Illinois Entertainer June 2015 | Page 24

Continued from page 22 want my advice on that. But good for you, for most creative question, I guess!" Young Elizabeth Hale was set on this surreal path by her parents, she insists, Her father played bass, and there was always a piano in the house, so she caught the music bug early. Her mother was a huge Beatles fan, so she and Arejay were forced to watch movies like Help! and A Hard Day's Night, along with tangential rock-film fare like This is Spinal Tap. At 13, she finally decided that she could write and record songs, too. So in '95, she and Arejay issued their first home-tracked EP, with the ponderous title of Don't Mess With the Time Man, with Lzzy on keyboards. The concept was inspired by a dream she had, of a character who lives in an elevator who makes you feel guilty for all your past mistakes. "And that proved one thing to me – you can write a song about anything pretty much," she cackles. In a transitional period, Hale switched to cumbersome keytar, before jumping to the white Explorer axe she currently wields. Wields so well that in 2012 Gibson launched a personalized Lzzy Hale edition of it. "It's really sweet – you have no idea," she says of her angular axe. "When you're a little kid, there's a difference between you saying it, like, 'Yeah! I'm gonna have my own signature guitar one day!,' and then it actually happening one day. It just screws with your head. I remember when Gibson first approached me, it was at some convention in Anaheim, and they were like, 'Lzzy, we've been discussing doing a signature model with you.' And of course, I look over my shoulder, thinking, 'Are they talking to Slash? Is he standing right behind me and I'm just, like, in the way?'" The Gibson execs told the lady to take a leisurely month to come up with her own modifications and design. She almost choked. "I'm like, 'Dude, I'll have it by Monday! I know exactly what I wanna do!' And they were excited about it, as well, because they had never done an Explorer in the way that I wanted to do it, because to me, it was a combination of my two favorite Gibson models – I have a white Les Paul custom that I got in 2000, and then I have my Explorer, so I wanted to keep the original metal feel of the Explorer. But then, you know, I'm a girl, so I wanted to class it up a bit. So it's great, and I love seeing pictures of everybody that's gotten one. And it's truly a great guitar, just for anything – it's my go-to for both ballads and rockers. Plus," she adds, "in pictures, you can see it from the back row!" Now, this brassy belter is no longer surprised by any left-field proposals. Recently, she's been fielding a few film scripts, she proudly relates, some of which were rather Almost Famous-ish in theme, with – naturally – roles that required her to sing. She 24 illinoisentertainer.com june 2015 even hired a film agent to weed through the bevy of potential parts. Acting is something that I've always been interested in," she says. "So it's just gonna have to be the right time and the right script." Like a blood-drenched modern horror flick? She squeals with delight. "That would be awesome! Speaking of Daryl Dixon, I could get to be a zombie! I wouldn't even have to act – I could just be one of the Walking Dead!" Last year, things got even stranger when Halestorm received a call from country renegade Eric Church, who was putting together an edgy Outsiders Tour and wanted the group to open for him and cowpunk legend Dwight Yoakam. His backing musicians were all huge Halestorm fans, and they suggested the idea as he was assembling co-stars. "And we have a very adventurous team, as well – we never shy away from adventure, so we were like, 'Sure, man! We'll open up for ya!' And that was my real introduction to country, and it was such a cool thing to do. And 95% of the people had no idea who we were, so we were out there, proving ourselves, every night. And Eric and all his people said, 'Don't worry about catering to a country audience – you're here because we want you to be you, so just do your thing.' And we were like Slayer to some of those people – not the heaviest band in the world, but definitely not what they were expecting." Naturally, Hale (who also duetted with Church on the CMT Awards, at his request) had fun with the gigs. The group took each stage sporting cowboy hats, and cleverly launched into the more arenarocking "I Like it Heavy." "And at the end of it, I do an a cappella, almost "Mercedes Benz_ish type verse and chorus," she snickers, mischievously. "So here I come out, as a girl, do this Janis Joplin-type thing, and so everyone's thinking ‘Oh, this will be nice!' And then we jump into "Love Bites" and just throw the cowboy hats off - it was fun." In the same way that Hale never planned on being a fashion designer, she never considered that she'd eventually become a role model to countless young girls, many of whom send her fan mail to Halestorm venues. She is truly touched by such unexpected sentiment. "It's just mindblowing," she says. "I'm not trying to save the world. I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel. I'm just doing my thing. "But I think the honesty of what we do – and just erring on the side of putting yourself out there – is so incredibly wonderful to do for these people. Because that's all that they're looking for – somebody tha ^H