![]() ![]() “I wasn’t about to go and do medicine!” Sinatra describes herself as a force in high school. “It was all I knew anyway,” she says, laughing. From there, Nancy’s sights were set on performance. As Frank’s solo career catapulted forward, the family moved to California. Sinatra was the first child born to Frank and his wife Nancy (nee Barbato) in Jersey City in 1940. Sinatra performs for US troops in Vietnam. At least I was true to my beliefs and to the people I was concerned about.” “When there were get-togethers with current hot musicians they did not treat me as an equal. “That would have been disheartening for them.” She was ostracised for it by her contemporaries. “It was important to be supportive of the people who were stuck in that war, and not go against what they were doing,” she says. Sinatra says she could have made music like Baez’s socially conscious folk, but chose to stick to pop. “It was more about fun than what Joan Baez was doing,” she says of her performances, with a hint of resentment. These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ was a No 1 hit and had become an anthem for the troops. ![]() ![]() In 19, Sinatra travelled to Vietnam to perform for the US military. In those days you got married to have sex, sadly Entertainment was my thing.” I was old-fashioned. “There wasn’t much I could do about that. Sinatra recalls that the fun spirit and feeling of joy that accompanied the beginning of the 60s suddenly descended into fighting talk. Ironically, those who would politicise her songs now would have been the first to decry her music for its lack of political edge at the height of the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement. Nancy Sinatra’s 1966 hit, These Boots Were Made For Walkin’, taken up as an anthem for the Women’s March in the US. “I guess they think it represents a good time of my life,” she says. The collection spans her solo releases, rarities and classics from her first two albums with her former collaborator Lee Hazlewood, the songwriter who changed her future. She lost her second husband, Hugh Lambert, to cancer when he was 55, and their daughters, Amanda and AJ, now gently compel their mother to work – her new archival release Nancy Sinatra: Start Walkin’ 1965-1976 is their project alongside the US independent label Light in the Attic. “It’s a long time to be alone,” she says. Her family celebrated her 80th birthday in June, but outside, adhering to social distancing. Due to Covid-19, she has been isolated since March 2020. Sinatra is widowed, lives by herself and admits to feeling depressed “about everything”. “I’ll never forgive the people that voted for him, ever. “I couldn’t believe that this great nation had sunk so low,” she says. It crossed my mind to move to another country.” The last four years, though, have taken a toll on her mental health. ![]() I don’t know what I would have done if Biden had lost. Throughout his presidential term, Sinatra has advocated for progress on climate change, women’s rights and healthcare, and believes that Biden will change the US for the better. Trump blasted out My Way again this month as he boarded Air Force One for the last time. Photograph: Amanda Erlinger/Courtesy of Boots Enterprises Inc ‘I hope we can get back to the freedoms we enjoy’ … at home in Palm Springs, Jan 2021. ![]()
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