Ann Wilson – Interview with Dawn Osborne of TotalRock 2024

Ann, your newest album with ‘Tripsitter’ is called ‘Another Door’. I think it’s a truly amazing album. Give us the background to it!

Well, during the Pandemic lockdown period I had a bunch of songs, or demos that I’d written, and I wanted to develop. So I went into a studio down in Alabama, Muscle Shoals and the studio musicians that were gathered by my musical director, came in to work on these demos with me, and we just hit it off, like friends. And they really liked the music and the songs that we made. And we decided at that point to make a record together, which we did, that was two years ago. So it took us a while to make it because we don’t live in the same city. Whenever we got a chance to get together for a week in Nashville, we did.

The album is the perfect vehicle for your voice, because the music is quite pared back, but the vocal is really heavy at times. It’s got real impact.

Oh, yes! The band is small and tight, and fiery, and that’s the way I like it. I like it to be not cluttered, so the voice can sit on top and you can hear the words and you can actually understand what’s being said.

To me, this album is as off the wall as Kate Bush, or Led Zeppelin (you know, the first time you listened to Led Zeppelin before you got a chance to get into it). It’s so different. It took me a few listens to appreciate it. But once you get with it, I mean, it’s addictive. And I think I’m really hooked on it now.

Lovely. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, we’ve had some really good responses so far. People, they don’t expect an album that is a whole album, they expect records that are a series of singles. ‘Another Door’ is an album where each song is an entity unto itself, but they all live together on the record and they flow together naturally.

I think the music defies categorization. it’s a bit prog rock, in the sense that Kate Bush is a bit prog rock, but it’s a bit blues rock, how do you see it?

Well, I see all those things. Each song is kind of different. If you were going to categorise it, it’d be in a different box. For instance, the song ‘Rusty Robots’, would be Rock/Prog. ‘Miss One And Only’ would definitely be a bluesy love ballad, a pure ballad. There’s all different kinds of things on there. And that’s the way I like it. I like it to be like a variety show.

The album cover is actually by an artist that did some artwork for Genesis and Pink Floyd. It’s got a sort of proggy 70s look?

Yeah, we did it on purpose. I just always loved their work, Hipgnosis. People love their work on Dark Side of the Moon, and the old Zeppelin cover ‘Houses Of The Holy’. So we reached out to them and they came up with this cover for us.

Is there an overall concept to the album, or when you say the songs are individual entities, but they flow, how do you see the whole body of the work together, rather than the individual songs?

That’s a really good question. Because we asked ourselves that, once we got through with all the songs, can these very different songs all live together on the same record, and have meaning or will it seem like a disjointed box of rocks. The Lyrics may be the through line in all the songs because I was the lyric writer on all the lyrics. So that may be something that helps them all live together thematically.

So, it’s Ann Wilson and Tripsitter, so where does the name come from?

Well, the band came up with it themselves. They were originally called The Amazing Dogs. It was just a jokey name that they had. And they got tired of that. They wanted something a little bit more elevated. So they came up with tripsitter, the designated driver for people who are experimenting with psychedelic drugs.

‘Another Door’ the title of the album suggests an escape and the ‘Tripsitter’ song itself suggests a difficult life. Are those the things that you were trying to get across?

Well, yeah, I think that all the songs are autobiographical to a point, not 100%, because, anytime you write a short story or anything, you put your yourself into it, but it isn’t all about you. I think the song ‘Tripsitter’ talks about my childhood a little bit, being kind of rough and travelling constantly. My parents were always on the move. And so we never put down any roots anywhere. Really, we were just always moving. My father was military.

The emotion in the vocals is extremely intense. I mean, songs like ‘Rain of Hell’. I think there’s some real pain expressed in the delivery. It almost paints a story like audio visual medium, because the emotions of are so raw.

Thank you for for seeing that. Yeah, the song ‘Rain of Hell’ was actually the product of some heartbreak on my part because of what’s going on in the Ukraine war. And now, of course, in in the Middle East.  It’s like this war infection that the human race has, which is now flaring up in the most terrible, awful way.

‘Little Things’ the song about being injured in the alley, that story seemed very real, did anything like that ever happen to you?

Not to the point where I was laying in the alley bleeding out? No. But you know, like most people, I’ve been in the emergency room a couple of times for cuts and bruises and this and that. But no, that song was out of my imagination. And it can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean really. That song could be referring to a rape situation, or it could be referring to a botched back alley abortion or it could be someone with an addiction, or someone who’s been attacked in some other way.

‘Stranger in a Strange Land’: You’re going to have everybody wondering about the line ‘making love amongst the monuments’.

Yeah. When my husband and I went on our first road trip together, before we were married, he took me to Monument Valley in the south west. And it was beautiful, just very, very, very beautiful.

