Fresh off the road from a stint with Heart, Ann Wilson will undertake another tour in the coming months — this time hitting theaters, clubs and museums with the rolling premiere of a new documentary about her life, “In My Voice,” accompanied by Q&A sessions where the singer will be joined by filmmaker Barbara Hall.
The 10-city tour will have Wilson, Hall and their movie touching down in venues including the City Winery locations in New York, Nashville and Boston, along with Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Seattle’s Neptune, theaters in Vancouver and Toronto, and a yet-to-be-announced location in L.A. (Scroll down for the near-complete itinerary.)
A future streaming destination for home viewing has yet to be announced, but Wilson is looking forward to the film being seen by full houses first.
“I felt that since it’s a movie of sorts, it should be shown in a theater, and so the closest we can get to a theater setting, the better, as far as I’m concerned,” the singer tells Variety. “And that will lend itself to, after the film has been shown, doing a little Q&A afterward, Barb and I.”
Says Hall, “As a filmmaker, there’s nothing that beats being in the room with people and seeing and feeling their reaction, to get that kind of feedback. I just think it’s so critical and so meaningful, because it’s live and we’re in a big dark room all together watching something, and everyone laughs and or cries at the same time — it’s very reassuring.”
The Q&As won’t just be in interview format but allow for audience questions, the two women say. And Hall is first to say that there is more of interest for fans to ask about than she was able to cover in the film. “You cannot cover a whole life i[in this format], so if you’re like, ‘Man, I want to know more — shoot, I wish there was a book,’ then I feel like I’ve done my job. I have a bunch of questions in my head, so if people are a little shy, which I can’t imagine is going to happen, there’s still a lot of questions to be asked. I still think Ann should write a book, but it would be like an encyclopedia. So I don’t think that there’ll be any shortage of ‘Can you give us more on what happened here and what happened there?’”
For her part, Wilson says, “I think that the way this movie is made, it’s not a whitewash. There’s a lot of stuff covered and we don’t try and hide anything. So might be difficult for people to come up with questions to ask because we don’t really leave anything out. But I’m sure there are a couple of things that are so juicy that people will want to get into it more.”
Turning to Hall, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer says, “I think you did a really good job” on the documentary, “with a lot of respect and empathy, but also with the guts to be honest.”
Ann Wilson ‘In My Voice’ screening itinerary
Wilson felt Hall was the woman for the job after seeing her previous documentaries, specials and installments of “American Masters” and “Biography” dedicated to such figures as Wynonna Judd, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Charley Pride.
Most takes on Wilson’s life have been within the broader context of profiles of Heart, whose first album, “Dreamboat Annie,” recently had its 50th anniversary. But, says Hall, “To be honest, I really felt like we deserve to know her story. She’s the front and center, the songwriter, and she started the band a few years before her sister joined. Her stories were really compelling. We don’t think anything about, ‘Oh, here’s a documentary about Levon Helm, and here’s one about Robbie Robertson,’ even though they were in a band together, right? Or ‘Here’s one about John Phillips’; even though he was part of the Mamas and the Papas, he had a bigger life than just that.
“And it’s the same with Ann. Heart is a part of her life, but it isn’t the only part . And I think her story is very separate from her sister’s, in that they created a lot together and made magic together, but have also done a lot outside of that partnership. I think if you’re just doing a documentary about Heart, it’s very hard to really get to know what some of those things that someone like Ann has done outside of that band. So it was great to be able to really drill down on just her story. Ann shares the spotlight so much and is so generous with that, giving credit beyond what I think most people would do who are as accomplished as she is. So to be able to just really focus on her was really quite an hono and quite compelling.”
Wilson says getting involved in the film was a learning experience for her. “At first I couldn’t imagine how we were gonna do it, because my life has always been completely given to the band and to the creative partnership with Nancy, my sister,” she says. “That’s how people perceive me, and so, after 50 years of it, you start to perceive your own self that way. But if you start to take it apart and really look at what’s going on, it was very interesting to see myself standing alone.”
Says Hall, “I’ve listened to this music and to this voice my whole life. So to have somebody like Chappell Roan say, ‘Ann’s voice is in my head — like, when I’m trying to think, solve something or work something through, I have Ann Wilson’s calm, mature voice in my head,’ I thought, wow, that is the ultimate compliment, and that just speaks volumes about who she is.”
Beyond the screening tour, Wilson will be doing dates this summer with her side band, Tripsitter, in Japan, Australia and Hawaii, before Heart returns to the road in 2027. “I don’t stop working,” she says.
Ann Wilson documentary tour dates:
5/11/26 – Seattle, WA – The Neptune
5/12/26 – Vancouver, BC – Rio Theatre
5/17/26 – Chicago, IL – City Winery
5/18/26 – Cleveland, OH – Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
5/20/26 – Nashville, TN – City Winery
5/27/26 – New York, NY – City Winery
5/29/26 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Events Center
5/30/26 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House
6/01/26 – Boston, MA – City Winery
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