Here’s To Us. An interview with Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

Halestorm is a band that is as intriguing as they are talented. Not one to shy away from her sexual side, vocalist/guitarist Lzzy Hale is not afraid to be in your face with her lyrics. Knowing that rock and roll has always had a sexual side, and many songs with sexual meanings, Lzzy isn’t afraid to be who she is, and touch on subjects that are taboo for most female artists. For most, their introduction to Halestorm, was the voyeuristic leaning I Get Off. The lyrics to that one, will certainly grab your attention if you are a casual listener.

Make no mistake though, Halestorm is not simply a band with a gimmick. They have been a band for many years and their live show will certainly cement that fact. Lzzy and her brother Arejay, are the core of the band and the music flows effortlessly within their veins. Recently the band released the album, The Strange Case Of, and the first single, Love Bites (And So Do I) went #1 on the Active Rock charts. Freak Like Me is the current single, and it is currently impacting radio. It’s not everyday that you get to interview someone considered to be one of the hottest ladies in rock and metal, then to find out how much of an actual sweetheart she is, well that’s just icing on the cake.

Stream the entire Lzzy Hale interview below:
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Today, I’m honored to be joined by Lzzy Hale. Lzzy is the vocalist and guitarist of Halestorm. First, I want to say thank you for joining me today and I’d like to welcome you to the Unsung Melody family. You guys dropped a bombshell of an album on the rock world. It’s called The Strange Case Of. The first single was Love Bites (And So Do I) and it recently made some history. Tell us a bit about that.

It’s funny. Our first single went #1 on the Active Rock charts. We were all celebrating our first #1 on any format, and our management called, and all of these people started calling me. They were saying, “You’ve made history. You are the first female-fronted band to make it to #1 on the Active Rock charts.” Of course, I was kind of taken aback by that, and told them they were all liars. (laughter) Because there had to be somebody else. Apparently, there hasn’t been, and quite honestly, it’s an honor to be carrying that torch at the moment. Of course, my Mother called me up and she was like, “My Baby’s making history!” (laughter) I made Mom happy, so that’s good.

When you can make Mom happy, the world is spinning in the right direction. So, it’s all good.

Never truer words have ever been spoken. (laughter)

I think you guys are sitting on what could be a massive crossover hit. The song Here’s To Us has the feel of a classic summer drinking song. Any plans on that one being a single?

Oh definitely. Believe me. That was one of those songs, that is definitely special to us. Because, we kind of wrote it after the fact. We already had the record done. The songs were chosen, the songs were done, and everything was narrowed down and ready to go. I ended up writing this song about my experience in the band. We’ve been through a helluva roller coaster ride over the past many years. Living two feet from each other. We literally celebrate the low times, as well as the high times. So, anytime that we think, Man, this is all over. We’re going back to playing small pubs in central Pennsylvania. We get out a cheap bottle of champagne and we celebrate the journey.

It was interesting, because we wrote this song and just on a whim, we sent it into the label. We were already done, so we were just like let’s send it to the label anyways. Maybe they’ll have a placement for it, but we know the record is already done. Maybe it will be a B-Side. Then, everyone freaks out. They love the song, and it was kind of like the bottom of the 9th, and the bases are loaded and homerun. It was just such a great moment for us and that song. So, you’ll definitely be hearing on the radio. Probably sometime later in the Summer.

Sounds good to me. I’m excited for you, because I think that song has the potential to really put you guys where you need to be. Well, I have to commend you on something. You guys released a covers EP called Re:Animate. I have never seen anyone take on such big voices, so fearlessly. To be quite honest, most would never have the balls to do what you did. (laughter) Was there any hesitation about tackling such big names? Were you kind of leery about putting that out there, or were you just like, let’s do it?

At that point in time, when we did that cover EP, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to think. We were in between tours, and we had about 6 days. So, we were like, well we can do a song a day. What are we going to do? I think we just kind of said, we were going to risk it and do whatever we wanted. (laughter) Then deal with the consequences later. Thankfully, fingers crossed, it worked out okay. The songs that were on that, were picked mostly because we loved the songs. Then, the Lady Gaga cover, it was our fans actually that ended up picking that one. We couldn’t figure out what our last song was going to be, and we didn’t have a whole lot of time. So, we ended up putting a poll on our website and asking the fans, out of any song, pick any song. We even put up like 50 songs for suggestions. A lot of them were like Metallica’s Sad But True, or a Heart song, or a Pat Benatar song. Kind of a stereotypical thing of what people would expect of us, and the #1 requested song by our fans to do on our EP was the Lady Gaga Bad Romance cover. So, we were like, alright, well I guess we got to do this. (laughter) We did it and so far, so good. Thanks to the fans to challenging us, (laughter) with a track like that. I think I enjoy those types of situations. In a lot of ways, our last record was just a big risk itself. Because we didn’t have a whole lot of time for that either. We got off tour, had 24 hours to pack, literally, and then flew to L.A. to start recording the record with a handful of songs and a bunch of ideas that we hadn’t even finished yet. So, we ended up having to take our brain out of it, and just go with our gut, and say, does this get us excited or not? So, I think we do that a lot with any situation. When you don’t have time to be diplomatic, and think about pros and cons, you just have to go with your gut (laughter) and just do it.

You are one of the more active rockers on twitter. In this age of music, how important do you think social media is to the success of a band?

