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And Hale — along with her percussionist kid brother Arejay , with whom she first began performing as a kid back in Red Lion , PA — has lived quite a spectacular one . Some pieces of her past haunted her in a good way ; all through lockdown , she wished she still owned a comforting family dog , as she did in childhood , and she ’ s currently in pooch-purchasing mode , trying to fathom the possibilities of taking a furry new friend along on the already-crowded Halestorm tour bus ( with |
of our shows in the UK , and they all travel together , and they ’ re just awesome . But I told Joe ( Hottinger ) that they all caught Covid and said , ‘ I dunno why this hasn ’ t happened to ** us yet ! We keep getting put in these weird situations where it really should have happened .’ But hey ,” she adds , loudly knocking nearby wood in her room for luck , “ so far , so good . But obviously , ( the pandemic ) is still going on , and I ’ m triple-vaxxed , so if something happens , it hopefully won ’ t be that bad . |
And Hale — along with her percussionist kid brother Arejay , with whom she first began performing as a kid back in Red Lion , PA — has lived quite a spectacular one . Some pieces of her past haunted her in a good way ; all through lockdown , she wished she still owned a comforting family dog , as she did in childhood , and she ’ s currently in pooch-purchasing mode , trying to fathom the possibilities of taking a furry new friend along on the already-crowded Halestorm tour bus ( with |
of our shows in the UK , and they all travel together , and they ’ re just awesome . But I told Joe ( Hottinger ) that they all caught Covid and said , ‘ I dunno why this hasn ’ t happened to ** us yet ! We keep getting put in these weird situations where it really should have happened .’ But hey ,” she adds , loudly knocking nearby wood in her room for luck , “ so far , so good . But obviously , ( the pandemic ) is still going on , and I ’ m triple-vaxxed , so if something happens , it hopefully won ’ t be that bad . |
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Arejay , bassist Josh Smith , guitarist Joe Hottinger , plus stage crew ). “ But I grew up on a small 20-acre farm , with sheep and chickens and dogs , so there were always animals around , and I kind of miss that ,” she says wistfully . “ But in Nashville , where I was holed up , the great thing is that I do have a lovely house with a studio and all of that , so that really helped because I kind of got busy . I did eleven collaborations , and obviously , I was making demos for songs . But there was a point in time where I really needed a distraction , so I started hosting some shows and trying to record some stuff in my basement , just trying to keep my hands busy .” She can ’ t stifle an ironic cackle . “ What ’ s the old saying about idle hands being the devil ’ s workshop ? It ’ s very true . You ’ ve got to keep ‘ em full of something !” Some spirits the singer exhumed weren ’ t nearly as friendly . Her younger sibling contracted Covid post-vaccination ; she did not . Thankfully , Arejay ’ s proved mild , and its aftereffects passed quickly . Band bassist Smith , however , caught the coronavirus on a UK tour , possibly from one of Halestorm ’ s rabid overseas followers . “ Everybody that had seen us on the last day caught Covid , everybody that was in the front row at our final show ,” she notes . “ They were all of our super-fans that were going to every single one
22 illinoisentertainer . com june 2022
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But it ’ s scary . It ’ s scary for a lot of people right now , still .”
The more the shut-in focused on herself during lockdown , the clearer her focus became on the Big Picture — that humanity has basically learned nothing from a tragic universal experience that should have united us all on the same climate-change-respectful page , and we ’ re basically hurtling even faster toward our own well-deserved extinction . On the eve of Roe v Wade ’ s being struck down by tired old Conservative white men who know nothing about a woman ’ s body , Hale , now a wise , seasoned 38 , pauses thoughtfully before addressing the subject . “ It ’ s hard ,” she decides . “ It ’ s hard to keep that faith in humanity . It ’ s hard to look at the world and see how we ’ ve taken these ginormous steps back . It ’ s 2022 , and people are still fighting over all this petty bullshit , this world shit that doesn ’ t matter , but there isn ’ t going to be any world to fight ** for ! And it ’ s like , ‘ Come on , people ! This is ridiculous ! We ’ re not looking at the things that actually matter !’” And yes , she adds , she ’ s seen Adam McKay ’ s brilliant climate-change-ignoring allegory ** Don ’ t Look Up , and she loves it , particularly its ( spoiler alert ) final scene with Jonah Hill as the rubble-scrabbling # LastManOnEarth , desperately casting out his cellphone signal for # followers . “ It was an amazing film and real-
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Arejay , bassist Josh Smith , guitarist Joe Hottinger , plus stage crew ). “ But I grew up on a small 20-acre farm , with sheep and chickens and dogs , so there were always animals around , and I kind of miss that ,” she says wistfully . “ But in Nashville , where I was holed up , the great thing is that I do have a lovely house with a studio and all of that , so that really helped because I kind of got busy . I did eleven collaborations , and obviously , I was making demos for songs . But there was a point in time where I really needed a distraction , so I started hosting some shows and trying to record some stuff in my basement , just trying to keep my hands busy .” She can ’ t stifle an ironic cackle . “ What ’ s the old saying about idle hands being the devil ’ s workshop ? It ’ s very true . You ’ ve got to keep ‘ em full of something !” Some spirits the singer exhumed weren ’ t nearly as friendly . Her younger sibling contracted Covid post-vaccination ; she did not . Thankfully , Arejay ’ s proved mild , and its aftereffects passed quickly . Band bassist Smith , however , caught the coronavirus on a UK tour , possibly from one of Halestorm ’ s rabid overseas followers . “ Everybody that had seen us on the last day caught Covid , everybody that was in the front row at our final show ,” she notes . “ They were all of our super-fans that were going to every single one |
But it ’ s scary . It ’ s scary for a lot of people right now , still .”
The more the shut-in focused on herself during lockdown , the clearer her focus became on the Big Picture — that humanity has basically learned nothing from a tragic universal experience that should have united us all on the same climate-change-respectful page , and we ’ re basically hurtling even faster toward our own well-deserved extinction . On the eve of Roe v Wade ’ s being struck down by tired old Conservative white men who know nothing about a woman ’ s body , Hale , now a wise , seasoned 38 , pauses thoughtfully before addressing the subject . “ It ’ s hard ,” she decides . “ It ’ s hard to keep that faith in humanity . It ’ s hard to look at the world and see how we ’ ve taken these ginormous steps back . It ’ s 2022 , and people are still fighting over all this petty bullshit , this world shit that doesn ’ t matter , but there isn ’ t going to be any world to fight ** for ! And it ’ s like , ‘ Come on , people ! This is ridiculous ! We ’ re not looking at the things that actually matter !’” And yes , she adds , she ’ s seen Adam McKay ’ s brilliant climate-change-ignoring allegory ** Don ’ t Look Up , and she loves it , particularly its ( spoiler alert ) final scene with Jonah Hill as the rubble-scrabbling # LastManOnEarth , desperately casting out his cellphone signal for # followers . “ It was an amazing film and real-
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