Lzzy Hale on How People Pressured Her to Ditch Rock and Go Pop as a Teen

Lzzy Hale has a lot of pride in the fact that she fronts Halestorm, because many people very early in her career encouraged her to go solo and sing pop music.

Hale touched on this during a roundtable event with Spiritbox's Courtney LaPlante and Lacuna Coil's Cristina Scabbia, as transcribed by Metal Hammer.

"I fought very hard to not have a solo career, despite everyone wanting me to,” noted Hale. “I remember being 16 in the clubs and all these men were like, ‘Lose your brother [drummer Arejay Hale], lose the band, lose your buddies – you should be in pop. Why are you into metal? Why are you into hard rock?’ Because this music spoke to us!”

A band that particularly spoke to Hale was Skid Row, who she happened to front for a handful of shows in 2024. In a previous interview with Metal Hammer, Hale detailed her Skid Row experience and noted that she was nervous for the first show but had shaken off the nerves in time for the second show. However, she said that it was the third show where she felt comfortable enough to take "some liberties" with how she sang Skid Row's songs.

Particularly, she talked about "Quicksand Jesus" and said, "Snake played his usual guitar part, and I would imitate it with my voice – and he’d look panicked and play some more. After the show, he comes up like, ‘Lzzy, can I talk to you for a second?’ I immediately think I’m in trouble. But he gives me this huge hug. And he goes, ‘I have never gotten to improv with any of my singers.’ I will carry that with me forever."