KICKING AND DREAMING

Shared memoir by the Wilson sisters, driving forces behind the band Heart and pioneers of the hard-rock scene for countless female musicians.

"We never took up that cause on purpose—it was accidental, or at best the fate we were born to," writes Wilson. "We were naive, young, and unwilling to believe that we couldn't do something just because we were females." The sisters were part of a very musical family. Both parents were accomplished musicians who always had opera, jazz, folk or country music playing. The family, including older sister Lisa, would sing together on road trips. Ann received a guitar while home sick from school for several weeks, but it was Nancy, four years younger, who took to it. When they saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, the sisters knew they wanted to be rock stars. As teenagers, Ann and Nancy performed together for family, friends and eventually small crowds. They were hooked. Since the 1970s, Heart has had top-10 hits in four different decades and sold more than 35 million records. With the help of Cross (Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls, 2009, etc.), the sisters take turns describing the highs and lows of being females in a male-dominated world, the loves that led them to write "Magic Man" and "Barracuda," the joys of motherhood and partying with rock legends. "When I first auditioned for Heart and sat in with my sister's band back in those Vancouver cabarets, I never imagined that I was signing up for a life under the microscope," writes Nancy Wilson. "Seeing my personal failures highlighted in the press was a price of fame, but it was a steep cost.”

An interesting duet that details precisely how women truly rock.