One of the signature things about Heart was the acoustic guitar in a rock format, which you didn't hear that often.
There have never been a lot of female guitarists out there, so most of my influences were male. Acoustically, I followed Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. Also, John Lennon and Paul McCartney - both incredible acoustic guitar players.
I have a favorite blue Telecaster. It's an old '60-something, which I play at every show. That's probably my favorite all-around stage guitar.
We were wild-eyed hippies from the late '60s. We still had the exuberance of the mind-expanding '60s - that Tolkienesque, Zeppelin, androgynous, wood nymph, forest fairy kind of innocence. It sounds stupid now, but we felt we were changing the world with music.
We had the idea as women that we could walk into music and be good at it and be as good as any man and have a career in it without being taken advantage of. So basically, those things came true. The obstacle course was just more difficult than we ever anticipated. We were optimistic and very naive.
We really had boundless optimism about the place of music in the culture - and in the world.
I have endless admiration for people like Chrissie Hynde who've been out as the only girl in a band. I'm not sure that, even as a little Marine Corps brat, I would've been able to deal with that.
With 'Brigade,' we sort of decided to kind of revamp ourselves and put on the military garb and become more of a fighting unit, you know, like the title of the album, and sort of fight for it.
I think it's important to be kind of brutally honest without making anyone else feel bad in any way, if possible.
I'm a chameleon when it comes to guitar playing and like to stretch out into different territories.
One night, I remember being really sick in bed with chills and a fever when Ann came in all excited and said, 'I have these lyrics! Let me read them to you!' They were the lyrics to 'Crazy on You,' and in my fever haze I said, 'Yeah! Those are really good!'
I was always so jealous of a band like Fleetwood Mac, for instance, where Christine McVie would sing a whole bunch of songs even though Stevie was the obvious lead singer. It added variety to their shows.
We get notes sent to us backstage from college students that say, 'My parents used to play your albums all the time! I grew up with you, and I love the new stuff.'
The '80s was an interesting, confining time for songwriters, so we were just sort of riffing in our own language, off to the side.
I love singing, and whenever I can sing some more vocal leads, I always covet the chance.
I've always been a little bit in the background as a singer and even as an acoustic-guitar player, although I crank it up and rock with my Marshall stacks, too.
I feel like I've had a lot of painful situations that I intentionally delete from my memory.
The electric guitar was a big step for me, but I didn't spend a lot of time trying to adjust. It wasn't like, 'Hey, little lady, come strap on this here big guitar.' We took it in steps as much as possible.
I really like the Budda head with a big Orange cabinet with Celestion 30 speakers and my '63 Fender Telecaster.
'Barracuda' is very fun to play because it's like a galloping steed of a rock song.
