Heart’s Nancy Wilson discussed meeting Grunge bands like Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains in a new New and Approved interview.
“After the ’80s, we came back to our hometown of Seattle, we thought, ‘Oh, the whole style of rock has changed. It’s Nirvana now, it’s Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, it’s Alice in Chains, and it’s Pearl Jam, and they’re gonna hate us.’
“Because we were the MTV darlings with the big hair and corsets and all that stuff – and really big hair. And so we went back there just right when [singer] Andrew Wood died, from Mother Love Bone.
“And our friend, my longest, dearest friend Kelly Curtis who managed them and went on to manage Pearl Jam forever as well, said, ‘Come to this house in Seattle, bring your dogs, we’re having a wake for Andrew Woods.’
“And so me and my then-husband Cameron [Crowe] went there and we met all those guys kind of in one big party situation, and they were the sweetest guys. There was not an attitude among them.
“They were like, ‘Oh, wow, you guys, you did some cool stuff.’ And Jerry Cantrell’s like, ‘How do you play the beginning of ‘Strong, Strong Wind’?’, and stuff like that. So they were like instant brotherhood for us, and it was such a relief.”
They all truly love and speak of you in such high regard, and a lot of them recorded at Bad Animal Studios…
“We built that studio there, you know, kind of unwisely as it turns out. Financially, not the best.
“But it’s a beautiful room, and a lot of those guys all recorded some great stuff there, and it was really the right thing to do, even though we lost a ton of dough.
“But it became kind of a beautiful landmark for the city of Seattle, and we’re proud about it after that, and they were always just so wonderful to us.”
It was amazing, just getting to go into that studio and do an album special, so I’m glad it’s a Seattle landmark.
“Yeah, it’s a beautiful room, it’s gorgeous.” Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his remarks.