A still beating ‘Heart’: Rock legends to bring ‘Royal Flush’ tour to Rio Rancho with Lucinda Williams

Rock icon Heart is hitting the last run of the “Royal Flush” tour, making a stop in New Mexico on Saturday, March 7. Americana singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams will be joining them.

“We’re playing some smaller towns, more kind of intimate places,” Nancy Wilson, band guitarist, said, “and that’s always really a blast to be able to feel like you’re connecting with people kind of close up.”

Heart announced “Royal Flush” in 2024 but the tour was postponed after lead singer and Wilson’s sister, Ann Wilson, was diagnosed with cancer.

After a short break and her sister “beating the a-- of cancer,” Nancy Wilson said coming back and finishing what they started has felt melancholy but is still an accomplishment.

“(It) feels like a gift to come out and just have big rock parties some more,” she said.

“It’s the stolen moments that you were not sure you would get back and so it’s extra sweet and meaningful.”

The band continues to make music true to the signature sound of Heart of the ’70s, she said.

She said newer music, to her, is missing some of the human element, but she sees it coming back into style.

“The character of what it is we know how to do is further and further from what you commonly hear in new music these days,” Wilson said. 

Wilson said Heart is working on a new album. It will be a mix of music from Ann Wilson’s backing band, Tripsitter, pieces Nancy Wilson wrote with Sue Ennis, and music the Wilson sisters will create together.

Wilson has performed with her sister since the 1970s.

“When we sing together, that’s my favorite thing in the world is that blood harmony thing that happens,” Wilson said.

It is not only the connection with Ann that makes the show special. She said the world is starving for positivity right now and the concerts give audiences a chance to come together and celebrate the good.

“It’s an emotional response we usually generate among ourselves with the audience,” Wilson said.

She said the shows have become multigenerational.

“A lot of the young people are coming out to the Heart shows,” Wilson said. “I think maybe their parents turned them on to our generation, kind of classic rock stuff.”

The band’s first album, “Dreamboat Annie,” recently turned 50, and Wilson said when she first began recording, she hoped the band would put out a few albums. She never could have imagined they would be celebrating the golden anniversary of that first album.

Heart’s music is still reaching new generations of musicians.  “Barracuda” was recently covered by Chappell Roan, who Wilson performed with in 2025.

“I think that’s the ultimate compliment, just to know that some of the songs you made … are still sticking to the ribs of the culture.”

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.