HALESTORM's LZZY HALE Misses 'The Chaos' Of The Road When She Is Home

HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale was interviewed on the May 9 edition of "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

Full Metal Jackie: Lzzy, you started playing music as a kid and you formed HALESTORM as a young teenager. What non-musical things have helped keep you passionate and focused about music as you've grown and matured as a person?

Lzzy: "Oh, non-musical things? I guess people don't really count, but the guys in my band, beyond being fellow musicians of mine, have really… I mean, we've gone through so much together, they're kind of… They keep me anchored, because there's this dichotomy that goes with me with everything, 'cause I'm relatively very focused, but then there's another side of me that just wants to say, 'Screw it,' so on occasion, I get myself into trouble. So they're really just been such an amazing road family for me. That and our crew; most of our crew has been working together for years and years. So we're all kind of family. I just think that's so important… it's been such an important part of my family, let alone… definitely it's a huge part of my career, obviously. I don't know if I could really do it without them."

Full Metal Jackie: HALESTORM seems to be perpetually on tour. What aspects of living on the road do you miss most when you're home?

Lzzy: "You know, that's an amazing question, because everyone always asks me the opposite: 'What do you miss from home when you're on the road?' In a word, when I'm home, I got a little crazy… we call it the 're-entry' [laughs], because you're so used to having a schedule, go-go-go, and you're in a different city and there's always something happening and something you're supposed to be doing, a mission. And so then we come home for, like, ten days in between tours, so it's not really enough to do normal things. You either go crazy and go out to the bars and get in trouble, or you start cleaning and doing laundry and reorganizing your closet and things just start happening. So I guess the thing I miss most about touring is just the chaos of it. I think after a couple of years of us really 250-plus days on the road, that's more 'real life' than normal life. So it's becoming more difficult to be normal. [Laughs]"

Full Metal Jackie: Music is a very empowering way to communicate; it's also a way to be extremely vulnerable. What's the hardest thing for you to express with a song?

Lzzy: "I've learned over the past couple of years to kind of embrace both sides, and to be very honest, it's actually… it helps me personally, psychologically, and actually empowers me more when I'm more vulnerable to the people listening to our music. Over the past couple of years, and maybe it just comes with getting older, you care less about what people are gonna think about you. But I don't know… I feel like the honesty has had such a positive effect, not only on our fanbase, but on myself personally. I think it's kind of therapy for me to just put myself out there and say, 'Hey, this is who I am. This is what I write.' Maybe I'm going through something — maybe an upper or a down — but either way, I'm gonna put it out there. The hardest thing, I guess, in earlier records, like the first record, I remember thinking way too much about whether someone's gonna like it, whether people are gonna judge me for this or that, or should I even swear on the record? It was just a weird thing that I was going through in my head where you wanna put all of your soul out there, but you don't wanna give too much. So for a couple of years, I was kind of walking a very fine line and kind of dipping my toe into each side on occasion. And now I'm just kind of all in on both sides, if that makes any sense. It's just, like, I'm either gonna be this extreme or the other one. I used to get upset about labeling myself, like, 'So what am I? What am I as a person? What am I as a musician? What genre am I supposed to be?' And now I really don't care. I'm just kind of me. So, in all honesty, I think all of our fans, and the conversations that I've had with them because of all these songs and being able to put myself out there has really just helped me. They've brought me around to that."

Full Metal Jackie: I would assume the plans for [the rest of] 2016 are touring and touring and more touring?

Lzzy: "Yes, absolutely — always touring. It's something that we enjoy doing; it's not work for us. Obviously, there's a point in time in the tour where everyone starts saying, 'Ah, Lzzy, you look tired.' And I'm, like, 'Well, I am, but it's a good tired. I'm working.' So, yeah, definitely a lot of touring. We're gonna end up doing another cover EP at some point in time here. And then… yeah, some studio time and some… I don't know. There's a lot of weird little things that we're gonna be doing, and I'm writing every day, so we'll probably do another record here at some point in time too."

Full Metal Jackie: Do you think that that's something that'll happen this year?

Lzzy: "Probably not until at least the beginning of next year."

"Whiplash" airs every Monday night from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. on the Los Angeles radio station 95.5 KLOS. The show can be heard on the KLOS web site at 955klos.com or you can listen in on the KLOS channel on iHeartRadio. Full Metal Jackie also hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, which can be heard all over the country.

To see a full list of stations carrying Full Metal Jackie's show and when it airs, go to FullMetalJackieRadio.com.