Led Zeppelin is a major influence on Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, so much so the band was chosen to play "Stairway to Heaven" to pay tribute to Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and company at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016. For the performance, the Wilson sisters were joined by Jason Bonham, the son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham, on drums.
However, during a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, the Wilson sisters confirmed that the first time they saw Led Zeppelin perform they walked out because they were offended by Plant's sexually suggestive lyrics in "The Lemon Song." The Howlin' Wolf-inspired 1969 Zep classic, featured on the chart-topping Led Zeppelin II album, famously contains the lyrics, "Squeeze me, baby, till the juice runs down my leg / The way you squeeze my lemon / I'm gonna fall right out of bed."
It happened to be Nancy Wilson's first concert. Stern asked the sisters if the rumor they walked out was true and they confirmed it, saying they saw the show at Seattle's Green Lake Aqua Theatre. Research reveals the gig was on May 11, 1969, so Ann was 19 and Nancy was 15. "But we were just like these little virgins. We were just like, what does that mean? You know, we were sheltered," Ann told Stern.
"He should button that shirt," Nancy added in the voice of a schoolmarm, referring to Plant's tendency to wear his shirts open to his navel.
Although the sisters went on to see Led Zeppelin a few more times and learned to love the legendary British rockers, at that gig, Led Zep wasn't even the band that drew them to the show.
"We were just kids," she explained. "The other bands on the bill were Three Dog Night and the Fifth Dimension and we had gone to see Three Dog Night and Fifth Dimension. And then there's this one final band on. Some English guys," Ann said.
Ann and Nancy Wilson reformed Heart in late 2023 after resolving a family feud that began in 2016, after Ann's husband Dean Wetter was arrested for assaulting Nancy's 16-year-old twin sons.
The band recently launched its Royal Flush U.S. tour, which runs through Sept. 22, with openers Cheap Trick. In between the U.S. dates, the band will head to Europe for a series of shows with Squeeze.
