Music

Why Was Heart Ever Considered to be a Canadian Band?

If you’ve spent any time at all with classic rock radio in Canada, you’ll have heard countless plays of Heart’s “Barracuda,” “Crazy On You,” “Dreamboat Annie,” “Straight On” and many others.  

Why?  Because of Canadian content rules.  These songs have been important staples in maintaining the quota since the middle 70s.

“Wait,” you’re going to say, “Ann Wilson was born in San Diego.  Nancy was born several years later in San Francisco.  The band was based out of Seattle.  How the hell did they ever qualify as being Canadian?”

Great question.  The Huffington Post wanted to know the same thing. Here’s the answer:

“Ann, my older sister fell in love with a guy Mike Fisher [Heart soundman/manager] who was the brother of the guitar player Roger Fisher,” starts Nancy. “Those guys had a band in Seattle then called White Heart, but Mike Fisher was a draft evader who was living up in Canada. The band had auditioned Ann and were playing with her at the time and Ann fell head over heels in love with Michael, so she ended up leaving home with a backpack and a guitar case hitchhiking up to Vancouver over the border and the band followed her to Vancouver because there’s no singer like that anywhere in the world.”

Based out of Vancouver and unable to cross the border because of Mike’s draft evasion, Heart toured across Canada instead, essentially acting like any other Canadian band. They even billed themselves as Canadian.

There’s more to it, too.  Continue reading.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37969 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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