Heart‘s Ann Wilson has released a music video for her cover of Alice in Chains‘ 1993 grunge classic “Rooster” that you can watch now at her official YouTube channel.
The clip mixes visually distorted footage of Wilson singing the song with a variety of disturbing images and segments, including new and archival photos and film of soldiers, a baby doll set on fire, maggots feeding on a dead fly, a depressed looking older man drinking a bottle of liquor, a military drone and more.
Alice in Chains guitarist/singer Jerry Cantrell wrote “Rooster” about the psychological scars his father experienced while serving in the Vietnam War.
Wilson first released her version of “Rooster” in December 2020 as the B-side of a limited-edition vinyl single that also featured her rendition of the 2004 Steve Earle song “The Revolution Starts Now.”
A video of Ann performing “Rooster” also was shown during the virtual Founders Award tribute honoring Alice in Chains that was presented by Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, a.k.a. MoPOP, in December 2020.
On her social media pages, Wilson has posted a screen grab of a Seattle Times interview from December 2020 in which she explains that the “Rooster” music video originally was created to be shown at the Founders Award tribute to Alice in Chains, noting that the organizers decided not to use it because they preferred live footage of artists performing.
Ann added, “[S]ometime I’ll put that video out because it’s really cool. Just maggots and war stuff and darkness and insanity.”
Wilson’s “Rooster” cover also is available as part of a five-song EP compiling some of her recent solo recordings titled Sawheat 8 that she released last June.
(Video contains images that may disturb some viewers.)
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