SEATTLE — Last seen slaying Climate Pledge Arena with Heart in November, Seattle rock hero Ann Wilson comes home this month to premiere her new documentary, “Ann Wilson — In My Voice.”

Rather than simple screenings around the country, Wilson is taking a more personal approach to unveiling the new film, kicking off a nine-city tour in Seattle with a May 11 screening and live Q&A session at the Neptune Theatre, where Wilson and director Barbara Hall will take audience questions.

The film chronicles Wilson’s journey from childhood through Heart’s rise to fame and beyond, casting Wilson's life against the backdrop of evolving American culture. Ahead of the screening and Q&A, we caught up with Wilson to discuss the new doc, her life in rock 'n' roll and returning to the stage with Heart last year following cancer treatment. This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Q: Tell me about the impetus for the documentary. How did this project get going?

A: We came to the realization that no talk has ever been made about just my life. It’s always me as an appendage of Heart. While that’s a remarkable thing, it’s not the whole story. We thought, Let’s take a picture of the rest of it and see what that’s like. And it was a lot of fun, getting it all together and going through the archives of stuff that’s just me and my world.

Q: What sort of things were you going through and revisiting while trying to figure out what to include?

A: In my house in Seattle, I had a vault that had films and photographs and poster art — all kinds of things from all the years, starting way back in the early ‘70s. They’d been stored there for the whole time I lived in that house.

Q: What was the process like working with Barbara? How much were you hands on and steering the direction of the film vs. letting her come in and execute her vision?

A: It was a real nice collaboration. She’s a great person to work with. Really upbeat, a fine Canadian woman (laughs). She came over to the house several times and we had long interviews, got it all on film. We just talked a lot. When I started to be able to look at the rough drafts, there were things I thought could be better; those were tweaked, some were taken out. Just things that I didn’t think were meaningful to the story, keeping in mind that this is not meant to be any sort of whitewash. It shows my story. The ups and the downs and the good again.

Q: Heart’s career has been heavily documented over the years. Were there any aspects of your personal story that you felt hadn’t been properly told or anything you wanted to set the record straight on?

A: Pretty much everything after the ‘80s. Between the ‘80s and now, I’m pretty much an unknown quantity. So, this is a good way for people to get a view into what my life is like now, too. My children are grown and I live in Nashville now. I’m happily married and still doing music with people I really respect.

Q: What changed for you after the ‘80s?

A: Everything. I think emerging from the corporate world of the ‘80s was a great liberation for me creatively. I was able to write better songs. Maybe not the kind that were playing on the radio, necessarily. That’s always been the case with me and Nancy and Heart. We don’t necessarily write for the radio. We write and if it hits, it hits. I think that became a lot clearer after the ‘80s. We were more free to be ourselves. I made a lot of friends in Seattle during that time in the ‘90s. I became a member of the Seattle music community for a while. Very tight-knit and family-like. It was a great time to raise little kids and have them surrounded by creative people and live in a great city.

Q: How do you think you’ve evolved as a songwriter over the years?

A: I think it’s a matter of taking off the blinders. Especially as a lyricist, I think it’s possible to write about anything you want. You don’t have to just write about love, you can write about anything. Especially nowadays when there’s so much going on in the world. There’s so much high emotion flying around, it’s impossible not to catch some of it in songs.

Q: I understand the film presents your life in the context of evolving American culture. Part of the story of Heart’s early years involves you following(Heart's first manager) Michael Fisher up to Vancouver during the Vietnam War. What do you remember about how you viewed the Vietnam War and what was happening in America at that time as a young person from a military family who fell in love with someone who fled to Canada to evade the draft?

A: I grew up in a military family and I really honored and respected what my father did, the two wars he’d been in in the Pacific and in Korea. But when the Vietnam War came along, he wasn’t having any of it. He’d already been there twice and had been wounded both times. So, when it came time for him to be called to go to Vietnam, he tried to get information about what was going on and it was classified even to him. He couldn’t find out anything. He threw up his hands and went, “This is not for me. This is a dirty war.” And he retired.