‘Waiting For Magic’, that’s a banger of a track. And there’s this sort of Elizabeth Taylor/Cleopatra type energy about it, deeply feminine in an ancient sense. Do you know what I mean?

I do know what you mean. That’s great. I never thought of it that way. But that’s really great.

And I associate that with you as well, because you have this very powerful feminine, strong sense of the ancient feminine – when when people used to celebrate the feminine in a really authentic way? 

Indeed. And, in the way of all emotions, rather than just the thumbs up kind.

‘Ruler Of The Night’ also mentions magic, and it’s got flute in it. Is that you playing the flute?

Yes it is. I wouldn’t say by any means that I’m a virtuoso, James Galloway or anything, but I can make the flute move and I can play just enough to fill a little hole in one of our songs and have it be just right.

There’s a Native American influence in your playing?

Oh, yeah, I think you’re right. Yeah. Lots of air and slow, where you actually hear the pipe. You don’t hear a flurry of notes as much as you hear the sound of the pipe.

‘You’ mentioned ‘Rusty Robots’. That’s a very strange title. What is that song about?

Well,  that was the title of a jam idea that the men in the band had. And they sent me a whole list of a bunch of ideas to try and visualise lyrics for. And I heard that one. And it was just this kind of awkward, stumbling, funky groove that I thought was really great, raw and just funny. And they call it ‘Rusty Robots’. So I set about making a story, somebody walking in a rainstorm, and talking with the rainstorm, and the rainstorm talks back to them and says, “I’m just gonna get you all wet, because that’s what I do’.

That’s very Native American, actually. And it’s a bit Kate Bush, an off the wall kind of approach to things. And I think that’s probably one of the songs that made me think of Kate Bush.

That’s cool. Yeah, that’s really cool.

I really feel that if this album gets enough exposure, that it will have the recognition of Kate Bush. It really is, you know, something special, I think, but people have to just discover it.

Yeah. It’s out there for the taking. It’s out on vinyl. And so there are different ways you can hear it. But of course, the prescribed way is on vinyl, while holding that album cover by Hipgnosis with a big door on the front.(laughs)

You mentioned ‘Miss One and Only’ that seems to be about the shadows behind the glitter, the contrast between the glamour of performance, and the really heavy demands of being an artist touring, travelling with the emotional toll the lifestyle takes?

Oh, yeah. A lot of energy goes into all of that. And the whole darkness and light thing takes huge energy. But if you can ride it, if you want it, if you love it, you can do it.

Absolutely. Are you touring the album?

Yes. We have been since June.

Do you think you’re gonna make it to the UK? At all?

Yes. In July.

I know that there is a ‘Live in Concert’ recording with Tripsitter that’s going to be on American PBS TV. Is that going to be available to people in Europe?

I don’t know. But I think that it can be gotten online. I’m sorry. We just don’t have any information on that yet.

Okay. And is there anything happening with Heart at the moment? Because I know last time we spoke you did have some plans?

Yeah, we played New Year’s Eve and a couple of warm up shows because we haven’t played together since 2019. And then hopefully we’re going to do some more.

Europe as well?

Yes. Yes, indeed. Aspects of it.

Dolly Parton’s ‘Rock Star’ album, what was it like to collaborate with her with the ‘Magic Man’ track that you did on that?

Oh, she’s very sweet. And she’s one of those people that just opens her mouth and the truth comes out, she’s not a bullshitter. And she just is what she says she is. She came to the studio and she was all dressed up, just looking beautiful, had on every sparkle, every spangle and super high stiletto heels and a little tiny wasp waist and just looked amazing. And so, we worked on that track together. And I thought it sounded really great. I liked what she did with it. And then when she left that afternoon, we were all just kind of in shock. We all had to sit down for a while. Because when she left she took the energy out of the room. We were all just sort of breathless, she is incredible.

But the two of you are like that. So goodness knows what the energy was like in that room. I’m surprised it didn’t completely explode.

It was a great afternoon.

And do you have any more collaborations happening at the moment?

Yes, I was fortunate enough to be asked to sing a duet with David Draiman of Disturbed on their new album, which is called ‘Divisive’. And the song is called ‘Don’t Tell Me’. And yeah, I sang a duet on that and made a video with them.

I saw it. Your voice really suits that heavier track, maybe people wouldn’t associate you with heavier material, but it it really works well.

What’s next for you?

Well, We go out with Heart.

I would say to people, they have to get hold of this ‘Another Door’ album, and they have to really listen to it. Because it does take a couple of listens, because it’s so different. But once you’ve listened to it a couple of times, you can never ever put it away again. That would be my message to everybody about it.

Oh, thank you. That’s a great message. I love that. Thank you.

And thank you so much for making some time to talk to us.

My pleasure. Thank you for having me.