HEART's ANN WILSON On How She Has Managed To Keep Her Singing Voice In Such Great Shape After Five Decades: 'I Take Care Of Myself Moderately'

In a new interview with Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast, HEART's Ann Wilson was asked how she manages to keep her singing voice in such great shape after more than five decades. She responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I take care of myself moderately. But I don't really do vocal exercises, but before every show I like to warm up for about an hour. And I do that just by singing along. You just pick somebody else's album that you really love and just sing along with every song. And so after you do that, you're warm."

As for which other artist's music she sings along to before hitting the stage, Ann said: "Well, in the last couple of years I found myself just hovering toward Elton John because the way he sings and sang in the past, lots of of words, lots of big jumps and skips and incredible pitch. So to ape that is really not easy."

Asked if she ever resented the fact, in HEART's earlier years, that her bandmates could go out and party hard every night and still perform the next day while she had to be more careful and not let it affect her voice, Ann said: "Well, back in the bad old days, I never observed a speed limit where that was concerned. I just went along with the band."

In July 2024, Ann announced HEART was canceling its tour so that she could undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy following a cancer diagnosis. Two months later, Ann returned to her social media channels to share the news that her chemotherapy treatments were complete, and she was ready to tour in 2025.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest voices in the history of rock and roll, Ann is a true icon, known far and wide as lead singer and songwriter of the groundbreaking rock band HEART. Led by Wilson's extraordinary vocal power, HEART has thrilled audiences for five decades, earning sales of more than 35 million and well-deserved induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013. Indeed, as lead singer of the first female-fronted superstar hard rock band, Wilson blazed a trail for generations of women to come, while her songs — including "Barracuda", "Crazy On You", "Straight O" and "Magic Man", to name but a few — have become part of the very fabric of popular culture.

In December 2023, HEART played its first three concerts in more than four years — in Highland, California, at Greater Palm Springs in Palm Desert, California, and in Seattle, Washington.

Prior to HEART's December 27, 2023 show in Highland, the band's last performance took place in October 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

HEART toured North America in the summer of 2019 after a nasty split that kept the Wilson sisters — Ann and HEART guitarist Nancy Wilson — estranged for three years.

HEART's 2013 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame saw Ann and Nancy reunited with the four musicians who helped HEART achieve its initial success in the mid-1970s — guitarist Roger Fisher, bassist Steve Fossen, drummer Michael DeRosier and longtime guitarist-keyboardist Howard Leese.

The Wilson sisters' reunion with HEART's original lineup at the Rock Hall ceremony marked the first time the group played together in 34 years.

When Ann and Nancy formed HEART, the idea of two women leading a rock band was still groundbreaking. From the moment 1975's "Dreamboat Annie" was released, they became stars. With hits like "Magic Man", "Crazy On You", "Barracuda", "Alone", "What About Love" and "These Dreams", the band became one of the biggest hit-makers in the '70s and '80s, selling more than 35 million records. In 2012, their memoir "Kicking & Dreaming: A Story Of Heart, Soul And Rock & Roll" became a New York Times bestseller.