Simon Crampton of ThisIsNotAScene recently conducted an interview with HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ThisIsNotAScene: The new album, “A Strange Case Of…”, came out in April. Have you been surprised by how well the album has been received?

Lzzy: Definitely. Maiinly because we love the record, but as we’ve noticed in past years, just because of what we like and don’t like, just because we like something, it doesn’t mean that everyone else is going to like it [laughs], but yeah, it was very cool. Not to be cheesy, but it was very strange — we’d had some success on the last record in the States and a little bit over here [in the U.K.], and we were just a little worried that it was a little too all over the place or for me personally that some of the more vulnerable parts of the record would put people off, that they wouldn’t want to hear that from me, because on the last album it was all superhero all the time, and it’s like, “Hey, I’m a tough chick” and all that, so to open yourself up like that, I was a little nervous about. But so far so good, and its already exceeded the last record. I feel like everyone over here has gravitated to this one versus the last one.

ThisIsNotAScene: Was there a point when you were writing some of the slower more personal songs like “Break In” and “Beautiful With You” that you were worried that you were putting too much of yourself on display?

Lzzy: Definitely. I feel like with songs like that, I write them anyway, but I hardly ever show them to the guys in my band, only because I assume that no one is going to want to hear that from me, or the guys in the band are going to think its too cheesy or too girly of a subject. I went through a period of my life and as a writer, especially as a teenager where I was, like, “Screw power ballads and piano stuff, I’m going to write heavy stuff and scream my head off. It’s going to be annoying and obnoxious.” but I kind of settled down a bit during the making of this record and the song that spurred the whole thing off was a B-side called “Hate It When You See Me Cry” and I wrote the song in five minutes after a bottle of wine and recorded it into my phone, and I had the brilliant idea at the time to send it to my A&R guy, which I remembered I’d done in the morning and was like, “Dammit, I’m going to get it. Someone is going to be mad at me.” The A&R guy called me and I kind of ignored his call. Then he called me again two more times, so I answered and said, “Yeah, I know… I’m sorry I sent you this thing that’s just on acoustic guitar.” And he was, like, “No, no, no. I love the song, can you do more like that?” Basically he said they didn’t think I had that side to me, so it was kind of a surprise to him and my guys, and after that, the floodgates opened and I did a lot more of it. But even then, you put it down and you record it and you hear it, it sounds great and I love the collection of songs on this album, but then you’re thinking, “Did we do the right thing?” And you never really know until you kick it out into the world and see what people think.

ThisIsNotAScene: When you did the Carnival Of Madness tour in the States, you performed “Break In” with Amy Lee from EVANESCENCE. Was that a strange experience for you to share something so personal with someone else like that?

Lzzy: I’m not going to lie to you, I was a little shy when I first met her, because she’s been famous a hell of a lot longer and had to deal with a lot more than I have. She’s not really into a whole lot of the more upbeat rock stuff that we do, like the “Love Bites…” kind of stuff. After a few dates of us playing together, she came bouncng out of her bus one day because she’d seen my walk past and was, like, “I’ve just heard ‘Break In’ and I can’t stop listening to it. I know all your parts, and I had this weird idea. Do you think you would let me come up and sing your parts with you?” and I was, like, “Of course.” It was actually very reassuring for me, especially as she has always shown that vulnerable side to her, so it was reassurance and a big “Fuck yeah!” for me. It made sense, and if I hadn’t put that song on the record, you never know… she might not have come up and sang with me, so it was a very cool experience.

ThisIsNotAScene: One of the things that has happened to you recently is that you were voted Revolver magazine’s Hottest Chick In Rock 2012. How did that feel for you?

Lzzy: It was very flattering and very humbling. The coolest thing about Revolver is that they spend a lot of time on it, and there’s always an article to be done, so there’s always a story behind it — it’s not just a centrefold, poster-child kind of thing; you can always dig a little deeper. It’s fun, though, man, and I ended up keeping it classy on the cover. [laughs] I definitely enjoy it. Sex and rock and roll go hand in hand. I enjoy that aspect and the dressing, but the one rule that I go by is that I make sure I have something to back it up. If, over the course of this, it becomes all about that type of stuff, then I did something horribly wrong. [laughs]

Read the entire interview from ThisIsNotAScene.

Kirk Hammett (METALLICA), Paul Stanley (KISS) and Mick Jones (FOREIGNER) are among the musicians who attended yesterday’s (October 9) premiere of LED ZEPPELIN‘s press new concert movie, “Celebration Day”, at the historic Ziegfeld Theater in New York’s theater district.

A two-minute video report on the event from Reuters can be seen below.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, a slightly testy LED ZEPPELIN met the press yesterday at New York’s Museum Of Modern Art following the screening of “Celebration Day”. Although John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham were respectful to the writers and reporters, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were clearly annoyed that they genuinely wanted to know if the band is considering any new work or concerts. Page and Plant would respond to any reunion questions by staring the reporter down — Plant alternately pretended to snore and even called a reporter from The Associated Press a “schmuck” for asking about the future of LED ZEPPELIN.

Page and Plant — who, while hawking their five-year-old reunion concert CD/DVD — couldn’t be bothered to honestly answer the press, who tried gamely to play along with the fact that they were supposed to ignore the 300 pound gorilla in the room, which was that LED ZEPPELIN were right in front of them and NOT making music. At one point Page tersely answered a reporter’s reunion question. “Well, look; at this time four years ago, we’d have been rehearsing to get to the O2,” he said. “In December it’ll be five years since the O2. So, that’s a number of years that pass in between, so that seems unlikely, if there wasn’t a whisper, or a hint that we would get together to do something or other. I’d say even two years ago, or whatever. Seems pretty unlikely, that’s what I think.”

Rock writer Bill Flanagan, the editorial director MTV Networks, served as the moderator and gently coaxed Plant into finally answering the reunion question with a bit of respect for the reporters in the room. “We were so happy that we were actually gettin’ it right [coughs] and taking it beyond what we thought we were about that night,” he said. “There were moments in it where we just took off and pushed off in some place. The responsibility of doing that four nights a week for the rest of time is a different thing. ‘Cause, we’re pretty good at what we do; the tail should never wag the dog. If we’re capable of doing something in our own time that will be what will happen. So any inane questions who are from syndicated outlets [laughs], you should just really think what it takes to answer a question like that in one second, y’know? We know what we’ve got.”

Published by rbtaleman

Heavy metal (fiend/friend?) Writer, frustrat(or), frustrat(ee), decorated U.S. Navy veteran, Husband(twice), father(three times), grandfather(of seven), FM radio veteran, Concertgoer, music collector, muscle car aficianado. Grown up since five. Child since 45. View all posts by rbtaleman