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Lzzy Hale is a rocker through and through, but during a recent Women of Metal roundtable discussion the Halestorm frontwoman recalled getting pressured to ditch her band and go solo — something she had no interest in doing. “I fought very hard to not have a solo career, despite everyone wanting me to,” she said. “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!”
Hale has been outspoken about her experiences as a woman in rock. During a 2022 interview, she pointed out how the tides were turning. "It used to be that not only was I the only girl in a band onstage but I was the only girl on tour, and now that’s not the case," she said ay the time. "At any given festival, we’re all over the place. Women are taking over the rock festivals right now, and I’m not alone in being a girl musician, but also there are female lighting techs and tour managers and engineers and roadies. It’s wonderful to see.”
“And, obviously, in the audience, it’s been completely flipped,” she continued. “Just a few short years ago, it used to be the majority of people in the rock crowds were dudes, and now you just see all these beautiful women owning this genre — owning this hard rock genre. It’s proving once and for all, even though we’ve been talking about it for eons, that this hard rock genre is genderless. It’s not something that us girls got into because we had a boyfriend that loved metal. It’s inherently who we are.”
Halestorm released their last album, Back From The Dead, in 2022 and are working on its follow-up.