The Nielsen Trust a family affair for Cheap Trick, Rusted Hearts

Miles Nielsen was playing about 100 shows a year with his band, The Rusted Hearts, when his mother suggested that he start a band with his father and brother to play during his downtime.

Nielsen’s father and brother are Rick and Daxx Nielsen, guitarist and drummer, respectively, for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Cheap Trick, which performs around 150 shows every year.

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However, the Nielsen matriarch had her say and with the addition of Miles’s wife, Kelly Steward, a singer-songwriter herself, The Nielsen Trust was formed.

“It is my mom’s fault,” Miles said. “She thought, ‘You, your dad and your brother don’t work enough, so when you’re off from your other jobs, why don’t you get a band together, so you can work more?’”

Miles jokes that his mom probably just wanted his dad out of the house.

“She likes him home for about a week, and then she's like, ‘All right, now go,’” he said. “Fifty-two years of being married, that's a long time.”

The Nielsen Trust began before the pandemic, and the band had several shows scheduled but played only two shows at the Wisconsin Dells before live music was shutdown.

The band — with keyboardist Adam Plamann and bassist Dave McClellan of The Rusted Hearts accompanying them — is playing makeup dates during December and January for concerts that had to be rescheduled because of the lockdown.

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Hometown show

The band will perform its final show of 2021 Saturday at the Appollo Theater in Belvidere. Show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 general admission and $50 balcony.

Having a good time

Although Rick Nielsen has been the driving force behind Cheap Trick for nearly 50 years, his son and daughter-in-law are in charge of this project.

“Kelly and I are sort of the leaders of the band because we're the ones that are used to getting things done,” Miles says. “Cheap Trick has got a lot of people that handle their things for them, so Kelly and I sort of fell into the role of the husband/wife band leaders because we're just the ones that are like, oh, website needs to be built. Website needs to be updated. Van needs to get loaded. Merchandise needs to get ordered. We're just the ones that are used to doing these things. We fell into the role, but it doesn’t pay any better.”

Cheap Trick typically plays in front of thousands of fans at their shows, but Miles thinks his dad is appreciating the intimacy of shows at these smaller venues.

“There's this storyteller aspect of the shows that he really enjoys,” he says. “He doesn't get that experience with Cheap Trick. … He's telling stories that I've not even heard, so it's fun for me too. I get some insight into what was going on in the ’70s or the early ’80s, the kind of stuff that I would not have known prior to him telling these stories from the stage.”

The Nielsen Trust will play hits such as “Surrender” and “I Want You to Want Me,” as well as diving deeper into the Cheap Trick catalog. They also will resurrect songs from Harmony Riley, a past band of Miles and Daxx, and include such Rusted Hearts songs as “Hey Hey Hey” and “Sarah” that have a connection to Rick, Daxx and Kelly.

Cheap Trick released “In Another World,” the band's 20th studio album earlier this year and will tour Europe early next year, followed by a tour with Rod Stewart in the summer.

Miles and The Rusted Hearts released their latest album, “OHBAHOY,” before the pandemic hit and never really got to tour behind it, so they are making up for lost time now. The band has a bunch of new songs that they plan to record for their next album in the spring.

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The Nielsen family is having a good time with The Nielsen Trust.

“I think we'll continue on as long as everybody is having a fun time doing it,” Miles said. “It's more about finding the holes to be able to pull it off. That's the biggest hurdle. Cheap Trick is really busy. It's a matter of when we actually get to play. We’ll probably do a handful of shows every year, a dozen or so. That's just my guess. I mean, it could be more, but we'll keep it going as long as everybody's having a fun time doing it.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Apollo Theater in Belvidere: Nielsen Trust, Rusted Hearts band live