Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician Nancy Wilson says “it’s more embarrassing” today to be an American than it was during the Vietnam War, citing President Donald Trump as the primary reason, and believes these are particularly difficult times for women.
In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week, the Heart member noted that their 1975 song “Crazy on You” was a reaction to the U.S. war on Vietnam and former President Richard Nixon — and said current events are far more troubling.
“We were kind of embarrassed at that time to call ourselves American because of the dirty politics of the Vietnam War,” she told the outlet in an interview published last Tuesday. “To be as subtle as possible, it’s more embarrassing now.”
The song, on regular rotation on classic rock radio stations, remains prescient.
“Every time I think about it, I wanna cry,” read the lyrics. “With bombs and the Devil, and the kids keep coming/ No way to breathe easy, no time to be young/ But I tell myself that I’m doing all right/ There’s nothin’ left to do tonight/ But go crazy on you.”
Wilson co-wrote the song with her sister, fellow Heart member Ann Wilson, while living in a small cottage in Point Roberts, Washington, on the U.S.-Canada border. Tens of thousands of Americans who were drafted into the military during the Vietnam War fled to Canada at the time.
The Grammy winner also discussed Heart’s “Barracuda” and said the 1977 hit is “even more relevant in the salacious billionaire culture” of today, which she said is infested with Trump’s “grab-them-by-the-pussy mentality” that was caught on tape in 2005 and released in 2016.
“I think for women in the culture the pendulum will come back again, and there’ll be another renaissance in the arts to push back against the oppression of the cranky old rich white guys,” Wilson told the outlet. “I hope I am alive to see that next revolution.”
Richard Shotwell/Invision/Associated Press
Trump, who implemented a discriminatory travel ban and espoused nationalist ideals during his first term, is now dismantling various federal agencies through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency under the stated aim of cutting wasteful public spending.
Wilson, who told The Hill in 2018 that “anybody but Trump” could use “Barracuda” in their political campaign, argued at the time that he is part of the same political swamp he claims to be draining.
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Now 71 years old, Wilson is still touring. Heart’s current Royal Flush Tour is headed to Tennessee and West Virginia this week.