{"id":359678,"date":"2025-12-20T03:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T03:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/359678\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T03:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T03:54:11","slug":"the-musician-ann-wilson-calls-her-biggest-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/359678\/","title":{"rendered":"The musician Ann Wilson calls her biggest influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ann<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Press)<\/p>\n

Fri 19 December 2025 20:30, UK <\/p>\n

Ann Wilson<\/a> is in a special position in the rock scene. She has her sister, Nancy Wilson, by her side, providing great inspiration and propping up Ann\u2019s main vocals with her own serious talent, as well as that rattly guitar.<\/p>\n

However, when considering her biggest influence, Ann couldn\u2019t exactly gesture to her sister each and every time a nameless publication stuck a tiny microphone in front of her and asked. Plus, to make great, rounded music, one must reach outside of the suffocation of the familial zone. Growing up sharing hairbrushes and hand-me-downs isn\u2019t exactly conducive to music influence, anyway.<\/p>\n

Wilson has enjoyed renewed attention as of late, after the Midwest princess Chappel Roan<\/a> took to covering the Heart classic, \u2018Barracuda\u2019, showcasing Wilson\u2019s soaring, hearty vocals, her dramatic mezzo-soprano voice bolstered by an emotional delivery. But Roan is way after Wilson\u2019s original foray into the spotlight, so\u2026 Who was her biggest inspiration? Surely someone with an equal amount of rock grit?<\/p>\n

Not quite. See, underneath that rock, heat is a dynamic folk beauty that could have only ever come from the one and only Joni Mitchell<\/a>. Sure enough, Wilson told American Songwriter in 2022 that Mitchell was the biggest influence of all on her lyrics, her performance, her rhythm\u2026 Everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoni Mitchell is the one who influenced me the most,\u201d she said. \u201cShe\u2019s just such a consummate musician and poet.\u00a0Those are the kinds of female artists who push the boundaries.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mitchell is, sometimes, like that annoying girl in the class who juggles just about every ball and manages to pirouette and hold a whistle note, while doing so. While spinning in circles, should a boundary befall her path, she\u2019ll kick it to the side without another look back.<\/p>\n

The pair share more than their desire to push boundaries, though both are acclaimed and brave female musicians. In 2025, both Wilson and Mitchell are still performing live, the former alongside Heart on their Royal Flush tour. They have both had to overcome recent obstacles in life, too; Wilson successfully completed chemotherapy for cancer, which led to the postponement of several dates, and Mitchell is in happy recovery from a brain aneurysm in 2015.<\/p>\n

The thread that connects them runs deeper still if we look at their lyricism: On the classic Heart track, \u2018Dreamboat Annie\u2019, Ann sings decadently, \u201cHeading out this morning, into the sun \/ Riding on the diamond waves, little darlin\u2019 one,\u201d collaging love and disillusionment in the blue haze of the horizon meeting the sea.<\/p>\n

On Mitchell\u2019s side, the sun stands in for all sorts of sleepy retributions dealt with in the forever arch above our heads: \u201cNow comes the morning,\u201d she sings on \u2018Come to the Sunshine\u2019, \u201cWet with the kiss of midnight \/ Shadows stayed sulking in the way \/ Sunshine for dreaming \/ Blackest magic to believe in.\u201d <\/p>\n

The connection between glimmery folk and spitting rock has never been stronger, and more pertinent, than between Heart and Mitchell. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Press) Fri 19 December 2025 20:30, UK Ann Wilson is in a special position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[170496,64,63,447,134,2263],"class_list":{"0":"post-359678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ann-wilson","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-joni-mitchell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}