Heart frontwoman Ann Wilson has revealed she recently suffered a serious arm injury following her 2024 cancer battle.
“It’s not about cancer, it’s about me being a klutz,” Ann, 74, joked of her injury on her podcast “After Dinner Thinks With Ann Wilson” on Wednesday, March 10.
Ann kicked off her latest Heart reunion tour with sister Nancy Wilson in February, after halting all live performances last year to undergo chemotherapy treatment for cancer.
There has since been speculation among Heart fans about Ann’s health since she’s been seated in a wheelchair with her arm in a sling during live performances. On the latest episode of her podcast, Ann confirmed that she’d injured her left arm five days before Heart’s tour opener on February 28 in Las Vegas.
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“[The injury is a result of] missing a step and falling into a parking lot and busting my elbow in three places,” she recalled. “And then having to have [my elbow] pinned back together with screws and all that kind of stuff. The timing! In other ways, I’m perfectly fine – it’s just I don’t have the use of my left arm right now.”
In light of her injury, Ann felt it was easiest to perform with Heart while seated so she wouldn’t risk re-injuring her elbow.
“I really think the pain level is still way too much to take it out of the sling,” Wilson 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.”
The “Magic Man” singer admitted she was bemused by Heart fans speculating about her medical condition simply because she was using a wheelchair.
“I think it’s looked on as some kind of admission of vulnerability,” she suggested. “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.”
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Ann announced in July 2024 that she was taking a break from touring to recover from the removal of a cancerous tumor.
“The operation was successful & and I’m feeling great but my doctors are now advising me to undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy & I’ve decided to do it,” the musician informed fans via social media at the time. “And so my doctors are instructing me to take the rest of the year away from the stage in order to fully recover.”
In an uplifting September 2024 health update, Ann acknowledged that, while “chemo is no joke,” she was on the road to recovery and would be back on stage in 2025.
“[Chemo] takes a lot out of a person. And then there’s that two weeks of waiting around for test results, a form of mental torture,” she wrote via Instagram. “For anyone who’s been through that, I empathize big time. Luckily, for me, when the results finally came, they were the good kind!”
Ann is doubling down on Heart’s 2024 touring schedule — it was announced this week that her An Evening With Heart Tour this spring and summer will feature the band playing two separate sets. Heart are next scheduled to perform in Phoenix, Arizona at the Footprint Center on Thursday, March 6 and then in West Valley City, Utah at the Maverik Center on Saturday, March 8.
