The singer described the experience while on The Kelly Clarkson Show for the host’s birthday.
To celebrate her 42nd birthday, Kelly Clarkson brought on one of her favorite bands of all time to The Kelly Clarkson Show: Heart.
For Clarkson’s “birthday dream,” she got to sit down with legendary singer Ann Wilson, and her sister, iconic guitarist Nancy Wilson, to discuss the inspiration behind their biggest hits. And of course, we also got to hear badass, stripped down performances of said songs.
Heart’s Ann Wilson tells Kelly Clarkson why she wrote “Barracuda”
“We were in Detroit opening up for The Kinks. And back in those days, after your show, especially if you’re a baby band like we were, your dressing room would be full of all these industry types. They were called in those days ‘rack jobbers.’ They could be pretty sleazy. There was this one guy in particular who had this pornographic watch on, like one of those watches that if you move your hand it’ll do something sexy,” she explained.
“He’s trying so hard!” Clarkson scoffed.
The 73-year-old continued: “And so he asked me, ‘Hey Annie! How’s your lover?’ and I went, ‘Oh, Michael’s fine, he’s right over there.’ And then he went: ‘No, your sister. Your lover.’ The insinuation was, if there’s two chicks, it has to be sexy. It really pissed me off. And I went back to the hotel, and I wrote the words to ‘Barracuda.'”
Afterwards, they launched into an epic acoustic version of “Barracuda.”
Heart’s songs they performed on The Kelly Clarkson Show
As for their hit “Magic Man,” Ann wrote the lyrics after falling in love for the first time, and her mother’s objections to her moving to another country with him. The sisters heard the song for the first time on the radio while driving home after getting groceries, and “freaked out.”
Clarkson then described Ann and Nancy as “pioneers” for female vocalists such as herself. “If not for y’all, I wouldn’t even feel like I was allowed to do something like that,” she said.
Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Kelly Clarkson appear on The Kelly Clarkson Show Episode 7I121. Photo: Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal
Heart on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
“Heart is our musical guest, and today is obviously the solar eclipse. So we thought we have to do what we have to do. We have to sing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ with Heart, while watching the solar eclipse,” Jimmy Fallon said.
During their performance on the roof of 30 Rockefeller Center, Ann belted her heart out as always, while Nancy shredded away on her guitar.
