Awards and honors
* Four Grammy Award nominations* Seven albums in the top 10 of Billboard’s Billboard 200 chart* Eight gold-certified (500,000 sales) and nine platinum-certified (1 million or more sales) albums in the U.S.* 21 singles in the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart* 35 million album sales worldwide* Awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012* Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013* Performed “Stairway to Heaven” for President Barack Obama and members of Led Zeppelin* No. 57 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock list
Heart’s biggest hits
› “Alone” (No. 1, 1987)› “These Dreams” (No. 1, 1986)› “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You” (No. 2, 1990)› “Never” (No. 4, 1985)› “Who Will You Run To” (No. 7, 1987)› “Tell It Like It Is” (No. 8, 1981)› “Magic Man” (No. 9, 1976)› “Nothin’ At All” (No. 10, 1986)› “What About Love” (No. 10, 1985)
For Friends of the Festival's talent and production coordinator Joe "Dixie" Fuller, tonight's headlining performance by Heart at Riverbend is the culmination of more than five years of backroom bargaining and crossed fingers.
"We had made them offers in the past and they could never make up their mind," Fuller says of the Seattle-based band, which was founded in the early 1970s with sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, who still serve as lead vocalist and guitarist.
"It was always a real slow answer coming back," Fuller adds. "We worked on it and worked on it. They weren't sure what they were going to do."
But on Jan. 11, the band finally accepted the festival's bid and signed the contract.
"The same agent we've been making the same offer with all those years managed to get it done right away," Fuller says. "It's pretty cool."
The Riverbend date comes as Heart's career creeps up on its 45th year. In that time, the rockers have earned four Grammy Award nominations and sold more than 35 million albums worldwide, more than 20 million in the U.S. alone, according to Billboard figures.
Heart's catalog includes songs that have become classic rock standards, including "Magic Man," "Crazy On You" and "Barracuda," which was used as a campaign theme song for 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. They've had two No. 1 hits - "These Dreams" in 1986 and "Alone" in 1987 - and an additional eight Top 10s.
The band's music also has been leveraged on the soundtracks for dozens of TV shows, films and video games, including "Glee," "Swingers" and "Guitar Hero."
Even as the decades pile up, Heart has continued to rack up accolades. In 2012 at the 35th annual Kennedy Centre Honors in Washington D.C., the Wilsons performed a rendition of "Stairway to Heaven" in front of President Barack Obama and Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant, who had a tear in his eye after Heart's performance of the song he helped write. The next year, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after years of being passed over.
"[When they started playing,] Joan Jett and Nancy Wilson strutted onto the stage and proudly proclaimed that girls could hit a power chord right alongside Jimmy Page or Ace Frehley any day," wrote Examiner.com's Chris Griffy in a Dec. 30, 2011 profile on perennial Hall of Fame snubs.
For 29-year-old Chattanoogan Hayley Graham, tonight's show comes hot on the heels of when she first heard - and fell in love with - Ann Wilson during her performance as part of Dylan Fest, a 75 birthday party/musical tribute to Bob Dylan.
"She had so much energy and was so much fun to watch," Graham recalls of the concert held May 23-24 in Nashville. "She's like a sparkplug."
As a co-lead vocalist with Amber Fults in local pop/rock group Amber Fults & the Ambivalent Lovers, Graham says she wasn't just impressed with Wilson, she felt a kinship with her as a fellow musician. When the Wilson sisters take the stage tonight, Graham says she thinks her sense of awe will only increase.
"I told my boyfriend [at Dylan Fest], 'If they're half as good as [Ann] is by herself, they'll be awesome,'" Graham says. "I'm really excited about it. I think part of why I really loved it is that I'm in a girl duo so, for me, it's really cool to see women who perform together and who are both really powerful.
"In terms of having a role model for what we do, it's cool to see girl groups that are so big and boisterous."
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.
Heart’s Studio Discography (U.S. sales)
1976 — “Dreamboat Annie” (1 million)1977 — “Little Queen” (3 million)1978 — “Magazine” (1 million)1978 — “Dog and Butterfly” (2 million)1980 — “Bebe le Strange” (500,000)1982 — “Private Audition” (400,000)1983 — “Passionworks” (less than 500,000)1985 — “Heart” (5 million)1987 — “Bad Animals” (3 million)1990 — “Brigade” (2 million)1993 — “Desire Walks On” (500,000)1995 — “The Road Home” (less than 500,000)2001 — “A Lovemongers’ Christmas” (less than 500,000)2004 — “Jupiter’s Darling” (100,000)2010 — “Red Velvet Car” (less than 500,000)2012 — “Fanatic” (less than 500,000)2014 — “Home for the Holidays” (less than 500,000)2016 — “Beautiful Broken” (less than 500,000)
Also on the Coke Stage
Before Heart’s first guitar chord on the Coke Stage at 9:30 p.m., the barge will already have been warmed up with a 6:30 p.m. performance by co-headliner Blood, Sweat and Tears, a contemporary pop and jazz-inflected rock ensemble founded in the late 1960s by ex-Blues Project songwriter Al Kooper. Since then, the band has featured more than a dozen members and, since 2013, has been led by “American Idol” finalist Bo Bice.
If you go
› What: Heart› When: 9:30 p.m. tonight› Where: Coca-Cola Stage