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Ann Wilson. NORMAN SEEFF
After more than four decades fronting the rock band Heart with her sister, Nancy, singer Ann Wilson decided that she should do her own thing.
Ms. Wilson continues to perform internationally with Heart, playing their hits such as “Magic Man,” “Barracuda” and “Crazy on You” to sold-out venues, but now in between Heart tours she goes on the road under the banner of The Ann Wilson Thing.
She did seven shows when The Ann Wilson Thing debuted in 2015. “People really got off on it, and we got incredible reviews,” Ms. Wilson said during an interview last week.
She plans to do triple the number of shows in 2016. When she comes to Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Friday, March 25, it will be just the second stop of the tour.
Ms. Wilson, 65, explained that her 40-plus years with Heart have offered great money, a huge fan base and assured gigs. She was ready for something different. “I want to live on the edge,” she said. “I want to do something a little risky.”
She revels in the idea of playing in small clubs, giving raw performances where she can see the whites in the eyes of the audience.
“It turned out to be possibly even more refreshing than I thought,” she said.
Ms. Wilson emphasized that The Ann Wilson Thing is not Heart. “There are no Heart songs in the show,” she said. “That’s the whole point—it’s a way for me to stretch out in different ways.”
Besides her “no Heart songs” rule, Ms. Wilson has two other criteria: the songs must have “really amazing lyrics, and a message.”
She sings both parts of “Don’t Give Up,” a duet written by Peter Gabriel. “The message is, for someone who thinks they’ve lost everything and there is nothing else, to look closer in and see what they do have,” she said.
Other selections include the anti-war song “War of Man” by Neil Young and “Manic Depression” by Jimi Hendrix.
“As a singer, as a songwriter myself, lyrics are really what turns me on, and that’s why we’re choosing the songs we’re choosing,” she said.
In addition to being a renowned vocalist, Ms. Wilson is a flautist. “I wouldn’t call myself a virtuoso by any means, but I can play a melody and I can hold down a part,” she said modestly. She has yet to play flute during her Ann Wilson Thing shows, but she may incorporate the instrument this tour: “I know it’s going to happen, because this time out I’m taking the acoustic guitar and one of the flutes.”
The Ann Wilson Thing features three more members of Heart: Chris Joyner on keyboards, Craig Bartock on guitar and Ben Smith on drums. Andy Stoller, a Seattle musician, plays bass.
When Heart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, a different lineup was honored, including Ms. Wilson and her sister, guitarist Roger Fisher, keyboardist Howard Leese, and drummer Michael DeRosier.
“It was a really surreal day and experience, because, for one thing, we were being inducted with the original members of the band,” she recalled, noting that they hadn’t played together, or really seen each other, for 35 years.
She admitted that they had some unfinished business among them, and their rehearsal day was kind of stiff. But when they performed during the induction ceremony, she felt group unity for what they had started together.
As two women fronting a rock band in the 1970s, the Wilson sisters faced discrimination. “Especially Nancy, as a beautiful young blond-haired guitarist. She used to get these really backhanded compliments from people,” Ms. Wilson said. People could not believe an attractive woman could play guitar so proficiently—they would ask if the instrument was plugged in.
“It’s not that feminism has completely succeeded, but things have changed a lot since the ’70s for women, and I think that things have gotten better—that there is more respect paid to Nancy and I,” she said.
Ms. Wilson is originally from Seattle, and Heart was founded in Vancouver, Canada. These days, she doesn’t have a home base. She and new husband Dean Wetter—they married in April last year—have hit the road. “My husband and I are what you call nomads,” she said. “We’re riding around and seeing things and traveling.
“Dean and I struck a chord in each other and somehow life has just opened up in this really fantastic way,” she said. “There is much more out there—much more to be experienced.”
The Ann Wilson Thing comes to Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, 76 Main Street, Westhampton Beach, on Friday, March 25, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $120, $95 and $80. Visit whbpac.org or call 631-288-1500.
