“It’s embarrassing to be American now.” Heart’s Nancy Wilson hits out at America’s “salacious billionaire culture” and says it’s embarrassing to be an American in 2025

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Heart‘s Nancy Wilson has spoken out against what she sees as the “salacious billionaire culture” in America, and stated her belief that it’s “embarrassing” to be American in 2025.

The guitarist’s comments, which are likely to provoke some interesting responses, came in a new interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as reported by Ultimate Classic Rock.

During the interview, Wilson was asked about Heart’s 1975 single Crazy On You, which her sister Ann Wilson wrote as a response to America’s involvement in Vietnam.

“We were kind of embarrassed at that time to call ourselves American because of the dirty politics of the Vietnam War,” Nancy Wilson recalls. “To be as subtle as possible, it’s more embarrassing now.”

Wilson then goes on to talk about how the band’s best known song, 1977 hit Barracuda, which concerns “a real sleazeball with a satin jacket” is more relevant than ever in 2025, “in the salacious billionaire culture with the grab-them-by-the-pussy mentality.”

Asked by journalist Piet Levy if she finds it infuriating that the sexism documented in Barracuda is still prevalent today, Wilson responds, “I think for women in the culture the pendulum will come back again, and there’ll be another renaissance in the arts to push back against the oppression of the cranky old rich white guys. I hope I am alive to see that next revolution.”

Heart are currently on tour in the US with Cheap Trick, the Wilson sisters having long since buried the animosity that kept them apart at the start of the decade.

“It feels sweeter than ever,” says Wilson. “No matter what static or drama swirls around us that is like a hurricane, we are the center, the calm eye of the story. We have this beautiful space that we occupy just with each other at the center.”

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.