Halestorm's Lzzy Hale on rock, religion, queer awakenings and a whole lot more

When we catch up with Lzzy Hale, she’s sitting in her closet. “I’m adulting and I don’t like it,” the Halestorm vocalist and guitarist tells us, mid-way through house renovations and surrounded by leather jackets and stage outfits, although it’s an apt setting for us to look back on her life. Since founding the band with her brother, drummer Arejay, in 1997 aged just 13, she’s led Halestorm through a series of changes and leaps of faith that have turned Halestorm into one of the biggest bands in hard rock and Lzzy into an empowering modern icon. This is her story.

REVISITING THE PAST CAN HELP YOU MOVE FORWARD

“To recreate our set for this last festival season in the UK and Europe, we went back to a couple of songs [on 2009 debut, Halestorm] just to kind of go back to basics. It’s crazy to see or to hear in real time how much we’ve grown, how different my voice sounds. I couldn’t help myself analysing little tricks that I did with my voice and I’m like, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that now.’ Particular sounds on the record take you back to that moment. When I hear certain guitar bars, I’m like, ‘Oh, man, do you remember that carpet that was in the studio?’”

DON’T BE AFRAID TO STEP OUT OF THE BOX

“When we first started, we were playing with both pop punk bands and metal bands It was this weird, middle of the road, in between, and I always felt a little discouraged by that because I’m like, ‘Well, where’s our place? Where do we belong?’ Those things mattered to me in the beginning because I really wanted to figure it out. I wanted to know who I was. And looking back on it, I’m so glad that we didn’t adhere to that. It really just comes down to, are you passionate or not? Is it good or not? It doesn’t really matter.”

NOT EVERY GIG WILL BE EASY

“If I’m putting myself in an uncomfortable situation where I don’t know the outcome, there’s something physical that happens to your body. You have something to prove. When we played Lollapalooza in Sweden, we were opening up for Billie Eilish and we were the only hard rock band on the lineup. The crowd was very enthusiastic, but it took them a second. The full first two songs were just everybody in shock and awe, just staring and absorbing what we’re doing ... then we had them after that. It was so awesome seeing all of these kids in Drake T shirts doing the [metal] horns.”

STAY COOL IN THE HEAT AT FESTIVALS

“Small bit of advice. Put your leather jacket in the refrigerator for like, 20 minutes before you have to do anything strenuous or sweaty.”

COMING OUT AS BISEXUAL HELPED ME CONNECT WITH FANS

“On Twitter, I was asked a question and [I responded] ‘Well, being bi...’ and then everybody kind of freaked out. At that point in time, my bandmates and my parents and everybody kind of knew, so I’m in my own bubble, and didn’t realise that the majority of people out there, 95% have no idea. I was like, ‘Oh, well, okay, I guess I’ll have to be prepared to answer for that now’. I do keep some things for myself, that’s the healthy way to do things, but I don’t mind being open about the things that I like being open about. And this specifically, has brought me joy by talking about it. I get these amazing hugs from young people that come to our shows and they’re trying to come out to their parents or they’re afraid to. And I’m in a place in my life now where I can talk openly about all of these things and give something back.”

YOU’D NEVER GUESS ONE OF OUR EARLY INSPIRATIONS

“My brother and I were watching Saturday Night Live in 1997 and we see [90s pop trio] Hanson come up and do this ridiculous song [alt-pop oddity Mmm Bop]. We were like, ‘We need to know who they are because they’re our age. How come we’re not on there? We had a lot of conflicts that happened when we first started a band. Most people were like, ‘you’re too young, you should be doing something else. Why are you going into hard rock? You’re going to be worshipping the devil.’ So all of those things were happening, and then you see these three brothers go up and do their song on a global scale, so we wanted to figure it out. If you go online and listen to us, pre being signed, you can hear some of those cues of how I’m doing the vocals, how I’m building a song, and all that is because I was studying [Hanson’s debut album Middle Of Nowhere]. And also, I thought [Hanson singer] Taylor was cute and it probably started my whole bi thing because it’s like, ‘Oh, he’s pretty but he’s a dude’.”

ORGANISED RELIGION WASN’T RIGHT FOR ME…

“For a good while, we were involved in the Christian community, went to church every Sunday and I went to a Christian school. [Discovering rock] was a pivotal moment for me because I wasn’t getting into rock music to worship the devil or to be a rebel. It was something that I connected with in some unknown way, so I got obsessed with it. Family members, teachers, parents of friends, all noticed this change in me. And what frustrated me is that, instead of noticing that I have a change in character, as in maybe I’m more confident, maybe I actually have an idea of what I want to do in life, and that being celebrated, the majority of those people were very concerned. That made me start questioning, ‘Why is something that I love and that I am passionate about evil just because you said so?”

…BUT RELIGION GOT SOME THINGS RIGHT

“I’ve taken a lot of the things that I’ve learned from spirituality and from certain aspects of religion. The fundamental truths are: be kind to each other, love one another, always think about what you’re doing to somebody else before you do things. And I told myself, I’m going to be the best person I can. What these human beings were telling me was their perceived conception of spirituality, and the path they said I should [take], I didn’t agree with. But either way, through the amazing vehicle of hard rock and the devil’s music, or whatever you call it, I have made it part of my mission statement to spread that love and be a sanctuary for people.”

THE LITTLE MOMENTS MATTER

“I feel like there are so many small epiphanies and so many small moments that have changed my life for the better or worse. If my parents hadn’t decided to move to the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania and maybe my brother and I wouldn’t be as close. If we hadn’t had that, maybe we would have never connected on music.”

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

“Right before we met Joe [Hottinger, Halestorm guitarist and Lzzy’s long-term partner] and Josh [Smith, bassist], we had just lost half our band all at once. Our former guitar player and bass player decided after a few years that this was too hard and they could make more money being in a cover band. I remember being distraught and turning to little bro [Arejay] and saying, ‘Are we crazy for doing this? Because nobody understands it. Maybe we’re not meant to do this.’ And luckily, in my little brother’s brilliance, he’s like, ‘Well, yeah, of course you’re crazy. We both are absolutely nuts for doing this. But what else are we going to do?’ And I’m glad we did because then shortly after that, we met Joe, and then a year after that, we met Josh, and we finally found our members.”

REMIND YOURSELF OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS

“Sometimes I can hit walls and I can get depressed. I can have imposter syndrome, like, ‘Why am I even doing this? Someone’s going to find out that I’m just a dork from Pennsylvania. I can have all these moments, and then there will inevitably be the epiphany; ‘No, this is actually an amazing feat that you’ve accomplished, and you can take the next step if you want to’.”

YOU NEVER RUN OUT OF DREAMS

“I always jump at the opportunity to do any acting. I’ve auditioned for a lot of things. Years ago, I got an acting agent and then everything with the band took off. But you never know. I’m ready and willing if the opportunity [to act] puts itself on the table. I really like cheesy horror films. I do really well in a body bag because we did that [in the music video for single, Back From the Dead]. I have been in a body bag more times than somebody living should be.”