He had never been on a motorcycle before, but he bought himself one and got on it and started riding with me because he knew how I loved them. She admits that Smith, who passed away in 2017, “wasn’t thrilled that I loved so much,” but she adds, “This is how smart he was. And it’s not the only Harley in her life-the singer also has a 19-year-old cat named after the motorcycle manufacturer-a gift from her late husband of 50 years, Roger Smith. And of course, coming to America, I have those memories, and that never went away, that thing of being on top of a motorcycle.”Īnn-Margret has been cruising around on two wheels ever since, effusively describing her lavender Harley-Davidson decorated with tiny white daisies as “shining brilliantly” in the sun during our conversation. “You look to the right, and it was the mountains. The road they would travel cut through the region’s stunning countryside, she recalls. And Valsjöbyn was 10 minutes away from Norway, so my uncle would take me on these great rides to Norway,” she explains. “My uncle, my mother’s brother, had a big motorcycle. Growing up in Valsjöbyn, Sweden, before moving to the States, she was “taught to curtsy when I met someone, to curtsy when I said thank you, and that was different from everybody here.” She says with a laugh, “I certainly found that out!” But even with such a prim and proper upbringing, the actor confesses that she always had a taste for adventure. But the lifelong motorcyclist admits that she wasn’t always such a daredevil.

The cover of Born to Be Wild features an image of Ann-Margret from the ’60s astride a Triumph motorcycle, as she was once the face of the brand. “I’m thrilled everybody wanted to do something.

“I had a great time doing it,” she tells Vanity Fair. For the project, the Bye Bye Birdie star teamed up with some of the music industry’s biggest names, like Pat Boone, the Who’s Pete Townshend, and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, to record old standards that she’s always wanted to perform onstage, but never had the chance to. At 81 years old, the film and music icon shows no signs of slowing down as she’s just released her new album, Born to Be Wild.

Margret rey