Just 13 years old when she began performing with her brother Arejay, Lzzy Hale has since risen to prominence as one of the 21st Century's most iconic rock vocalists. The outspoken and fiery frontwoman of Halestorm, Lzzy has headlined arenas around the world and inspired a new generation to pick up their guitar and pursue their passion.
Hammer sat down with Lzzy to find out exactly what records set her on the path to greatness.
1. Alice Cooper - Love It To Death (1971)
“When I was about 11 years old, the song that really got me was Alice Cooper’s I’m Eighteen, from Love It To Death. I actually ended up taking the CD to a sleepover and the girls all looked at me like I was an alien from outer space. Now as an adult, I’m out here owning my weird and it probably was because of Alice Cooper - he gave me the permission to find my own path."
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2. Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell (1980)
"I was into Black Sabbath because of my dad, and I was very much a fan of the Dio years. Heaven And Hell is just so beautiful. Every time I thought about writing a song about some made-up character from one of my dreams, I tried to talk myself out of it, but then I would think about how Dio talks about dragons and witches. It was also one of the first riffs that I ever learned on guitar."
3. Heart - The Road Home (1995)
“When I was about 15 and trying to find my voice as a singer, my dad was showing me Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Cinderella. Dude rock bands, right? So my mom was like, ‘Well, if you’re gonna be listening to this, you have to know that girls can do it too.’ So she went out and got me Heart’s live album, The Road Home. It had a version of their song Crazy On You that’s a cappella - and I wouldn’t be the singer I am without that track."
4. Jeff Buckley - Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk (1998)
"Later on, I fell in love with a great love of my life. It was 2003, we were friends and trading back and forth a bunch of mixtapes. He introduced me to Jeff Buckley’s Everybody Here Wants You. Not only did I fall in love with Jeff, his voice and his musical prowess, but just the way that he put his poetry together."
5. Bjork - Vespertine (2001)
“Bjork’s Pagan Poetry blew my mind. It’s brutal lyrically, but then also through the arrangement and how she’s using her own voice as the instrumentation in the background, building it into the track in this storm of different melodies and intros/outros. She truly breaks the rules."
6. Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger (1991)
"Chris Cornell was one of the greatest voices of all time. I am still to this day trying to recreate whatever magic that he left here for us. But one of my favourite songs is Soundgarden’s Outshined, as that riff was so exciting to me the first time I heard it. It is actually very difficult to play, but it’s deceptively simple in the way it sounds!"
7. Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning (1999)
"There’s also Chris Cornell’s solo song, Can’t Change Me. That was him showing his pop side, so that was very influential on me, because it made me realise you can still get that aggression, whether it leans more towards pop or country or metal."
8. Sevendust - Home (1999)
“When we were coming up in the scene I was still listening to a lot of my parents’ music, but I was starting to get into some of the more aggressive nu metal when I was 17, 18. So I got introduced to Sevendust and their song Licking Cream - the duet with Skunk Anansie’s Skin - was another lightbulb moment for me. Because I had been trying to hone my skills as a rock singer – and a female rock singer – it made me realise, ‘OK, I feel like I am still going to have a place in this new world.’"
9. Disturbed - The Sickness (2000)
"It changed a lot of our sound because I also really loved Disturbed’s The Sickness, specifically the song Voices. I liked that it combined aggressive guitar work and it had a different type of distortion than what I was used to hearing from a lot of the 70s and 80s music that I was obsessed with."
10. The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)
“When I started hanging out with my now bandmates Joe [Hottinger, guitar] and Josh [Smith, bass/keyboards], we ended up bonding over The Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy) at the very first time that we ever got to jam together. The original was like a seven-minute song, and I think we created a 20-minute version of the song ending with my little brother [Arejay] freaking out and destroying his drum kit. It was beautiful!”
Halestorm headline Wembley Arena in London on December 9
