Nancy Wilson might have blushed the first time she heard “The Lemon Song.”
Appearing on the 100 Guitarists podcast for its Jan. 7 episode, the Heart icon reminisced about her first live experience seeing Led Zeppelin and being both awed and scandalized by guitarist Jimmy Page.
Nancy, now 70, recalled first hearing Led Zeppelin at a high school party in a friend’s basement, where the band’s music blared from a turntable and speakers.
“It was dark, and people were making out, and there was smoke in the air and some booze,” she shared, describing the scene as the “coolest den of iniquity.” The soundtrack to the moment? Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” which she remembered as “blasting on the stereo.”
A Live Encounter with Led Zeppelin
Nancy revealed that her first encounter with Led Zeppelin’s music had actually been earlier that same year when the band opened at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1977.
Reflecting on the performance, she described Jimmy Page, now 81, as “suggestive” with his shirt open to reveal his bare chest and wearing low-rider jeans. “He was moving in a way that was so suggestive,” she noted.
At the time, Nancy and her sister, Ann Wilson, were “square little hippie chicks” from the suburbs who were, in her words, “unenlightened.”
The tipping point came during Led Zeppelin’s performance of the 1969 track “The Lemon Song.”
“He sang about like ‘squeeze my lemon,’ and we’re like, ‘Oh, we must leave, we must leave the premises,’ because we were just shocked,” Nancy recounted, referring to the song’s risqué lyrics. “So, we actually walked out on Led Zeppelin at the Green Lake Aqua Theater.”
A Surprising Connection
Nancy and Ann had attended the event to see The 5th Dimension, unaware that Led Zeppelin was the opening act. “We were scandalized, and we walked away,” Nancy admitted.
Later, in her high school friend’s basement, Nancy realized the band playing over the speakers was the same one they had seen at the Green Lake Aqua Theater.
When asked if they returned to hear The 5th Dimension after their hasty departure from Page’s performance, Nancy confirmed they had. “We did go back after grabbing some corn dogs,” she said with a laugh.
Heart’s 2025 Tour Plans
Heart, led by Nancy, Ann, and their bandmates, recently extended their Royal Flush Tour into 2025. This announcement follows Ann’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, marking a triumphant return to the stage.
The tour will take the band to 24 cities between February and April, with stops in major locations like Las Vegas, Toronto, and New York City.
Nancy’s journey, from walking out on Led Zeppelin as a shocked teenager to becoming a rock legend herself, continues to captivate fans worldwide.