HEART Announces First Tour In Five Years; CHEAP TRICK And SQUEEZE To Support

HEART will return to the road for the first time in five years this spring on the "Royal Flush" tour. The trek, which will kick off April 20 in Greenville, South Carolina, will feature CHEAP TRICK as support on most of the North American leg, while SQUEEZE will open a handful of HEART's summer European dates. HEART will also join DEF LEPPARD and JOURNEY for three previously announced summer stadium shows in Cleveland, Toronto and Boston and will make an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival on April 28.

"The exceptional talent of the band brings a whole new level of energy to HEART's live performance," HEART's Ann Wilson says. Nancy Wilson adds: "I am incredibly proud of the show that our band has crafted and am looking forward to reconnecting with our fans."

A ticket pre-sale for Citi cardholders begins tomorrow (Tuesday, January 30) at 10 a.m. local time. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, February 2 at 10 a.m. local time through HEART's web site.

HEART 2024 tour dates:

Apr. 20 - Greenville, SC - Bon Secours Wellness ArenaApr. 22 - Savannah, GA - Enmarket ArenaApr. 25 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live *Apr. 26 - Tampa, FL - Amalie ArenaApr. 28 - New Orleans - New Orleans Jazz & Heritage FestivalMay 01 - San Antonio, TX - Frost Bank Center (special guest TBD)May 03 - Thackerville, OK - Lucas Oil Live at WinStar World Casino and Resort *May 04 - Tulsa, OK - BOK CenterMay 07 - Indianapolis, IN - Gainbridge FieldhouseMay 10 - Atlanta, GA - State Farm ArenaMay 11 - Charlotte, NC - Spectrum CenterMay 13 - Baltimore, MD - CFG Bank ArenaMay 15 - Columbus, OH - Schottenstein CenterMay 17 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate ArenaMay 18 - Louisville, KY - KFC Yum! CenterMay 21 - Detroit, MI - Little Caesars ArenaMay 23 - Pittsburgh, PA - PPG Paints ArenaMay 24 - Atlantic City, NJ - Hard Rock Live *June 22 - Berlin, DE - UberEats Music HallJune 24 - Stockholm, SE - Grona LundJune 25 - Helsinki, FI - Ice HallJune 27 - Oslo, NO - Tons of Rock FestivalJune 30 - Clisson, FR - HellfestJuly 01 - London, UK - The O2 %July 03 - Birmingham, UK - Utilita Arena Birmingham %July 05 - Nottingham, UK - Capital FM Arena %July 06 - Manchester, UK - AO Arena %July 08 - Leeds, UK - First Direct Arena %July 09 - Glasgow, UK - OVO Hydro %July 11 - Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU - RockhalJuly 12 - Weert, NL - Bospop FestivalJuly 30 - Cleveland, OH - Progressive Field **Aug. 01 - Ottawa, ON - Canadian Tire CentreAug. 02 - Toronto, ON - Rogers Centre **Aug. 05 - Boston, MA - Fenway Park **Aug. 07 - Quebec City, QC - Videotron CentreAug. 08 - Montreal, QC - Bell CentreAug. 10 - Albany, NY - MVP ArenaAug. 11 - Buffalo, NY - KeyBank CenterAug. 13 - Cincinnati, OH - Heritage Bank CenterAug. 15 - Milwaukee, WI - Fiserv ForumAug. 16 - Hinckley, MN - Grand Casino Hinckley Amphitheater *Aug. 18 - Lincoln, NE - Pinnacle Bank ArenaAug. 21 - Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel ArenaAug. 23 - Charleston, WV - Charleston ColiseumAug. 24 - Knoxville, TN - Thompson Boling Arena at Food City CenterAug. 27 - Norfolk, VA - Scope ArenaSep. 17 - Portland, OR - Moda CenterSep. 20 - West Valley City, UT - Maverik CenterSep. 22 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre

* = An evening with** = with DEF LEPPARD and JOURNEY% = support from SQUEEZE

HEART performed during the first intermission of the National Hockey League (NHL) game between the Seattle Kraken and the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Park on January 1, 2024 in Seattle, Washington.

Ann and Nancy Wilson, along with their backing musicians, consisting of four members of Ann's band TRIPSITTER — guitarist Ryan Wariner, bassist Tony Lucido, guitarist/keyboardist Paul Moak and drummer Sean Lane — plus guitarist Ryan Waters, who was in HEART's 2019 touring lineup, played the classic HEART songs "Barracuda" and "Magic Man". Also appearing at the event was Sir Mix-A-Lot, who performed "Jump On It".

