Heart’s Nancy Wilson has launched her custom designed ‘Epiphone Fanatic’ guitar, her first Epiphone signature guitar and her second guitar overall with Gibson.
Nancy told MetalTalk: “In the midst of the distant 80’s, I was approached by Gibson to design a signature model. I put pencil to paper to first design the body shape and chose a curvy female diminutive silhouette for the cut away.
“Many years later, the body shape remains exact and the hardware I requested makes the Fanatic a solid citizen amongst the great Rock guitar screamers.”
The guitar features a classic Nighthawk shaped mahogany body and a figured maple veneer top and is equipped with ProBucker™ humbuckers, a 5-way pickup selector switch, a fast-playing rounded C profile mahogany neck with an Ebony fretboard and an attractive Fireburst Gloss finish and hardshell case.
In the video below, Nancy discusses the creation of the new Epiphone Nancy Wilson Fanatic.
Krista Gilley, Brand Director of Epiphone and Kramer told us: “We are proud to present the exclusive, Nancy Wilson Fanatic guitar to the world. It is such an honour to work with Nancy, an icon who has been instrumental and influential to generations of players around the world.
“She has paved the way for female musicians to believe in their passion, talent and in their music, and that comes with an obligation for all of us at Epiphone to pay tribute to Nancy.”
First Solo Album
In April 2021, Nancy will release her debut solo album, tentatively called ‘The Lab’. The lead single is a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Rising’, which can been seen below.
Nancy told Rolling Stone: “Under the conditions we’re all living in now, this song is something that might help people. It is a spiritual song and a call to a greater good, a human condition that is bigger than we are. As humans are picked off by this crazy invisible enemy [COVID-19], we are trying to rise up above it and take some kind of comfort in our own spirituality.”
While Nancy had no intention of recoding a solo album this year, with the pandemic killing live shows, she began amassing songs just to keep herself busy. “I am not going to sit here and do a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. I needed to have a purpose and I needed to be creative.”
The album features a number of collaborations, including Sammy Hagar, Duff McKagan and Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters).
