Music: Ann Wilson

ANN WILSON

Lead singer of Heart goes solo on Fierce Bliss, a rocking, bluesy collection of originals and covers

When the legendary rock band Heart was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame back in 2013, they blew all in attendance away with room-rattling performances of classic tracks "Crazy on You" and "Barracuda," both showcasing the evergreen vocals of lead singer Ann Wilson who commanded the stage with supreme confi dence in front of the industry's biggest names. Nearly 10 years later - and fi ve decades on from her beginnings with Heart - she still sings like her life depends on it, fully committed to delivering the goods on stage. And in the studio as heard on Fierce Bliss, Wilson's brand new solo album. Featuring a set of co-written originals backed by a few perfectly chosen covers, this much-anticipated return proves that Heart's frontwoman remains a showstopping force, even on her own.

Wilson kindly spoke with News 4U ahead of the tour for the new album.

You've stated that Fierce Bliss came together quite unexpectedly - and relatively quickly. How are you feeling ahead of the tour for the new release? Is there excitement or nervousness?

Yeah, I'm feeling excited and a little nervous because this is the fi rst time that I've ever written most of an album myself. You know, it's with a whole new band; and it's just me, stepping out. Yeah, I'm excited and I'm really happy with it and I can't wait to see how people react.

"Greed," the lead single for the album, contains elements of both 70's and 80's-era Heart. Was it an obvious introduction to the album for you?

Yeah, I think so. Like, it wasn't chosen to be any kind of reminder of Heart, purposely, but if you think of it, the person, or point in which all points of Heart meet, is me. And so, if I write a song and sing a song, it's going to be reminiscent of Heart, no matter if I do it with my solo thing or if I do it with [my sister] Nancy in Heart.

There's a particularly intriguing lyrical couplet in that track: "I could die down in the basement/ I could fl y around to a convent." Just one

example of so many great lines on this album. Thank you - yeah, I had a real good time writing that because when I wrote it I had been accused of being super greedy, uh, sexually, and I took that really personally. Wow - you know, how can my wonderful, sacred advances be thought of as pure greed, so I was miffed, you know [laughs]? So that's where that came out of.

Another standout on the album is "Gladiator" which musically veers from a Middle Eastern vibe to elements of Rush - the "Tom Sawyer" era. Lyrically, it seems like it could be about overcoming personal fears or a commentary on the pandemic. What was on your mind?

Well, I thought that so many people build walls around themselves and cover themselves with armor and they go into life as if it's a battle and you have to be warriors, you know? And, like, at a certain point they are able, whether it's with another person or in some kind of spiritual sense or something like that, they're able to remove the armor and step outside that self-protection and just be vulnerable and blend into love. So that's what I'm asking the gladiator to do: come outside - you don't need all that self-protection. You can be safe; you can come out.

A true highlight on Fierce Bliss is the cover of Jeff Buckley's "Forget Her." It's so beguilingly moody and haunting. Also, you chose to change the pronouns in the lyrics and sing it from an outsider's perspective, in a sense.

I chose that song because I'm a big Jeff Buckley fan; I think he's one of the most amazing people that ever lived. And as a woman, sometimes I forget how tender men are, because culturally we have this idea that guys are always bad-ass and they're tough and all this kind of stuff - which we all know isn't true. There's a little boy in there who gets really hurt and who is tender. So that's what I heard in that song; it's just heartwrenching. So when I went to sing it, I thought, well, it would be even more heart-wrenching if somebody was watching him go through this as an observer who is just telling the story of this broken heart.

At the risk of sounding like a grouchy old man, I just don't hear amazing female voices in music these days - not like the ones I grew up hearing on the radio: yourself, of course, Pat Benatar, Annie Lennox, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, etc. This list goes on...

No, I don't think you're being a grouchy old man. We're living in an era where you...how do I describe this? It's such a pigeonhole culture where if you sound like Adele that's a good start but if you sound like Christina Aguilera and do all these vocal acrobatics and everything, that's real good. And everyone's the same; everyone's hypersexualized. They have a butt lift; they have fake eyelashes; they all look identical and they sing identical. I think that's what they go for because they're fi tting into a mold, you know? No, I think you're right. That's the thing that really makes it hard for me to listen to new music, too. There's no soul to it, you know?

I can't let you go without asking about one of the most transcendental moments in TV history: Heart's performance of "Stairway to Heaven" at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2014 that left at least one member of Led

SO THAT'S WHAT I'M ASKING THE GLADIATOR TO DO: COME OUTSIDE - YOU DON'T NEED ALL THAT SELFPROTECTION. YOU CAN BE SAFE; YOU CAN COME OUT.

Zeppelin in tears. Were you aware of just how impactful the performance was at the time or not until later?

On stage, I, myself, wasn't paying too close attention to people's faces out in the crowd because I wanted to keep my mind free of anything except the song. When I start to think up there or become aware of my surroundings, that's when I screw up, so, I just go sort of out of body. And I could not see from where we were; I could not see the Led Zeppelin guys; I couldn't see the Obamas that were up in the balcony. So I only saw them on YouTube later like everybody else. But I think at the time it was just that sublime, total immersion in the music and how the arrangement just grew and grew and grew and there were more and more people and it got bigger and bigger. You can kind of see the audience levitating each time when one of those choral groups was exposed - revealed. And I like the way that when the great big vocal group is revealed you see this short shot of Jimmy Page just going, 'Wow!' And I thought, that's a cool moment because he was impressed; he was thrilled. That's what we all set out to do was please them.

For more info, visit annwilson.com. Fierce Bliss is available now at Amazon and on all major streaming platforms.