Ann Wilson

Ann Wilson, lead singer of the rock group Heart, knows how to deal with a declining career. She's had a lot of experience with that problem recently. After five years on top, Heart, which also features her younger sister, Nancy, on guitar and vocals, cooled off badly about four years ago. "It was a slap in the face when we suddenly weren't hot anymore," Ann, 35, said. "With all that money and fame, you can get jaded. Your work suffers. You live for today and don't worry about tomorrow.

Heart is rarely noted as an influence on contemporary female rockers. Not like Chrissie Hynde or the Runaways. But back in the '70s, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson at the band's creative core were forcefully taking on Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith with a blend of hard rock and acoustic torch songs.

With Heart, you have to take the good with the bad: there's the strength of Ann Wilson's power voice, and the annoying cliches of that most manipulative of heavy-pop song-forms, the power ballad. Overall, the balance tilted toward the good Friday night at the Pacific Amphitheatre, where Heart played to a near-capacity crowd. Wilson sang with assurance and splendid control throughout the nearly two-hour concert, and the show's pacing doled out the heavy-ballad syrup in well-spaced dosages.

Take the money and run, or take a risk. Those were options facing Ann and Nancy Wilson when they were setting up a 1999 summer tour. The lucrative option was to reactivate Heart. Resurrecting the Seattle rock band would have been the safer, more profitable choice, given that Heart has sold some 29 million albums worldwide since its 1976 debut, "Dreamboat Annie." Instead, the Wilsons decided to tour for the first time as a stripped-down duo.

For a moment or two, Heart's old Zeppelin-like blend of folk and metal re-emerged from the depths of Evermore at the Wiltern Theatre on Thursday. Too bad the charm of those '70s aesthetics wasn't enough to uplift the overwrought blandness of much of what has come since. The largely acoustic set that opened the two-hour concert was no surprise.

Heart came to the Pacific Amphitheatre last Friday, and it turned out that the band's videos lie. Ann Wilson does have a body, after all. On MTV, Heart's lead singer turns into an incorporeal being. The reason? Wilson has committed a sin that image mongers will not pardon: like a lot of people approaching 40, she has put on weight.

Take the money and run, or take a risk. Those were options facing Ann and Nancy Wilson when they were setting up a 1999 summer tour. The lucrative option was to reactivate Heart. Resurrecting the Seattle rock band would have been the safer, more profitable choice, given that Heart has sold some 29 million albums worldwide since its 1976 debut, "Dreamboat Annie." Instead, the Wilsons decided to tour for the first time as a stripped-down duo.

In 1975, Pink Floyd released a sinister-sounding song about rebellious rockers being co-opted by the music biz and its big wallet. They called it "Welcome to the Machine." Before long, Pat Benatar and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart would be climbing toward extreme riches among the gears and flywheels.

"My experience is that everybody in this audience is an addict of some kind or another," declares Anne Wilson Schaef, unabashedly categorizing about 500 women ministers as users and abusers: Workaholics. Shopaholics. Caffeine addicts. Alcoholics. Co-dependents. Prescription pill poppers. Perhaps all of the above. The women are not offended. Instead, they nod in agreement and cheer her on with frequent applause.

Heart is rarely noted as an influence on contemporary female rockers. Not like Chrissie Hynde or the Runaways. But back in the '70s, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson at the band's creative core were forcefully taking on Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith with a blend of hard rock and acoustic torch songs.

In 1975, Pink Floyd released a sinister-sounding song about rebellious rockers being co-opted by the music biz and its big wallet. They called it "Welcome to the Machine." Before long, Pat Benatar and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart would be climbing toward extreme riches among the gears and flywheels.

For a moment or two, Heart's old Zeppelin-like blend of folk and metal re-emerged from the depths of Evermore at the Wiltern Theatre on Thursday. Too bad the charm of those '70s aesthetics wasn't enough to uplift the overwrought blandness of much of what has come since. The largely acoustic set that opened the two-hour concert was no surprise.

With Heart, you have to take the good with the bad: there's the strength of Ann Wilson's power voice, and the annoying cliches of that most manipulative of heavy-pop song-forms, the power ballad. Overall, the balance tilted toward the good Friday night at the Pacific Amphitheatre, where Heart played to a near-capacity crowd. Wilson sang with assurance and splendid control throughout the nearly two-hour concert, and the show's pacing doled out the heavy-ballad syrup in well-spaced dosages.

"My experience is that everybody in this audience is an addict of some kind or another," declares Anne Wilson Schaef, unabashedly categorizing about 500 women ministers as users and abusers: Workaholics. Shopaholics. Caffeine addicts. Alcoholics. Co-dependents. Prescription pill poppers. Perhaps all of the above. The women are not offended. Instead, they nod in agreement and cheer her on with frequent applause.

Heart came to the Pacific Amphitheatre last Friday, and it turned out that the band's videos lie. Ann Wilson does have a body, after all. On MTV, Heart's lead singer turns into an incorporeal being. The reason? Wilson has committed a sin that image mongers will not pardon: like a lot of people approaching 40, she has put on weight.

Ann Wilson, lead singer of the rock group Heart, knows how to deal with a declining career. She's had a lot of experience with that problem recently. After five years on top, Heart, which also features her younger sister, Nancy, on guitar and vocals, cooled off badly about four years ago. "It was a slap in the face when we suddenly weren't hot anymore," Ann, 35, said. "With all that money and fame, you can get jaded. Your work suffers. You live for today and don't worry about tomorrow.

It was an emotional roller-coaster at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Thursday night in Los Angeles, even more so than usual for the annual event. Consider disco queen Donna Summer , whose husband and three daughters accepted the award for her posthumously, 11 months after the singer and songwriter lost her battle with cancer. Or 80-year-old producer Quincy Jones -- the most nominated Grammy Award winner ever -- who said his induction into the Rock Hall made him feel “that finally, I have arrived.” Also enduring a long wait for recognition was Heart, whose founding sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were finally admitted to what's historically been the boys' club of hard rock music after a decade of eligibility.

So, Ann Wilson of Heart (less) thinks there aren't many women in rock 'n' roll, past or present, who are as good as men ("Ann Wilson and Her Resuscitated Heart," by Dennis Hunt, Aug. 11). Come on, Ann, don't they have radio up there in the boondocks of Canada? Ever hear of Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, Chrissie Hynde Kerr, Annie Lennox, Sheila E., Pat Benatar or Teena Marie, just to name a few? How's 'bout Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin or Linda Ronstadt? Does that ring a bell?