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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