MIDDLETOWN - 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ann Wilson is set to release her first solo EP, The Ann Wilson Thing, on Rounder Records, described by Wilson as �"a melding of some timeless lyrics with meat, hair and teeth.”

       Wilson previously announced her first solo mini tour kicking off in Solana Beach, Calif., and played The Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Oct. 6. The event was filmed by Connecticut PBS Television as part of its new â€�"Kate Hepburn Series” and will air on PBS in February.

       As a songwriter, lyricist and lead singer of the legendary Rock & Roll band Heart, whose hits include such Classic Rock staples as â€�"Crazy on You,” â€�"Barracuda,” â€�"Magic Man,” â€�"These Dreams,” â€�"Alone” and many, many more. However, her greatest gift, and first â€�"calling,” is singing and, with this intimate tour, she prepares to blow away her fans with up-close and personal, raw performances of blues and rock songs. The â€�"Ann Wilson Thing” won’t’ replace Heart, but it will be a new experience for existing Heart fans as well as for new fans who will love these songs set in this warmer setting.

      

       Good evening, Ms. Wilson, where are we talking from?

       Hi. How are you doing? I’m calling from Baltimore.

      

       Congratulations on your Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Way overdue, in my opinion.

       Well thank you, yeah.

      

       What was it about music that wanted to make you reach beyond someone just listening to it and be an actual performer in the music business?

       I don’t know, maybe I’m just a hambone, you know (laughs). It happened very quickly. In childhood, when I got my first guitar, it was very fast from learning how to play it, to learning how to sing and play, to wanting to sing and play in front of people like my parents, to wanting to sing in front of people outside the family, to singing and playing for money. So it was just this natural drive. Some people might want to be actors or models, you know, whatever it is. It was just something that was unnameable inside my true nature that said this is the way to go. And I have it still.

      

       Your first solo effort came in 2006, with Hope & Glory, with guest appearances from Elton John, Alison Krauss, Rufus Wainwright, Wynonna Judd and others. How is The Ann Wilson Thing different from your past solo projects?

       Well, the Hope and Glory album, as you said, was a collection of cover songs with guest artists on them. Really great people. You named a few of them. There was also K.D. Lang and Gretchen Wilson. Some really widely varied artists were on that record and I worked with Ben Mink as a producer who is also, well, I call him a genius songwriter; just a real idea man. And that was an album which we never toured or went out and played.

       The Ann Wilson Thing is more of a performing idea. It’s just me with a band of musicians that I put together that are known--some of them play in Heart. We’re just going out and going around the country putting a few shows on. It’s sort of like a â€�"rocks off” thing, you know? For fun and passion. And Heart still remains active. I will be on the road with Heart here in another couple of weeks, so we’re just having fun.

      

       In the very early 70’s, before Heart, there was Hocus Pocus. Did you or Nancy ever feel ignored regarding your influence in putting the Seatle music scene on the map more than 15 years before Nirvana?

       Well, actually, back in the time when I was in Hocus Pocus, there was no national recognition of Seattle. I mean it was very uncool to be from Seattle. It was only cool to be from LA. or New York or San Francisco (laughs). So when it was cool to be from Seattle they didn’t really think about Heart in the first breath. They didn’t think about Jimi Hendrix, either, in the first breath. The grunge guys are what made the Seattle scene relevant. The people that went before were just like any other bands in any other cities that have an active music scene. No, I didn’t feel resentful at all.

      

       On the night of Heart’s induction into the Hall of Fame, generations of Seattle rockers shared the stage for a blistering version of â€�"Barracuda” with members of Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Sound Garden in on the jam. Did that experience offer some well-deserved respect and acknowledgment?

       Yeah, we’re friends and I like all of those guys you just mentioned. We’re part of a bunch of friends who all live in Seattle so it was kind of personal. Like sort of having a hootenanny seeing all of them up there, but they were playing one of our songs. It felt really great. We love all those guys and they’ve helped us through a lot. That was a great night

      

       You stated that you were excited to play â€�"unusual” songs for The Ann Wilson Thing. Define unusual.

       Unusual would mean not necessarily falling between the lines of pop music or what is expected--what people expect to hear when they come to see Heart and we don’t do any Heart music. We do a couple of things way outside expectations of what I would usually sing. We do a Ray Charles â€�"Danger Zone” and â€�"Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel. There are a few songs that are very unusual.

      

       So it’s a very eclectic set list. Will that set list be changing during the tour?

       Yes. It’s changing all the time. We’re going to be adding things, subtracting things, mixing it up. We don’t have all the time in the world to just sit on one set and let it bake. I’m in Heart too, so we have to make the most of this time we have with The Ann Wilson thing.

