Halestorm Helped Frontwoman Lzzy Hale Become Her Best Self

It's been proposed that any aspiring rock star with a 'Plan B' outside of music likely won't succeed, because they don't have the same hunger and drive compared to a musician who's willing to double-down on their dreams.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Halestorm siblings Lzzy (vocals/guitars) and Arejay Hale (drums) had lofty musical aspirations from an early age. “I always say that I didn't really choose it, it kinda chose me,” Lzzy Hale says, in her immediately disarming, typically bubbly manner. “Because it was almost like overnight, everything else came second.

"My poor parents, they copped so much shit for that."

“In the beginning, it was always my little brother and I. When I was 13, my brother was almost 11, and we had entered ourselves in a talent show at the county fair in Pennsylvania. On the way to the show, little brother in all his wisdom, was like, 'We need a band name'... I'm like, 'Ok, what do you want to call it?' So we literally mulled a bunch of things over and settled on Halestorm. And I'm like, 'That'll work for today.' We didn't win,” she laughs. “But we got the third place trophy, which is now next to my Grammy.”

That was it – they were hooked. “Literally, the day after that we were like, 'Ok, where are we going to play? Who's going to book us? Where can we go?' So we played everywhere, like coffee houses, bars for happy hour, anyone who'd let us play. But it's weird, I remember there being no band, and then literally after one day that's all we wanted to do, that's all we're going to do and this is the direction. My poor parents, they copped so much shit for that,” she chuckles.

Now four albums in – latest LP Vicious being perhaps their heaviest offering yet – and boasting a longtime stable line-up, the hard-rockers are a juggernaut perennially on tour. “We keep saying, 'The road is home, and home is vacation,'" Hale quips. 

She's since relocated to Nashville, but returning home to Pennsylvania always proves a welcome homecoming. “There are so many people that come out of the woodwork, and we just had a show [there] on this last tour. The first show of the tour we went out with Alice Cooper, and we played the hockey arena right across the street from this club that is no longer. But where this club used to be, we literally, as Halestorm, from the time we were 14 years old, cut our teeth in that club. So it was a full-circle event, to play this huge hometown show and everybody was there.

“I just went off stage, and [thought], '21 to 22 years ago, we were across the street in the basement of the place of what they called the "Boom Boom Room", and we worked ourselves up to the main stage and started opening up for nationals.' And [I thought], 'It's pretty cool to be across the street at the hockey arena right now,'” she laughs again.

Hale's candour about both her career and personal life has endeared her to legions of fans. This spans from autobiographical songs like New Modern Love and Do Not Disturb, to being readily accessible on social media. The singer is decidedly upfront on those platforms – “All my socials are mine,” she insists – even on topics such as her bisexuality.

"You know you're not going to be perfect, but I also can't pretend to be something I'm not." 

“I like erring on the side of honesty, and saying, 'Look, I'm not going to be perfect.' The role model thing is a tricky thing, because you know you're not going to be perfect, but I also can't pretend to be something I'm not. I'd rather deal with the consequences of me being honest than me trying to hide things, or try to keep things away. Especially nowadays, honestly, if anyone wants to find anything out about me they can,” she laughs. “It's all out there. But there's comfort in that too. There's comfort in not hiding, and just being comfortable enough to say, 'Look, I'm going to be myself unapologetically.' Even if not a lot of people understand that, or it makes some people queasy or whatever, that's how I want to roll with my life.

“A lot of parents talk [to me] about their daughters, and [say], 'I hope my daughters can feel comfortable being themselves the same way you can.' That's pretty crazy, because I remember being a teenager and not being that way at all. I thank this band and music for helping me become my best self.”