Q&A with Ann Wilson: Singing a new song, contemplating Heart and that Annie Leibovitz controversy

(This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)

Q: In your 2012 book, “Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll,” I read about you and your sister Nancy being photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Rolling Stone. I find that story insane. All true?

A: Yeah, it was our second Rolling Stone cover and Annie was going to shoot it. We were playing down in Biloxi and staying in a hotel across from the beach, so she wanted to do it there. We were laying in the sand and she wanted us to pose without clothes — so she can shoot without the shield of clothing, hiding our true self or whatever. And so we were laying there and I had a towel over me because, you know, I wasn’t ready to just be topless for Annie Leibovitz’s camera at that point or any point, I guess. But she started saying, “Well, you know, that white towel is messing with my light meter.”

Q: The old light meter trick works every time, right?

A: I ended up taking the towel away, and they had to form a security thing around us on the beach and there were all these tourists around. It was really uncomfortable. It was one of those moments, I think, where the guarded and innocent young thing has a revelation about what’s really possible, about what people might want in show business.

Q: I don’t even understand how to process the idea that there was this desire to sexualize you and your sister on the cover of a major magazine. And Leibovitz, who took the famous photo of John Lennon naked on a bed with a fully clothed Yoko Ono, obviously was interested in doing that again. But Yoko clearly said, “I’m not doing that.”

A: She’s completely covered. And that’s kind of what made that photo so cool. But, you know, back in the late ’70s, early ’80s and all through the ’80s, it was a long time ago in the development away from objectification of women as sexual objects. It hadn’t even really begun yet in the ’80s. That’s what it was all about — like how objectified can we get? You know, that’s what was hip.

Q: Your new song “Tender Heart” is beautiful. What’s it about? What inspired you?

A: It’s a blues song, a song about heartbreak — about that moment when you see behind romance and see the reality. About when you romantically feel something is one way, it is so beautiful, and then you get the wool ripped out from in front of your eyes. I think everyone’s probably had that experience at some point. I had it a long time ago during a heartbreak, during my first love heartbreak, and it always stuck with me as being like a loss of virginity in another way.

Q: When you realize that things aren’t going to last forever.

A: When you realize that things aren’t as they seem.

Q: What about a Heart biopic? Do you have any updates?

A: They’ve asked me not to talk about it that much anymore. It’s still in development. It’s an Amazon deal. And Carrie Brownstein is writing it.

Q: I’m sorry, you said you can’t talk about it, but is there anyone connected to directing it? Do you have any sense of who will play you and who will play Nancy?

A: I don’t know anything about casting. Linda Obst is actually producing. She’s done a bunch of movies, like “Sleepless in Seattle.”

Q: Is there any chance the original Heart, the people who played together in the ’70s, will play together again?

A: From the ’70s, gee, I don’t know. I just can’t answer that. I don’t know because we haven’t really hung out together for like 35 years.

Q: Would you want that to happen?

A: The thing that I have to say about that is not what everybody wants to hear. But from the musician’s point of view, it’s like that moment is passed. 1976 or 1979 or 1980, where that was real, authentic, there was nothing put on about it. It wasn’t reconstructed. That moment was real, and to go back and try to put that back together wouldn’t be as authentic. But I don’t know, I could see asking one or more of them to come into the studio sometime.