They’ve won a Grammy, just as they’ve won over a legion of fans having made their pitch as one of the hardest-touring bands in the US. Now Halestorm are about to move up another gear with the release of their new album Everest, but the band members still have moments of giddy fandom that take them crashing back to their teenage years.
Brought up on a steady diet of classic rock, frontwoman Lzzy Hale has had countless opportunities to meet her heroes, often forming firm friendships, occasionally dissolving into a storm of fart jokes, and, on at least one occasion, bonding with a metal god over a shared love of high-heeled shoes.
Lemmy
I never met Lemmy, but we observed Lemmy doing his thing at the Rainbow in LA. We were kids, and we were too shy to go over and say hi, and he was busy playing his game on the corner of the bar. We’re just kind of creepy, looking at him every now and again. This was before our debut album came out, he wouldn’t have any idea who we were.
Ronnie James Dio
We were driving through the East Coast in the US, and Heaven And Hell was performing in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Coheed And Cambria, the opening band, had dropped out of the last show of the tour, and my booking agent called and said: “Would you like to open up for Heaven And Hell?”
I’ve always been a huge Dio fan. After the show we watched him sign everything for people and he still came walking over to our RV. I said: “We would have understood if you’re just tired and want to go on your bus, but thank you for spending so much time with us”. He says: “Lzzy, this is a moment in time. You’re never going to remember all of the places you play or all the people you meet, but they are going to remember meeting you for the rest of their lives. So you make it good for everyone”.
I assumed he was giving me advice for my own fan base. And then after he died, I thought: “Oh, he made that moment for me. He knew that I was a fan, and he made that happen”. I’ll never forget that. He was talking about my voice after the set, and pinched my cheeks, like: “You got it, kid”. I felt like I’d been knighted or something.
Alice Cooper
Everybody’s awesome uncle! Alice Cooper was one of the first rockers I gravitated toward as a kid. I remember going to a sleepover in sixth grade and bringing his CD Love It To Death, and having all the girls be like: “You are an alien from outer space”. I wasn’t making a whole lot of friends that day. I told him that story, and he says: “I’m so proud that it was me that showed you that you were weird and that you weren’t like the other girls”.
It was helpful to have somebody to look up to that wasn’t afraid to own their weird. On tour you’d see him walking out of the dressing room being Alice Cooper, fun-loving guy, and then change all of a sudden. His posture changed. He went from Coop to Alice Cooper. You saw the physical metamorphosis to this character. He wouldn’t break that character until he’s back in the dressing room.
I remember him talking to me about the state of rock music, and he was like: “I think rock is always just where it needs to be. We’re not supposed to be at the cool kids’ table. We’re in the basement gutter. We’re locked in chains. They’re too afraid to let us out because we’re just going to take over the world. So we’re exactly where we need to be”.
Black Sabbath
I’ve never met Ozzy, but having the opportunity to open up for Heaven And Hell in 2009 we got to meet Tony and Geezer [This interview was conducted before the Back To The Beginning event, when Halestorm did meet Ozzy]. The first riff I ever learned on guitar was a Black Sabbath riff. The only reason that my name is spelled Lzzy is because of Ozzy. Tony is really calm and very cool, very regal. Geezer’s very intellectual and a deep thinker.
I remember all of them treating us like we were family. They know that they’re responsible for you being a band, for you being into rock music. They understand that they’re godfathers of heavy metal. They want to check in on this monster they’ve created in all of us.
Slash
The first time we hung out with him it was a multiple-band bill. He stopped us in the parking lot because we had covered a Guns ’N Roses song [Out Ta Get Me] on one of our EPs. We had some gigs coming up in the Netherlands, and he asked me if I would want to come up and sing that song with him. You could see out of the corner of the parking lot all these people getting out of their cars, just like zombies closing in. He’s just standing there with his one bodyguard and totally just wanted to hang out.
You can see his bodyguard being like, we gotta go, and he was just oblivious. I’m like, we might want to take this inside, because we’re seeing impending doom. You’re gonna get mobbed here in a second. I did have a bit of a fan-girl moment. We were on stage, and his shirt came off, and he came over to me doing his crab walk and doing the solo. And I was like: “What is life right now?” I reverted back to my sixteen-year-old self.
Amy Lee
From the first time we toured together, we were instantly connected, especially at that point where neither of us really were touring with any other females. She comes into my dressing room and she’s like: “Hey, you do this song on your new album called Break In, but you don’t do it with the guys. Can I come up and sing it?”
