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On March 16th, 1954, Nancy Wilson was born in San Francisco. To celebrate her birthday, here are 10 things you might not know about the Heart guitarist:
1. Nancy is the youngest of three sisters who grew up in Northern and Southern California as well as Taiwan because their dad was in the Marines. When he retired, the family settled in the Seattle suburbs.
2. Nancy was inspired to pursue music after watching The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. She revealed that after seeing the Fab Four, she and her sister Ann, her future Heart bandmate, were doing air guitar shows in the living room and putting on English accents.
3. Nancy's parents bought her her first guitar, but it was always out of tune, so she used her Ann’s first guitar, a Kent acoustic Ann bought with money she got from her grandmother.
4. Nancy’s first band was with two of her friends and her sister Ann. They called themselves The Viewpoints and performed in four-part harmony.
5. While her sister was all for having Nancy join Heart, other members of the band wanted Nancy to audition. They had her learn and perform the introduction to the Yes song “The Clap.” She played it live and was officially made a member of the band.
6. Nancy married film director Cameron Crowe in 1986. She appeared in the movie he wrote, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in the non-speaking role “Beautiful Girl in Car.” She also had a cameo in 1989’s Say Anything, which Crowe directed. She and the director divorced in 2010.
7. Nancy wrote the score for the 1996 film Jerry Maguire and she contributed songs for 2000’s Almost Famous. She also composed the theme music for 2001’s Vanilla Sky and 2005’s Elizabethtown, all of which Crowe directed.
8.Tom Cruise once gave Nancy a personal tour of Scientology’s Celebrity Center.
9. In 1979, Eddie and Alex Van Halen invited Nancy and Ann to have a four-way with them. The sisters declined.
10. According to Wikipedia, Nancy’s nicknames include “Whizfingers” and “Hands of Granite.”
Happy birthday Nancy! Here’s hoping today is crazy on you!