Jeremy Danger
Nancy Wilson will perform with Styx this week at Venetian.
Monday, Jan. 24, 2022 | 2 a.m.
In 2017, classic rockers Styx came back to Las Vegas for a series of concerts at Venetian with guest star Don Felder of the Eagles, a successful combo onstage that allowed fans to enjoy some of their favorite songs written and recorded by both beloved acts.
In 2022, it’s happening again, but this time Styx is joining forces with legendary guitarist and singer Nancy Wilson of Heart. Imagine the possibilities: “These Dreams” mingling with “Renegade,” “Barracuda” leading into “Come Sail Away.”
“We’ve both been big touring bands since the late ’70s and although we played some of the same shows along the way, I didn’t really run into those guys,” Wilson says of Styx. “But I know they’re great people, and our manager has been their manager for a while. When they did the [shows with Don Felder], it kind of turned into something great and different, so our management was like, you should do it.”
Wilson and Styx will perform at the Venetian Theatre January 28 and 29 and February 2, 4 and 5, with tickets and information available at venetianlasvegas.com.
Wilson says the plan calls for her to join the band to do some Heart songs in the middle of the set, then she’ll stick around and play guitar for at least one Styx song. Kimberly Nichole, a talented singer who appeared on “The Voice,” will be performing as well.
“She’ll do the honors on the big stuff like ‘Barracuda’ and ‘What About Love,’ and I’ll sing ‘These Dreams,’” Wilson says. “She’s insanely good and she’s going to help me out on the banshee kind of stuff. I love singing but I can’t sing like that.”
Vocal duties on those memorable, full-spectrum songs have traditionally been handled, of course, by Wilson’s sister Ann, considered one of the most powerful rock singers of all time. The two sisters toured together as Heart as recently as 2019, but there aren’t any plans at this time to reunite under that banner for any live shows or recordings.
Nancy has performed just a handful of times since the pandemic set in, with that regular touring Heart band plus Nichole, while Ann has been performing with other players.
“It’s pretty trick with Heart these days. There was an offer on the table for this year, but it was ignored,” Nancy says. “I was ready to go out but I guess it was not taken seriously. I think communication just kind of broke down. We’ll see where we get to.”
In the meantime, she’s staying busy with the Styx gigs and continuing her other career as a music writer and composer for films, something Wilson began after marrying director Cameron Crowe in 1986; the couple divorced in 2010. On the horizon is perhaps the most exciting film project of Wilson’s musical career: a Heart biopic.
“There’s a movie about Heart in the works and we’re polishing it up right now. It’s a pretty great script and we’re pitching it to Amazon,” she says. “I’m just saying, if this film gets made, I’m definitely the scoring artist. It involves our lives in Heart as sisters and musicians and survivors. It’s about going through life, not just the big performance stuff, but all the personal stuff, the trials and tribulations and trying to stay afloat in the unruly world of rock and roll.”
