Last month, Ann and Nancy Wilson announced that Heart were going on a reunion tour three years after their bitter split. And last night they finally appeared together in public at the Love Rock benefit show at New York’s Beacon Theater, sharing the bill with Robert Plant, Sheryl Crow and Billy Gibbons, where they played their hits “These Dreams” and “Crazy on You.” You can see fan-shot video of the big moment right here.
The Wilson sisters went their separate ways at the end of their 2016 tour following an ugly incident where Ann’s husband Dean Wetter was arrested for assaulting Nancy’s 16 year-old twin sons. He was upset that they had inadvertently left the door open to a bus backstage at a show in Auburn, Washington and nearly let his dogs loose. “Dean became immediately upset,” read a detractive’s report, “and began calling [one of the teens] names … slap[ping] him on the back of the head, causing pain….[Dean] punch[ed] [the teenager] in the back of the head with a closed fist, causing [him] to be stunned and see stars.” When the other teen tried to defend his brother, Wetter went after him and began squeezing his throat. “[He] could not breathe,” reads the report. “[He] said that he was unable to breathe or talk and that he feared for his life and felt pain in his neck.”
Wetter plead guilty to two non-felony assault charges and avoided jail time, but the episode caused a major rift between Ann and Nancy. “It was something that could have been worked out in a family meeting,” Ann told Rolling Stone. “But instead it just went ballistic. I think it was overblown and just grew this other head.”
Despite what happened, Nancy told Rolling Stone in April 2017 that she hoped they could move beyond it. “I’m an eternal optimist because I’m from a really strong, tight family, and I don’t think any drama that is temporary is going to change our strong relationship,” she said. “We just have to get through this first. It’s been kind of a nightmare.”
The nightmare seemed to end last month when the group announced they were hitting the road on the Love Alive tour alongside Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. “‘Love Alive’ is a song and a sentiment that goes back a long way with us,” Ann said in a statement. “It goes forward too. It is a hopeful, positive and universal vibe like we feel this tour will be.”