So we ended up doing that every night. It was such a weird, deep cut on our record, too. I think it was testament to how much she loves new music and how much she supports her sisters in the business, because she didn’t know me then. We became really good friends, and it became tradition that we do this song together, and then we ended up re-recording it, doing our own version.
She said: “Break In means something different to me now. It’s no longer this love song between a man and a woman, it’s more like, I’m your sister and I have your back no matter how dark it gets”. The few proud females in rock and metal, we’re not in competition with each other, there’s no fights. We support each other, because we know how hard it is. She knows exactly how I feel and it gives me validation.
Ann Wilson
She was one of the first female voices that really blew open the doors for me. One of the first CDs that I gravitated towards in the nineties was [Heart’s ’95 live album] The Road Home. When I got to talk to Ann Wilson, I told her: “When I listened to your rendition of Crazy On You on that album, it showed me the kind of singer that I could potentially be if I stuck with it and I took care of myself. It was very, very inspiring. I saw myself reflected in your voice”.
And it’s so funny, because she turned to me and she’s like: “We hated that album! Isn’t that a crazy thing? How, even the things that maybe you think are trivial can change the life of somebody else completely that you’ve never met?” She’s a very sweet woman, very intelligent and deep-thinking.
Tom Keifer
My guitar player, Joe [Hottinger], and his guitar player had met at Guitar Center and exchanged numbers. Joe knows exactly how I feel about Tom Keifer: I was going to marry him when I was a kid, head over heels. Joe puts down a little note and says: “This is Tom Keifer’s number. He wants you to call him to talk about doing a duet in New Jersey for his solo project”.
So I called up Tom, and he asked me: “Would you sing and perform Jeff’s [La Bar] part on Nobody’s Fool?” We get to the show, and I tripped up over one of the notes, and I was so apologetic about it. He’s like: “Oh, whatever. You didn’t mess it up. You played a different note. Jeff never played it the same way twice either”. He made me feel so at ease. He’s one of those calm, cool, collected guys that holds court. He walks into a room and the air changes, because you know that somebody of note is there.
Skid Row
I got to know Rachel [Bolan] and Snake [Sabo] as people first before we ended up gigging together. I’ve been a Skid Row fan since I was eleven, just trying my damnedest to hit those high notes. When they asked me to be a part of it we were at a mutual friend’s birthday party, and it got brought up over cake. The thing that I discovered was when we were on the bus together, it doesn’t matter how old you are on the outside.
On the inside, including myself, we are all fifteen-year-old boys. The fart jokes were rampant. We were making all these Spinal Tap jokes about the meat in catering. They’re like, the meat is so sweaty. I don’t know why it was so funny, but this sweaty meat came up a lot, and then that ends up being a dirtier and dirtier joke. I’m so grateful for them accepting me into their camp and for allowing me to be a part of that.
Wolfgang Van Halen
He’s a humble kid, there’s none of that “I’m a rock star’s kid” stuff. I’ve met quite a few of those guys that think that they’re better than everybody else because their dad was famous. That’s never been Wolfie. He took us to 5150 and it still had all the tapes up there. There was Jump, the old analogue tapes, everything marked, everything organised to a T.
And we’re like: “Are we supposed to be in here?” He’s like: “Oh yeah, dad won’t mind”. I’m like, this isn’t just anybody’s dad’s garage! I think he and his band are gonna save rock’n’roll. He’s a part of that small club of rock stars that are like: “Hey, you are more than welcome to be a part of this cool thing that we’re doing, but we don’t need you, we’re gonna do it anyway.”
Alter Bridge
They are the hardest-working people in the world, and Myles Kennedy is an angel sent from on high. The first time we went out with them, I had gotten a cold on tour. We were doing a duet together, and I ended up having to drop out one day because I had just gotten really sick, and I didn’t want him to catch it. Every day, he’d be like: “Here’s some tea”, and “Are you drinking enough water?” Just being like this doting big brother. He’s the most down-to-earth man.
Rob Halford
We got to meet and perform with Judas Priest in Auckland, New Zealand. I was wearing these eightinch spiky high heels, and I was telling Rob: “I can’t believe you do eleven leather jacket changes”. He’s like: “Oh, I’m just trying to be like Cher”. And he looks at my high heels and he’s like: “I wish I could wear those”.
So about a month later, around Christmas time, I found some eight-inch spiky high heels that were the exact same ones that I wore, but in a men’s size. I sent them to him for Christmas. He’s got his cane, so I did tell him this may be for just horizontal use only. He ended up posing in them online and writing me a nice note back. Just a little fashion situation there with Rob Halford.
Everest is out now via Atlantic Records. Halestorm's nEVEREST tour begins on September 11. Get tickets.
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