Halestorm Singer Lzzy Hale Talks Grammy Awards and Women in Music

2019-01-11

Story and photo by Anne Erickson

Lzzy Hale thanks her parents for celebrating the fact she wanted to pursue music growing up

Lzzy Hale and her band Halestorm are up for Best Rock Performance for their song “Uncomfortable” at this year’s Grammy Awards, which is no doubt an honor. That said, the Grammys have often received criticism for only having four rock categories and opting to highlight other genres of music instead.

When asked for her thoughts on the Grammys only having four rock categories, Hale seems to understand that the Grammy committee has a difficult job.

“I think about that and I know a lot of people that get really up in arms,” she told Rolling Stone. “We’re in an interesting time because there are so many different genres and subgenres, but a lot of that doesn’t even matter any more. It’d be great to have more categories in the rock and metal category — but I don’t want that job, picking where everybody is supposed to go.”

Halestorm’s competitors in the Best Rock Performance category — Arctic Monkeys, the Fever333, Greta Van Fleet and the late Chris Cornell — are all men. When asked if she feels a responsibility to be a champion for women in music, Hale says she does, to an extent.

“There is something in my brain that said if I get Halestorm to a point where people are actually listening to what I have to say, I might as well put out positivity and be that empowering figure that I would have wanted in a rock star,” she said. “It’s a huge part of who I am. I was just talking to my parents about that over the holidays. They instilled that in me, in a lot of different ways. They were the first people to celebrate the fact that I wasn’t like the other girls.”

Switching gears to Michigan rockers Greta Van Fleet, the guys have scored a major amount of fans over the past year, but they’ve also received some comments for sounding a lot like Led Zeppelin. Halestorm frontwomen Lzzy Hale, though, is on their side.

“I know people dog on them about how they sound similar to Zeppelin, but at the same time, when we first started putting our stuff into the world, didn’t we wear our influences on our sleeves?” Hale told Rolling Stone. “I’ll take it, because Led Zeppelin is awesome and I think a lot of kids should be reintroduced to this. Just by being up there and playing instruments — they plug in, play and actually sing — it’s a great thing for kids to see.”

The Grammy Awards ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.