      

       I went to the Heart concert at Mohegan Sun last year and then I went to your Ann Wilson Thing gig at the Kate Theater last week. By Heart’s standard, this was a very intimate crowd. Still, you looked very comfortable in that setting. Your voice was as powerful as ever, especially when you belted out John Lennon’s song â€�"Isolation.” It was inspiring how you gave a little backstory for each cut before you sang it. Do you have to develop different techniques to connect with a smaller room, on smaller stages and with more intimate crowds?

       Yeah. It’s much easier I think and more natural for me to connect with a smaller room. You’re just with the people. You’re just closer and you can see the whites of their eyes and feel their emotions more readily. I like the real small audiences--it’s kind of like hanging around with friends. More so than when you’re in front of like, say, 10,000 people. It’s not possible to imagine what’s going on inside of all those heads. The things you say, the energy you put out, has to be more general, more universal.

      

       I saw some very young faces in the crowd. How would you explain the discovery of your music by younger fans?

       I think it’s a wonderful thing. I’m really pleased to see young faces in the crowd and to see them light up and get it, you know? To be a singer is really to be a storyteller, so that’s really what’s going to cross over. That is what’s going to get across to any generation.

      

       Does The Ann Wilson Thing help you carry the heritage and legacy of Heart forward through all of the years and keep it fresh and relevant for yourself as well as new fans you’ve connected with along the way?

       Yes, I think so. The fact that I get to come out here and stretch out and learn and do different things. Busting my chops on some other stuff is going to really help me when I go back into Heart. I think people are going to be interested to come see Heart and see me now that I have this other experience underneath my belt.

      

       Do you pour more passion into a solo project as compared to the effort that may go into a Heart project because it would have been a group effort?

       I wouldn’t compare the amount of passion that I lend to either one. I put all of myself into each project because I believe in being authentic. When I’m up there singing, whether it be on the Heart stage or the AWT stage, I’m there 100 percent. I’m there with both feet in.

      

       What advice would you give your younger self about getting into the business?

       I would advise myself not to take things so personally because a lot of the time people are looking for ways to take you down. The entertainment world is full of critics; they’re just part of the infrastructure of the whole entertainment business. So you have to learn to not take criticism personally and just go ahead and be yourself and do your thing.

      

       How have you avoided/ overcome the trappings of fame that have caused the demise of so many artists?

       You mean like drugs and money? Well it’s pretty easy to avoid money (laughs). Well, I haven’t avoided drugs and alcohol and stuff altogether. I mean I had my day with those things, too, but I just came out the other end of it okay. I just realized it was just not a good or healthy thing. It was definitely not doing anything for my body or my art.

       Basically, alcohol and drugs are a waste of time and something that robs you of your clarity and takes you out of the moment. You’re not really alive fully when you’re just dulling down your senses. I didn’t avoid it, but I survived.

      

       How does your musical taste differ or compare to your sister Nancy’s?

       Nancy has a really wide musical taste and she is more familiar with what’s on the radio and has a lot of things that she likes, where I’m more into world music and I’ll sink back into oldies sometimes. I like meditational music; I like Americana.

      

       What is the greatest opening lyric of all time?

       Oh boy, good question. Maybe. â€�"Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better.”

      

       Congratulations on your new marriage to Dean Wetter.

       Thank you very much. Thank you! I’m very happy.

      

       What affect will this new path have on your songwriting?

       It affects everything in my life. My performance. The way I feel about the things. I want to write because my heart is singing right now. I’m just so full of love and happiness. So yes, it will affect my songwriting.

      

       How did you meet?

       We met way back in the 80’s on a blind date. Some people set us up. The date unfortunately didn’t work at all, it was really a disaster. We got really drunk at a Japanese restaurant on Sake and then I tried to come onto him and he was too much of a gentleman so he declined and I said, â€�"Well, okay, see you later. Bye.” So all these years went by and he went off and had his life and I went off and had my life.

       Then we met five years ago. He found a letter that I sent him after our disastrous blind date and got in touch with me and said, â€�"Hey if you ever want to talk, let’s just talk, no strings.” So we started talking online and we found that we just hit it off in this way that was so excellent and so magnetic and then it just exploded. It became bigger than both of us. Once we got in that room we’ve never been apart.

       We got married last April. We had a medium-sized wedding, about 50 people or so. It was beautiful. It was outside in Topanga Canyon, Calif. It was just an incredible day. I had come to the conclusion in my life that at my age it just wasn’t going to happen for me. I was okay with that and then, just when you think you know everything, life throws you this real big curveball and I met my soulmate.

      

       Congratulations. I’m very, very happy for you.

       Thank you, Ann, for the chat. I hope you have much and continued success on the tour

       You’re welcome. Okay, bye-bye.