Powerhouse vocalist Lzzy Hale commands the studio and stage fronting her hard-rocking and Grammy Award-winning band Halestorm. She’s made such an impression, in fact, that she’s been invited to duet and has made guest appearances with many of her peers. While Halestorm was promoting their graphic novel Hyde Manor at New York Comic Con in 2023, Hale sat down with American Songwriter to discuss her favorite collabs.
Videos by American Songwriter
1. “Shatter Me” with Lindsey Stirling (2014)
“I loved working with Lindsey Stirling,” recalls Hale of appearing on this dreamy and dramatic pop track from the violinist’s 2014 album of the same name. “What I loved about her is that she’s just made herself. She got laughed at and told that what she’s doing will never fly with anyone, and no one will ever be able to relate to her. Now she’s doing it all herself. I just love talking to her about that, and she’s the sweetest human.
“For me, it was a launching point,” she continues, “because I had never really done something that far off the page at the time from rock into this kind of EDM/pop collaboration. It was beautiful because neither one of us knew it was going to go gangbusters. Then all of a sudden I’m singing on Good Morning America with her, and on America’s Got Talent and all of these crazy outlets that I had never been introduced to before, being in the rock circuit. We got to help each other with that.”
2. “Song of Women” with The HU (2020)
Hale collaborated with The HU, and says it was a highly spiritual experience. “They’re amazing,” she declared of the Mongolian folk-metal band. “There’s obviously a language barrier, so I ended up getting on the phone with them and their manager. He said, ‘We’re going to send you these tracks. Here’s the subject, but we’re not going to tell you what it translates to. Just write a song on top of the tracks.’”
Hale ducked their vocals in their mix and focused on her lyrics and melody. Three days later she was finished and had the “uncanny” feeling the track was going to be special. “They gave me a call, and they’re like, ‘How did you end up translating this?’ And I’m like, ‘I didn’t at all. I did exactly what you said. I wasn’t paying attention.’ They’re like, ‘Really? You’ve nailed it.’ It was the most spiritual [collaboration] that I’ve ever done. It was the music telling you what to do and not so much you trying to force yourself onto a piece of music. It was such a great feeling.”
3. “The Cutter” with GWAR (2022)
Hale brought some eerie vocals to the shock-rock group’s horror anthem “The Cutter.” “I didn’t necessarily collaborate with them; they had me sing on a bridge,” explains Hale, who performed the song onstage for the first time during New York Comic Con in October 2023. “I did get to dress up and wield a sword on stage and poke a few people and sing a song. I will say that was the first time I got to see GWAR live. Just growing up and seeing those videos and the larger-then-life [nature] of it, they don’t disappoint. I was laughing to the point of tears during the entire set.”
4. “Separate Ways” with Daughtry (2023)
Daughtry happened to be in Nashville and cold-called Hale to see if she’d duet with him on a scorching cover of Journey’s famed anthem “Separate Ways.” She was immediately down for it, and they banged out the cover and a video in one afternoon.
“I love Daughtry’s voice,” remarks Hale. “Not only is it one of my favorite songs of all time and my karaoke go-to, but he just sings so well. And he could sing the phone book. So my nerdery was on fire. We literally sang for an hour, and then we talked the rest of the time—about singing, and hitting this note, or what happens when you get tired. Those kind of things. It was pretty amazing, and then we impromptu did the video right after we recorded it.” They performed the song live at the Royal Albert Hall a couple months later.
5. “Terrible Things” with Ashley McBryde (2023)
Hale teamed up with country-rock singer/songwriter McBryde for an acoustic version of this melancholy and contemplative song from Halestorm’s album Back from the Dead. “I love her voice,” says Hale of McBryde. “I haven’t gotten to spend a whole lot of time with her yet, but we hit it off right away. We met for the first time doing the ‘Terrible Things’ video, and she’s awesome.
[RELATED: Who Is the “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” Ashley McBryde]
“The first thing she says to me,” Hale recounts upon meeting McBryde, “is, ‘So who would you fight tonight in a Chili’s parking lot?’ [laughs] At the time I was like, “Maybe I’ll punch myself.” I was a little pissed at myself at one point, and she’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll do that every day. But right now I’m upset about traffic and Taylor Swift is in town. So I’d take my earrings off and fight her in the back of a Chili’s.’ I would pay for that. She’s a fun gal.”
6. “Violence No Matter What” with Avatar (2023)
“Again, people have too much trust in me—they gave me some free rein to do whatever I want,” Hale recollects of working with the Swedish metal band Avatar on a track from their latest album Dance Devil Dance. “I did this song with them, and I got to show off this new gear of my voice where I can match more with the metal crowd. I can’t really do the low cookie monster thing, but I can get to some aggression. They let me go full-bore in that, and I’ve done it a couple times [live with them] overseas and also in Nashville. It always goes over great. They’re such an amazing group of people.”
Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Gibson
