In 1975, Watergate came to an end with the sentencing of John Mitchell, H.R. Halderman and John Ehrlichman, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft and a little show called “Saturday Night Live” debuted on NBC. And in September of that year Heart’s debut album “Dreamboat Annie” was released.
Fast forward a half century, and Heart is still around, hitting the road again for their Royal Flush Tour 2025. This string of dates was originally set to be performed last year until lead singer Ann Wilson was diagnosed with cancer. According to sister Nancy Wilson, her sibling underwent the necessary treatment and the band is back to playing live.
“She’s actually really doing 100 percent great — looking good, sounding good, feeling good,” Nancy said. “She really did all the homework and got herself really well. Now it’s back to the loud office, back to the rock job. We’re really happy to get out and finish what we started last year. We were really just getting our million thrills on stage every night and then it was like (sad trombone music). We were getting into our groove big-time until we had to go home and twiddle our thumbs for a few months.”
Among the shows canceled in 2024 was an appearance at the Allentown Fair, which has been rescheduled for Aug. 27, opening night of this year’s five-day event.
Coming out of rehearsals, Heart initially went out on the road with a number of opening acts that change depending on the market — Squeeze, Lucinda Williams and Cheap Trick. Of the latter, Nancy is quick to reminisce about the countless times the two acts have criss-crossed the country together.
“We’ve been out with Cheap Trick multiple years and multiple times playing all kinds of gamey amphitheaters with them for sure,” she said with a laugh. “Hard to forget all those summer nights out in the South with fireflies and bugs on the stage.”
And while the Wilson sisters have to play a slightly shorter set when playing with a special guest opener, they’re now doing some evening-with shows featuring two sets. Given the depth of Heart’s catalog, it allows for a lot of latitude and possibility that really excites Nancy Wilson, particularly the idea of including an unplugged set.
“We’re going to have a real flexible set. We’re starting out with the Royal Flush idea that we ended up with last time which we were doing really well with,” she said. “You could do the rocked out, big hits at the beginning and then do more acoustic, less rock in the second half or something in-between. It’s nice to have all these cool songs to look at, pick from and stuff we haven’t done like ‘How Deep It Goes,’ which is a really pretty song that we’re going to try and do. I might try to do ‘Treat Me Well’ again. That was never done live hardly ever. We love the idea of doing cool rarities people who come see us are going to know or their kids too.”
While both sisters readily admit to The Beatles appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” as a major inspiration for them to become professional musicians, theirs was a household where myriad forms of music filled the air from the big bands of the 1940s to folk and pop of the day.
“Growing up, the culture was kind of in a late ‘50s/jazzy cornball turn for music,” Nancy Wilson recalled. “(Frank) Sinatra was awesome. We grew up on Ray Charles, Judy Garland, Patti Page and all those late ‘50s guys like that. Harry Belafonte’s ‘Live at Carnegie Hall’ was a favorite and we knew all those show tunes from musicals like ‘West Side Story.’ We were deeply steeped in every style of music from blues and jazz to classical and then The Beatles happened. I was maybe eight or nine years old and it was a message from above.”
That cosmic sign set the Wilson sisters on a path that led to 16 studio albums, 20 Top 40 singles and 35 million albums sold worldwide in addition to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. And while it hasn’t been easy, Wilson doesn’t complain and attributes Heart’s longevity to a combination of discipline and being able to laugh at themselves.
“We have a sense of humor around all the insanity, stress, drama and static that comes with the position we have as leaders of the band,” she said. “Leadership is not an easy position to be in and you don’t want to be the leader if you don’t have to, but we are anyway. I think the other thing is just military, dogged, stick-to-it-iveness. Call it a dogged work ethic. Getting there, showing up on time, not being a flakey musician. Being a consummate, reliable and capable musician.”
As for the future, creativity continues to be the fuel that drives Heart forward. Not unlike their heroes in Led Zeppelin, the Wilson sisters love the idea of juxtaposing heavy and light dynamics in their music.
“There is some new material,” Wilson revealed. “Ann has got a new song we might try from her writing with her Tripsitter guys. I have a new song that I want to try maybe with Heart. I’ve tried to push the agenda on the band. Everybody was up for it — an acoustic Heart album being our next idea. That’s one thing as a rock band like Led Zeppelin — we can rock with the best of them — but having the ability to do both of those things, the acoustic part as well as the heavy rock stuff, kind of sets us apart. And people have always asked when we’re going to do an acoustic album. It might be a cool, fun thing to put together.”
Dave Gil de Rubio is a freelance writer.