Last month, 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 show in Highland, the band's last performance took place in October 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In a recent interview with the 96.1 KLPX radio station, Ann Wilson, who has been working on solo projects, and in September of this year released the album "Another Door", billed as ANN WILSON & TRIPSITTER, stated about HEART's reunion concerts: "We're gonna see how it works with the HEART thing, whether it feels like a level up. If it does feel like a level up, then we'll keep doing it. But that's what it has to be. It can't just slide down into jukebox time… It's gotta be real. No going through the motions. No phoning it in. No just getting on some kind of circuit just to take people's money and play the old songs again and again and again. No, we're gonna make it cool, really make it cool."

Ann's sister, HEART guitarist Nancy Wilson made a surprise appearance during Ann's concert on October 10, 2023 in Santa Rosa, California.

Nancy joined her sister and TRIPSITTER on stage at the Luther Burbank Center For The Arts in Nancy's hometown to perform the HEART classic "Barracuda".

Last June, Nancy revealed in an interview with Joe Rock of Long Island, New York's rock station 102.3 WBAB that she was working on fresh music with Ann. The 69-year-old musician, who has spent some of the recent months on tour with her new band NANCY WILSON'S HEART, broke the news of her latest collaboration with Ann while discussing some of her current recording projects, including "Tomboy", which involves covering songs written by her male friends.

"I think right now I've been working on 'Tomboy' the most because I love the title, for one thing; it's almost like 'boy genius' or something," she explained. "But I've got a bunch of new ideas for songs. But I've also been writing new music with Ann too. So it's a real creative time. I think being on the tour right now, when I get home, I'm gonna really dig into the other projects, including finishing some new material with Ann. So it's really a good time to be creative. And I've got a new studio in my house, and so I can't wait to sort of run tape on stuff."

Asked if there is anything that she feels is really exciting because she feels it's something that's so different from what she's done before, Nancy said: "Yeah. Some of the stuff I've been working on with Ann is like that. I've also worked a bit with Sue Ennis, who used to work a lot with me and Ann for HEART music. And so I have some lyrics mainly that I worked on with Sue and took to Ann. And there's a couple of things that I'm really excited about. Very cool. Like stuff that you wouldn't have heard us do in the '80s. [It's] closer to what you would have heard us originally do in the '70s, late '70s. So it's really fun. It's just exciting and inspiring."

Nancy went on to say that she is really pleased to be collaborating on new material with her sister. "It's been a really nice kind of rediscovery of our relationship, working on music together again," she said. "So, yeah, I'm really happy about that."

Last April, Ann denied rumors of a rift with Nancy. In an interview in the 300th issue of Classic Rock, Ann said that she was "not" feuding with her younger sister. "It's a myth," she insisted. "Nancy and I are okay with each other. We just have different ideas for what HEART should be, and we haven't figured out a compromise yet.

"Fifty years on, I still want it to break barriers and rules, and she's more satisfied to ride the L.A. imaging thing and just do legacy stuff," Ann explained. "So that's a real split between us. Things like this will happen, though, but then they'll get better, and we'll love each other more."

Relations between the two sisters were considered to be at an all-time low after a much-publicized incident when Ann's husband was arrested during a HEART tour in 2016. But in an interview with Rock Candy magazine to coincide with the release of her solo album "Fierce Bliss", Ann said: "Things happen in families. And that was a really good example of something that happened within a family, and we worked it out. But the part that made it hard was that it happened in the public eye. If it had happened privately, we'd have got the family in a room and sat down and worked it out between us. Instead, the police were called, and this myth was born that Nancy and I were feuding, and we were at each other's throats all the time. And it's really not like that at all."

A proposed HEART tour fell through in 2022 after the two sisters failed to agree on which backing band to use. Ann wanted her guys, Nancy didn't.

In February 2022, Nancy spoke to Joe Rock about why HEART had been inactive for most of the previous three years.

"HEART had a big offer on the table [in 2021] for a bigger tour, but Ann wasn't interested in going out with my lineup of guys that we were out with before," she said. "She has a new lineup of guys that she wanted me to join up with. And I sort of [thought] I don't really know them and don't have loyalty yet for anybody like that."

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

Ann and Nancy had a falling out during HEART's 2016 tour, when Ann's husband Dean Welter was arrested for assaulting Nancy's then-16-year-old twin sons in a backstage altercation at a gig near their hometown of Seattle. He pleaded guilty to two lesser assault charges to avoid jail time.

After completing HEART's 2016 tour, Nancy formed a new band called ROADCASE ROYALE and released an album, "First Things First". ROADCASE ROYALE featured three members of HEART along with Liv Warfield from Prince's NEW POWER GENERATION band and her guitarist Ryan Wilson.

In Nancy's new band NANCY WILSON'S HEART, she is joined in the group by her longtime collaborators, guitarist Ryan Waters, drummer Ben Smith, bassist Andy Stoller and keyboardist Dan Walker, along with powerhouse singer Kimberly Nichole.

Photo credit: Criss Cain