halestorm

Lzzy Hale – vocals/guitar
Arejay Hale – drums
Joe Hottinger – guitar
Josh Smith – bass

After several decades together as a band, Halestorm find themselves still climbing. Their sixth full-length album, Everest, represents both a return to the Nashville-based band’s roots and an evolution into the next chapter of their career. Recorded with producer Dave Cobb, the aptly-titled Everest is a dark, deeply personal effort that pushed each musician to their artistic limits, ultimately resulting in an evocative, genuine collection of rock songs.

Halestorm began working on Everest only months after releasing their acclaimed album, Back from the Dead, in the spring 2022. Although they were still touring on that LP, the Grammy-winning band decided to push themselves into a less comfortable creative space. They enlisted GRAMMY-winning producer Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), who suggested they come into the studio without preparing any ideas or writing any songs. With that, the musicians decamped to Savannah several times throughout 2023 and 2024 to work with Dave, writing as they went along. “We've never done a record like this before,” Lzzy says. “It was a very uncomfortable situation, which was good.” Joe adds, “We went in with the shirts on our back and 20 years of being professional musicians and we loved it.”

The 12 songs on Everest emerged organically, often in the moment. The first song they wrote, in April 2023, was single “Darkness Always Wins,” a surging power ballad that reflects on the constant battle between good and evil. “When I listen to that recording I can really hear all of us trying to prove something,” Lzzy says. “Sometimes when you demo and then record the life gets squeezed out of the song. But we really wanted to keep that initial spark of excitement in each one.”

Many of the subsequent songs began as poems Lzzy wrote late at night near the studio where the band was living. “It was almost like the music was telling me what to do, not the other way around,” she recalls. “The things that were inside of me that needed to come out were coming through on their own, without me having a preconceived notion of what I wanted to say. Now, listening to the album in its entirety, I'm hearing a different story than I would have predicted while writing. This is an album about our past and our present and the hope for the future. It sounds like it comes from a band who have been together for years—I can hear all of our personalities and all of our stories. To me, it’s our opus.”

“Everest,” a driving heavy rock number, was written in an hour, the result of a conversation between the band members about their ongoing journey. Their ambition and instinct to pursue a career in music mirrors the ascension of climbers up Mount Everest—difficult, dangerous and potentially resulting in failure. But like those who pursue the arduous trek, it’s that fear and uncertainty that drives Halestorm, on this album and overall. “This is the most Halestorm record we've ever done, and the one that I'm most proud of because we really followed our heart with it,” Lzzy says. “We always have to see how far we can take it and if we can survive at all. I'm so proud of us as a band and as individuals for making it last this long through so many ups and downs.” “Everyone has a mountain they climb in life,” Joe adds. “Ours is a long journey and I think we have a long way to go yet. We just keep going even when it feels impossible or feels like it’s over. Any time we feel defeated I try to remember we’re only halfway up the mountain.”

Everest also offered the band the opportunity to experiment sonically. There were no expectations around the songs and Dave encouraged even the smallest ideas to grow in the studio. The thundering “Watch Out!” was built around a throwaway outro Lzzy recorded at 4 a.m. Dave used her original howling vocal take on the track, imbuing it with a raw energy and fury. Similarly, “Like a Woman” is an impassioned, blues-tinged anthem that sees Lzzy channeling Nina Simone and Janis Jopin in her vocals. It’s a remarkably different approach for Halestorm and one that they might not have had the freedom to pursue on earlier albums.

The lyrics are classic Lzzy, referencing a comment Meryl Streep once made in an interview about how women survive by adapting to the language of men. “There are a lot of men who still don't know how to speak the language of women and that has caused dissonance between the two sexes,” she notes. “This song is my way of asking a man to meet me in the middle. But the song can be whatever you need it to be.”

“Rain Your Blood on Me,” too, examines the female perspective. Lzzy describes it as being about “going to war every day as women,” whether that’s about equal pay, the pressure to dress a certain way or what it means to be feminine. It was recorded in one instinctual vocal take with no hesitation or overthinking during the writing process. “The subject was rattling around in my head at the time,” Lzzy says. “Like with many of the songs on the album, it felt like something I needed to get out but maybe didn’t realize it.”

Lzzy’s brutal honesty and thoughtful vulnerability resonates through the songs. She may not have all the answers, but she’s willing to ask the questions and to confront difficult topics, including the reality that darkness may be the prevailing force in the world right now. By opening herself up and accepting harder truths, she continues to create a space for Halestorm’s fans, who have found relatability in the lyrics and melodies since Lzzy formed Halestorm with Arejay in 1997. The band knows they can’t change the world with a single song, but they can offer sanctuary at their live shows and impact someone’s day with a line or a guitar riff. The fans give that back, too. On a recent European tour, a group of regular show attendees turned the tables on Lzzy, asking her if she was okay. The small act gave her permission to let down the mask of perfection.

“They gave me a tremendous gift and I became so much closer with my fans in that moment,” she recalls. “Not only was I this person they were maybe striving to be, but I was also messy and depressed. In that way I inadvertently became more of an inspiration to them. I ended up carrying that into the making of this record. Even if something was dark or pissed off, I had to write it, both for my sake and for theirs. I write music to stay sane and to figure out the mess in my head. I always feel better when I get it out in a song. I hope others will too.” Everest represents the next stage of Halestorm’s climb. It underscores the connection they have as musicians and as friends, and adds to the ever-growing list of accolades the band has achieved, including a GRAMMY win, another nomination, and seven #1 songs at rock radio. “We’ve been through it together,” Lzzy says.

“We’ve fought battles and wars, and we’ve won and lost. But we have so much love and trust as a band. When we jump off a cliff, like we did with this album, we know we will land because we have each other. We’ve been together as a band for 20 years and now we get to decide what the next 20 will look like.”