Rock Legend Performs in Wheelchair, Arm Sling While on Tour

Ann Wilson isn’t letting an injury get in the way of Heart’s Royal Flush Tour. The 74-year-old singer, who fronts the veteran rock band with her sister, guitarist Nancy Wilson, has been spotted performing while seated in a wheelchair and wearing an arm sling during the band’s recent performances.

After fans expressed concern over Wilson’s health, the rocker set the record straight on a recent episode of her After Dinner Thinks With Ann Wilson podcast, clarifying that it has nothing to do with her recent cancer battle.

“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,” Wilson acknowledged. “It’s not about cancer, it’s about me being a klutz.”

Wilson announced in July that that she’d undergone a “successful” procedure to remove a “cancerous” growth and would “undergo a course of preventive chemotherapy.” As the “Barracuda” singer underwent treatment, Heart postponed the remaining dates of their its 2024 North American tour. The tour resumed with a show at the BleauLive Theater in Las Vegas on Feb. 28, just five days after Wilson said she injured her left arm.

Wilson said the injury she is currently sporting is the result of her “missing a step and falling into a parking lot and busting my elbow in three places and then having to have [my elbow] pinned back together with screws and all that kind of stuff. The timing!” She added that she is “perfectly fine – it’s just I don’t have the use of my left arm right now,” which is why she’s using a sling and performing while seated.

“I really think the pain level is still way too much to take it out of the sling,” she said. “So, I chose to sit because then I can just concentrate on singing and not keeping my balance and having somebody out there catching me when I reel to the side.”

Wilson admitted that she was surprised by fans’ reaction, sharing, “I think it’s looked on as some kind of admission of vulnerability,” she theorized. “And we have to look at the person and go, ‘Oh that’s too bad’ and bring negativity into it. It doesn’t have to be that way. No, it’s a great tool. And I’ll be up and out of it after a while.”

Heart’s Royal Flush Tour is set to continue with a performance at West Valley City, Utah’s Maverik Center on Saturday before the band makes stops in Boise, Idaho and Spokane, Washington before heading north for a string of shows in Canada. The rock group will then travel back to the U.S. for performances in New York, Atlantic City, Baton Rouge, and more. The tour is currently set to wrap in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Aug. 27.