Him having done that really showed me that it’s more about what you feel than any kind of patriotism. When I met Michael Fisher, I saw his situation was not unlike my father’s, except he’d never been to war. So, I felt my own feelings about it that had more to do with my father than Michael. Dirty war.

Q: Did your upbringing in a military family inform how you approached your music career?

A: Only insofar as we were always traveling. In the family, we were never anywhere for more than a couple years, so the idea of pulling up stakes and moving on was pretty natural for me and Nancy.

Q: You mentioned Seattle in the ‘90s being a great place to raise your kids. What was it like to settle down a bit after the ‘70s and ‘80s and raise a family of your own?

A: I remember a few really beautiful, calm summer evenings in Seattle. I lived on Capitol Hill then. Just going out and grilling something in the backyard and listening to the neighborhoods and feeling really at peace. I don’t know if Seattle’s like that now, but it was then.

Q: As your family grew, what was it like balancing life on the road and being present for your family?

A: When the kids were small enough, they went with me on the road. We’d take them on the bus and make sure they had a safe bunk to sleep in. I’d try to plan the tours so they were only in the summer when the kids were out of school, so we could all be together.

Q: When you started out in the ‘70s, as women, you were pioneers in the hard rock world and dealt with your share of misogyny in the music industry. There’s still progress to be made on that front, but was there ever a period where you felt things started to improve or the culture started to shift?

A: Definitely, yes. And that’s now. It started really shifting, I don’t know, five years ago, in a really dramatic way. I don’t think it’s even that big of a deal anymore. I think if somebody looks at you and goes, “Oh wow, you’re a woman. You’re in a rock band.” You just kind of go, “Yeah, and? So what?” There are so many women in bands now and that’s how it should be. People always used to ask, “What’s it like being a woman in rock?” And of course, the answer is it’s just like being a man in rock. There’s no difference.

Q: Are there any younger artists you’re really into or that you see any kindred spirit with?

A: I like Lola Young. I think she’s got something extra. She’s not doing what every other young woman her age is doing. She’s out there just tearing it up and I think that’s amazing.

Q: Last year, you got back on the road with Heart for the first time since undergoing chemotherapy. What was it like playing those first shows back?

A: It was hard, because chemotherapy really takes a lot out of your energy. It’s hard to even want to get out of bed some days, but I didn't attempt to go onstage until I was ready. And that meant I went onstage in a wheelchair the first few weeks.

When I went out, it took something to do that — to take off the wig and go, “I’m just going to be the person I am right now after chemotherapy. I can sing great, but I don’t look like I looked in the pictures. I have to go out and just do this to be myself.” So, I did. And it was really something, because I went out onstage and the minute people saw me, they just opened up. It was the most gratifying moment after what I’d just been through to see people going, “Wow. We accept you. We know who you are. You’re not just a cancer, you’re you.” That was beautiful.

Q: Was it nerve-wracking the first time, knowing you were going to be performing in a wheelchair?

A: Nah. I don’t think it was nerve-wracking, because the songs are what really set me free.

Q: Some of the songs you’ve been singing for decades. As you’ve grown as a person, have any changed meaning for you or have you come to view any in a different way?

A: Oh, of course. Some of them were written so long ago that it’s really hard to access the person that wrote that song. “Magic Man” is a good example. That was the first song that I ever wrote for the first Heart album. When we do that song, it’s like, “Who was that person again that wrote that song?” She was 23. It’s a whole different thing. But it’s possible. You can re-create those songs. Maybe even a little bit better, in terms of singing them a little wiser.

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“Ann Wilson — In My Voice” screening and live Q&A

8 p.m. May 11, Neptune Theatre, 1303 N.E. 45th St., Seattle; $37.60, stgpresents.org.

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