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Five years after her last concert tour, what Nancy Wilson calls “Real Hart” is hitting the road with herself and her sister Ann Wilson — and for Hart, with her 2016 album “The Real Heart.” He is now looking to create new music for the first time since “Beautiful Broken.” 2016.
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“What we really want to accomplish is probably write some more stuff together,” Anne told Billboard. But she added: “We don't have any plans for that right now. We're not planning too far into the future. We're not calculating that way. We're going to do this tour and see what happens. We'll see if it happens. But I think if it's a song that comes out of a certain situation, it's going to be really good because it's going to be authentic. It's just a matter of me and Nancy figuring it out.”
However, there is one new song that Hart is working on. “Roll the Dice” was written with longtime collaborator and Lovemongers groupmate Sue Ennis and will be included at shows on the Royal Flush Tour, which begins April 20 in Greenville, South Carolina. want to be. It started when Nancy and Ennis “got together just to write songs,” and is still “in the works.” We often text each other and discuss concept ideas, title ideas, lyric ideas. When she finally came to visit me at my house in Northern California, we spent about a week together and actually recorded some demos. ”
There are no plans yet for “Roll the Dice” other than to perform it at shows, but Nancy has been rummaging through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group's coffers and listening to unreleased songs with the idea of releasing some of them. Told. Also in the near future. “There are some unfinished business that I want to finish with Anne and Sue,” she says. “I have a really, really cool song called 'Sweet Deceiver,' but I never recorded it properly because the words were never right. You might want to finish that song. Listen to the demo. I've been thinking of new chorus lyrics ever since. I want to write new things as well.
“If we had one or two songs that came from the heart, that would be really great. These days, it's more like one song at a time, but it's great to still be able to make a whole album. I love the album,” she added. “When I can play the entire album in its intended order, that’s the best for me. The New Kacey Musgraves [Deeper Well] It's really amazing. I love Post Malone's album “Austin.” Taylor Swift's stuff is great. So let's take a look. ”
Meanwhile, the Wilsons are pleased to have Hart back on the road with a mostly new line-up of members. Guitarist Ryan Waters was the only one on the group's last tour in 2019, but he and his trip-sitter bandmates (guitarist Ryan Wariner, guitarist/keyboardist Paul Mauk, bassist Tony Lucido, and drummer Sean T. Lane) has been working with Anne during that time. The sisters are planning a no-covers setlist this time around, focusing on what Nancy calls “songs that mean a lot to a lot of people: heart songs that they know and love, and the soundtrack of people's lives.” It focuses on things that are also true.
“What I love about Hart and what I miss about Hart is the musical flexibility of the band itself,” she says. “We could be a Led Zeppelin cover band if we wanted to. Or we could be a full comedy routine band if we wanted to. We do all kinds of great covers. We were able to make it, but this time we are all going to make it.”
Anne adds: The whole idea is to do something we've never done before…just a set of Heart music from different eras of the band. ”
Meanwhile, the immersion offered an unexpected perspective on Hart's nearly 50-year recording career.
“I've always been so busy playing songs or just trying to perform well on stage that I don't think I've been able to really understand the true meaning of some songs until now,” Anne explained. do. “At rehearsal the other day, they were practicing “The Dog and the Butterfly,'' and I sat there and thought it was so beautiful and the emotion was so wonderful and beautiful and tender that even before I sang anything, I burst into tears right away.” That was amazing. “
The sisters admit they still have some differences in their personal views on what Heart is and should be, but they will take the band on tour in North America and Europe for the remainder of 2024. I found enough common ground. In addition to appearances with Cheap Trick, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening, and Randy Bachman's BTO, he played three stadium shows this summer supporting Def Leppard and Journey.
“We're okay together. We just felt it, so why not?” Ann says. “The common denominator is that we both want it to be great, and we both want it to be completely heart-to-heart.” Nancy, who starred in Heart, added, “There's been so much going on situationally since 2019…a lot of it was just family drama.” It's inevitable, and it's all the things people wanted to do besides Hart. So, we haven't done our thing for a while, and there was also a little interruption called the pandemic.
“And, you know, I just won a big 7-0.” [on March 16]So I'm like, 'Oh…if I want to do this amazingly fun thing again, now's the time.' ”
That said, one Nancy wouldn't mind if Hart's reopening lasted even longer than currently planned.
“I think this situation will continue for at least the rest of the year, if not longer. My fingers are crossed,” she says. “I don't know if it runs like a well-oiled machine, but once it starts, it runs smoothly and steadily like a well-oiled machine, and that's the fun part. ” The show can be so uplifting and transcendent, the electric energy is incredible. That's why we're here.
“We built this train,” she added. “We're putting the wheels on, putting it on the truck, and let's see how fast things go and how far we can go.”