HEART's NANCY WILSON Says Fans 'Have Been Really Supportive' About ANN WILSON Performing In A Wheelchair

In a new interview with Buffalo, New York's WIVB-TV, HEART guitarist Nancy Wilson spoke about the band's recently launched 2025 leg of the "Royal Flush" tour, which sees her sister, HEART singer Ann Wilson, performing while seated in a wheelchair. Nancy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Well, the show's been really rolling out beautifully. Right before we came out, Ann was starting to really be moving and looking and sounding amazingly well after what she endured for the last about eight months, getting over the chemo," referencing the fact that Ann underwent surgery and preventative chemotherapy after announcing her cancer diagnosis in July 2024. "And God bless modern science, I like to say, because she kicked [the cancer's] ass and she was right up there and then managed to…. A couple of days before the first show, she broke her elbow because it was icy in Nashville where we were rehearsing. And so now she's in a chair, but we have to put our photographer friend that travels with us, Criss [Cain], he has to go out and explain before the show, like, 'Okay, she's in a chair, but it's not the big cancer scare. It's simply a broken elbow, a broken arm.' Anyway, so people are with us, and the perception is okay and nobody thinks we're trying to pull one over on anyone. It's just simply a broken arm this time. So, anyway, the shows have been really fun. I always say, keyword 'fun', you guys."

Nancy continued: "The HEART show is pretty diverse and there's big rock, heavy rock and then there's super-powerful romantic ballads and emotional stuff and storytelling and acoustic fireplace moment and then big rock and roll. And there's a video that starts out the show that kind of sets the scene for the decades we've all been through together to come into this new quarter century. So, people have been really amazing and supportive. 'Cause Ann, of course, she's a real perfectionist and if she misses one little thing, it's, like, 'Oh, shit. Oh, no. I failed them.' And it's really beautiful how people are really rooting for her, 'cause she has to sit in a chair while she's singing. And the way she sings, it's not necessarily a chair kind of way of singing, when she belts. And she sounds great even from a chair, but it's really cool that people are just rooting for her to be up and about. And the humanity of it is really… It's, like, you can tell when you come to the HEART show that it's human. We are not a pre-recorded show. We're 100 percent skin in the game. So it's a real thing. We're actually singing and playing, which is, by a lot of today's standards, is kind of unusual anymore. [Laughs]

"Anyway, so expect a really fun, energetic, human, fun-for-the-whole-family kind of rock show," she added.

HEART's "Royal Flush" tour kicked off on February 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The trek is making stops in cities including Milwaukee, Montreal, Toronto, Boston and more before wrapping April 16 in New York City.

Earlier this month, the 74-year-old Ann explained on an episode of her "After Dinner Thinks" podcast why she has been performing in a wheelchair: "I think some people thought that I was in a wheelchair because of cancer, which I just kicked its ass and I'm nice and clear now. It's not about cancer. It's about me being a klutz and missing a step and falling into a parking lot and busting my elbow in three places and then having to have it pinned back together with screws and all that kind of stuff."

Ann added that she doesn't "have the use of my left arm right now," which has proven difficult as she tries to sing while one of her arms is "in a sling. You don't have the same balance," she explained. "So, I had to get used to that. And singing on stage, I really think that the pain level is still way too high for me to take it out of the sling. So I chose to sit because then I can just concentrate on singing and not on keeping my balance and having somebody out there catching me when I reel to the side."

Elsewhere in the podcast episode, Ann said her arm "hurts too much" to stand on stage at the moment, as there's "some pain involved with this injury."

Earlier this month, HEART announced the "An Evening With Heart" spring/summer 2025 U.S. tour. The trek, which will see the band performing two separate sets each night, will kick off May 31 at the Hard Rock in Atlantic City and conclude on June 28 in Hollywood, Florida.

The current members of HEART feature Nancy Wilson (rhythm, lead and acoustic guitar, backing and lead vocals),Ann Wilson (lead vocals and flute),Ryan Wariner (lead and rhythm guitar),Ryan Waters (guitars),Paul Moak (guitars, keyboards and backing vocals),Tony Lucido (bass and backing vocals) and Sean Lane (drums and bike).

In December 2023, HEART played its first three concerts in more than four years — in Highland, California, at Greater Palm Springs in Palm Desert, California, and in Seattle, Washington.

Prior to HEART's December 27, 2023 show in Highland, the band's last performance took place in October 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

HEART toured North America in the summer of 2019 after a nasty split that kept the Wilson sisters estranged for three years.

HEART's 2013 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame saw Ann and Nancy reunited with the four musicians who helped HEART achieve its initial success in the mid-1970s — guitarist Roger Fisher, bassist Steve Fossen, drummer Michael DeRosier and longtime guitarist-keyboardist Howard Leese.

The Wilson sisters' reunion with HEART's original lineup at the Rock Hall ceremony marked the first time the group played together in 34 years.

When Ann and Nancy formed HEART, the idea of two women leading a rock band was still groundbreaking. From the moment 1975's "Dreamboat Annie" was released, they became stars. With hits like "Magic Man", "Crazy On You", "Barracuda", "Alone", "What About Love" and "These Dreams", the band became one of the biggest hit-makers in the Seventies and Eighties, selling more than 35 million records. In 2012, their memoir "Kicking & Dreaming: A Story Of Heart, Soul And Rock & Roll" became a New York Times bestseller.