In a new interview with Billboard, Katherine Yeske Taylor shared snippets of interviews from her new book ‘She’s A Badass,’ one of which included Heart’s Ann Wilson. While Taylor and Wilson were chatting about being involved in an industry filled with people supporting the misogynistic culture, the rocker shared a memory that includes a person portraying her and her sister, Nancy Wilson, as lovers. She told:
A guy who came up to me in the dressing room after our set said to me, ‘Hey, how’s your lover doing?’ I said, ‘He’s fine; he’s right over there.'”
Wilson pointed to her then-boyfriend, Mike Fisher, who was also the band’s manager. But the person intended to imply something else:
“And then the guy went, ‘No, no, no—I meant you and your sister. You and your sister are lovers, right?’ I had this strange bunch of emotions that hit me right after he said that. At first it was like, ‘Wow, huh.’ And then it was like, ‘God damn it, this is a sleazy business after all. What was I thinking?'”
The Incident Fueled Wilson to Write a Hit
Perceived as lovers by the person, the rocker got angry and apparently, this incident fueled them to write their now hit, ‘Barracuda.’ The rocker shared the details of the incident and what really fueled her to scribble the words for the song:
“Because Nancy and I really had this idea that we were songwriters carrying cool messages to the people. We had no idea that we would be perceived, even by a sleazeball, as two porno chicks together in a band. It made me really mad, not only at him but at the industry and at my decision to be so naive and consider myself some kind of spiritual pilgrim with these songs. I got so mad and confused, I wrote the words to ‘Barracuda.’ It was mostly just venom that I felt.”
The irritation she felt made her create the hit, now known to be the band’s most famous song.
