It's hard to know what the stronger force was, in 1972: the running away or the running toward.
That's what the entire cast of bandmates of Heart did, when the Vietnam War came calling for one of their players. Brothers Mike and Roger Fisher, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, and Steve Fossen took turns departing their hometown of Seattle and pulling into the town that would be their home for the next six years or so, Vancouver.
The impression the B.C. city made on them all was a strong one. On their most recent album Fanatic, the song Rock Deep talks about the affection and gratitude they felt at the time for their adopted community.
They came across the border as much more than draft dodgers; they were seasoned rockers who were on the cusp of blowing a hole in the music world. All they needed was a recording studio.
What happened next is the stuff of VH1 documentaries and Rolling Stone features. Heart discovered an upstart recording warehouse called Mushroom Studios and the accompanying Mushroom Records distribution company. They recorded the album Dreamboat Annie there. And Heart - with Ann and Nancy Wilson at the forefront - skyrocketed.
That's the summarized version, of course. The band had famous legal difficulties with the record company; there were the always present artistic struggles any songwriting group goes through; there were personnel changes, and since some bandmates were also dating at the time, there was a gooey mess under the music.
It might have helped that Mushroom was young and ambitious as a company at the time, and Heart represented their best-ever chance at success, so they worked hard together to achieve their goals.
It might also have helped that about then was when the federal government enacted Canadian content laws for radio stations (one-third of all songs on Canadian radio stations must be Canuck material) so those transplanted Americans were at the front of the radio line in their adopted nation.
But what helped the most was sheer talent. Ann Wilson to this day is regarded as one of the foremost power-rock voices in pop music history, in the same breath as Journey's Steve Perry or The Guess Who's Burton Cummings or Queen's Freddie Mercury.
Sister Nancy Wilson was a heckuva singer, too, and could also stickhandle the strings like a guitar Gretzky.
What didn't help, however, was swimming against the gender current. When Heart clanged through the door plugged into Marshall stacks instead of cuddling people up for an acoustic kumbaya or a sweet string section, there were precious few peers. Janis Joplin, Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, it gets thin after that with girls who could growl.
With Heart coming to northern B.C. during the week of International Women's Day, Ann Wilson looked back on that time and said it was indeed a gut-wrenching experience to fight through the real and palpable prejudice that existed then. She told The Citizen that fans would, without exaggeration, come up to Nancy after shows and ask her if her guitar was even plugged in.
"If there was a shift, it wasn't felt, I don't think, until the early '90s," said Ann. "There were a lot of people trying for it in their garages before then, but the record industry and the radio used to be hesitant to play too many female artists in one hour. It took a long time for that to open up. Women in the '70s and '80s still had to contend with the sexual gender biases like 'How long are your legs? Are you beautiful? Can you dance?' Some things changed, but some things still haven't. I think a lot of young women coming into it today still have a lot to contend with."
Wilson said people like Adele and Lady Gaga had the talent to transcend the visual pressures imposed on women today and would have transcended the ignorance pressures of their early days, but female artists in general have enormous stress to be YouTube and fashion and dance stars alongside their musical talent, and in many ways superseding music altogether.
To this day, less than 10 per cent of inductees into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame are women, making the achievements of Heart and tourmate Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (also an inductee) all the more remarkable.
It was certainly a star-studded night in Cleveland when Heart was called into the famed hall, officially introduced by fellow Seattle rocker Chris Cornell. The band set the place on fire with a crunchy rendition of Crazy On You. Yet, looking back, Ann Wilson is measured in her reaction to the award.
"I think the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame is mostly useful to booking agents and insecure performers," she said. As an inductee, "the next day you have to go back to work. You can't rest on those laurels because what does it really mean except they thank you in that moment."
She got a far more emotional jolt out of the night four years ago when Led Zeppelin was among those spotlighted at the annual Kennedy Centre Honors event.
One of the side-projects Heart struck widespread success with is their alter-ego band The Lovemongers, a big part of which is performing the songs of Led Zeppelin. Accordingly, Nancy and Ann were called upon to perform Stairway To Heaven that gala evening in front of U.S. President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and the three surviving members (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones) of Led Zeppelin in special attendance.
Jack Black, Foo Fighters, Kid Rock and Lenny Kravitz came first.
Then came the Heart sibs for the triumphant finale, with Jason Bonham on drums (son of deceased Zeppelin drummer John Bonham) and surrounded with a choir and full orchestra, the required production to equal what those lads once did all by themselves.
"All three of them were pleased, I think," said Ann. "That was the whole thing we set out to do. Can you imagine what that might have felt like with the big gospel choir, the big stage band, everything. That must have been really moving for them."
As it was for her. Now a seasoned veteran of stages large and small, Ann rarely feels the pangs of nerves before a performance, but she admitted there were some butterflies in the tummy that night.
"It was a powerful experience being on stage in front of that particular audience, because with the Zeppelin guys and the president and first lady of the United States, Yo-Yo Mah, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Beck, you know, all these people who are way up there in my esteem, all in the audience and then 'ok, this is it, kid, sing' so Nancy and I go out there - we just had to keep our eye on the ball and we were fine - but you didn't really want to dwell on who was out there in the audience."
When she, the band and the rest of the The Queens of Sheba Tour - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts as co-headliner and opening act Serena Pryne & The Mandevilles - she will be in more familiar company. Heart has toured all the way to Dawson Creek before, starting back in their early days based out of Vancouver.
This is home turf in a lot of ways.
They have a new album coming out this summer - both a Heart disc called Beautiful Broken and a solo Ann Wilson EP - so watch out for a few new songs on the set list.
The Queens of Sheba featuring Heart with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts play CN Centre in Prince George on Thursday night.
Tickets through Ticketmaster.
