Lzzy Hale learned about the power of using your voice when she was in the first grade. Although, back then, the firebrand rock singer was having none of it.
“We were having a fire drill and the teachers were trying to teach us that if you’re hiding anywhere, if you’re in a closet when there’s a fire, you need to learn how to yell out for the firemen so they know you’re in there.” She chuckles at the irony. “Apparently, I wouldn’t do it. Which is funny, because most of my career is built of yelling at this point.”
To chalk up Lzzy’s success to “yelling” is underselling it. Halestorm’s no-frills, balls-to-the-wall hard rock is big, brash and accessible enough to court the mainstream, but it’s Lzzy’s gale-force, instantly recognisable howl and life-affirming lyrics that give the band their emotional heft and have marked them as one of heavy music’s new guard, genuinely capable of filling arenas. Since Lzzy started the band, aged just 13, with her brother, drummer Arejay Hale, she’s evolved into a modern rock icon: she’s openly bisexual, an LGBTQ+ ally, a proud mental health champion, and a figurehead for a devoted fanbase who have adopted her songs as anthems of empowerment and resilience.
Today, she and her partner of 18 years – Halestorm guitarist Joe Hottinger – are visiting Joe’s parents, each conducting their own press interviews for the band’s triumphant fifth album, Back From The Dead. Of the two, Lzzy got the better deal: while she chats to us via Zoom from a sun-drenched balcony, Joe is cooped up inside in the next room. She seems relaxed and happy. With her bleached blonde hair tied into a messy ponytail, her eyes shaded by oversized sunglasses, she oozes an effortless star quality and is eager to chat about the new record, which candidly charts the emotional highs and lows of her pandemic experience.
She tells the fire drill story to illustrate how “painfully shy” she was as a child. When she was 11 or 12 years old, she began suffering from intense panic attacks in the middle of class. Scared, and unsure what was happening, her teachers sent her home from school – although depression and anxiety had run in her family for years, it wouldn’t be until
