However, what she really enjoyed was how it became its own thing entirely. “It might sound pretty close, but all the positions are different,” she explained. “So [it’s] ultimately flattering that people would want to [be] like, ‘OK, I’m going to learn this really hard thing and show-and-tell.'”
The guitarists that inspired Nancy Wilson:
- John Lennon
- Jimmy Page
- Paul Simon
- Joni Mitchell
- Neil Young