Nowadays, especially, it really is important to be connected with your fans. Especially since everything is already out there. It’s funny, because in the early years, I used to wish it was the 70’s again. Where everything was just very mysterious, and people waited in line because there was only a handful of great bands, and you couldn’t hear them anywhere else other than on the record, or in an interview, or when you see them live. Today, it’s kind of the opposite. You have to choose right up front. Are you going to be more like Tool, or a lot of other bands that are very mysterious and keep to themselves; Or do you go the other way and leave it all hanging out there? So, we chose the latter and we just hang everything out there. We’re terrible liars anyway, and it’s tough for us to keep secrets, (laughter) so I think that just keeping everything out there is good for us. I think it’s important for bands to know where they come from. To know who is really feeling your career, and who listens to your music. Not only is that great for the fans, it gives them all of these different moments where they get to meet you, and talk to you. They feel like they identify with you, but also professionally. When you go into a studio, and you are writing the next record, it really helps to know the type of audience you captivate, personally. It helps to know, not necessarily what they want to hear, but what they deserve to get from your record. That’s the way we’ve always been with all of our fans. You have to respect the crazy. (laughter) I have to tell you that. Because we have so many crazy fans, and they’ll drive like 6 hours to see a 30 minute opening set. Then buy the T-shirts, and buy the CD’s. We know that times are tough, and we know that just to get that ticket, you have to save up. But they feel the need to be there. This is kind of our way of making sure that we stay connected with them, and that we give them everything that they deserve. The respect that they deserve, because of what they do for us.

You recently got to do my job. You interviewed Pat Benatar. How was that whole experience for you?

(laughter) That was amazing! I have to tell you, that besides getting to meet Ronnie James Dio, we ended up opening up for Heaven and Hell shortly before he passed away, and that was a crazy and an amazing experience. This is up there with that. There’s like two moments in my life, that I can cross off of my bucket list, and I’m not quite sure I deserve it yet. (laughter) It was such an amazing experience to talk to someone like that. First of all, Pat Benatar, hands down, is the coolest 60 year old chick I’ve ever met. She’s amazing, and so down to earth. What a warm person to talk to. We were only supposed to speak in that interview for about 30 to 45 minutes, but we ended up speaking for two hours. (laughter) So, we didn’t even get half of that interview in Revolver. It was just such a great thing. She was talking to me about when she was on tour with Chrissie Hynde, and when she was hanging out with the Heart sisters. How they were all trying to figure out who they were going to meet in 25 years, and who they were gonna be able to talk to. She paused for second, and I’m going to get a little emotional here, she paused for a second, and she said, “Lzzy, you are what we hoped that we would be meeting and talking to after 25 years, after everything that we went through. Thank God.” And apparently, her and Neil (Giraldo) love the record. I can’t even tell you how I felt. Like, literally, my jaw was on the floor, and my face just melted into my shoes, as I listened to her say these things. Just what an honor. It was definitely one of those things where I still get tingly when I talk about it.

Alright, I always end on a random question. So here goes yours; You’ve traveled the world over on tour. What is your favorite venue to either play or see a show?

Oh wow. Well we just got done playing our 2nd year at the Download Festival in the UK. Also, we played Rock Am Ring in Germany. Those festivals over there, they had been a dream of ours. Especially since, these are the same grounds where Monsters Of Rock was held in the 70’s and 80’s. Just famous names like, Guns And Roses, AC/DC, Skid Row, just everybody used to play there. So, it’s definitely worth it to go and see those venues. Not only to play the stages, but I got to see Metallica for the first time at Rock Am Ring in Germany. I’m telling you, I was talking with our guitar player earlier, we were standing side stage, in Germany, on one of the most famous festival grounds, watching Metallica. It was just one of those moments, where I was like, “Oh my God, I will cherish this for the rest of my life. This is just too awesome.”

As far as favorite places to play, we’ve been to Japan once. That’s one of those things that I would recommend to anybody. It’s like a whole other planet over there. They love their music, and they just an extremely polite culture. A lot of it is a little strange, a bit of a culture shock when you get there. Let me tell you a little bit about the show. We are playing this festival called Loud Park. Ozzy Osbourne is headlining, and we are about to go on, and there is no house music. You know, how you go into a show and there is house music, people are getting drunk, it’s loud. People are talking. None of that. Everyone is completely silent. Everyone in this arena, is just waiting for whoever is coming on, and just very quietly observing. It was so strange. I told the guys, I said, “Maybe this is like a tough crowd, and maybe they won’t be into us.” Then we took the stage, and as soon as the first note hit, they go crazy. Then, when the band is done, they just go back and are very quiet. It was just very strange, but so cool to experience. That’s definitely one of those favorite places.

Now as far as the States go, I love playing the Midwest. You guys are nuts. (laughter) It’s just always a good time. Some of the venues that we play in the Midwest, are BYOB (bring your own beer). Which ends up being extremely rowdy, because people just bring coolers of beer, and they’re taking their shirts off and throwing beer everywhere. It’s a great time. (laughter)

Well, I thank you so very much for joining me today. The site and myself wish you and the band, nothing but the best out there. Hopefully, we’ll see you on the road soon.

Halestorm members:
Lzzy Hale-Vocals, Guitar
Arejay Hale-Drums
Josh Smith-Bass, Vocals
Joe Hottinger-Guitar, Vocals

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Check out the video to Love Bites (And So Do I) below:

Check out the video to I Miss The Misery by Halestorm below: