In what could be the peak of Halestorm’s already-stellar career, the Pennsylvania quartet are set to release sixth album Everest in August and take to some seriously big stages. Lzzy Hale tells Kerrang! about writing in new ways, beating depression, and hitting the road with Iron Maiden and Sabbath…
You might be at the top of the mountain, distance travelled perfectly visible, and still somehow feel shredded by self-doubt.
Even Lzzy Hale, one of the biggest voices in rock and one of its most inspiring figures, suffers from imposter syndrome. However great things are – and things for Halestorm are really great; they’re releasing sixth album Everest on August 8 and heading out on a UK arena tour this autumn – part of being human is to doubt yourself.
The title Everest is a metaphor for the band’s constant climb, that battle to reach your destination irrespective of life’s negatives. Lzzy says the words of friends helped her through the dark times, and now she’s back in the light, ready to take Halestorm to ever-loftier heights. “That whole lesson is something I took into the studio with me,” she nods, “and it has been a huge part of making Everest.”
This time it’s personal – from a small studio in Savannah, they stopped worrying and simply created. It was about finding magic in the moment. And from small moments come mighty ones. Speaking exclusively to Kerrang!, Lzzy lifts the lid on their most ambitious album to date…
The first taste we’ve had of the new music was the surprisingly cinematic, soft-to-hard Darkness Always Wins. How typical is that of Everest?
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg. The new album is equal parts epic, great songwriting, and completely unhinged. When you experience the album in totality it is quite the rollercoaster ride. It’s full of many things that will be unexpected. Darkness Always Wins is like going up the ramp at the start; the ride has begun. It’s a little taste, but you don’t know what’s to come.”
Everest represents Halestorm’s long and steady climb – is it also time for a moment of reflection?
“We’ve had the same four members for almost 23 years and we have lived many different lifetimes together. This is our journey, our ascent. We’re in what you might call the mid-life of our band; three of us are in our 40s and Arejay [Hale, drummer] is 38, but we reached the point where we discussed the big ‘Why?’ Like, why do we do this? Why do people climb Everest? It’s not like there’s a trophy waiting at the top, and you could easily die trying. If we were in it to make money, we could have done that in many easier ways. Even if we were in it just to be famous, we could have sold out and done that in quicker ways. This entire album is our opus. It’s the beautiful ending of the chapter that is now our past, and the beautiful opening of the chapter that will be our future.”
Following up 2022’s purgative Back From The Dead was always gonna be a challenge. Did you write Everest in a completely different way?
“What makes this album different to anything we’ve done before is that we came in with our usual bag of tricks, half-written songs, but our producer Dave Cobb was like: ‘Oh no, we’re not doing anything you thought of earlier – throw that away!’ He got us to plug everything in and asked, ‘So, who’s got a fresh idea today?’ As we pulled those together, he hit the record button. On this album you hear both the execution and the inception of those ideas, and you feel the excitement that comes when you don’t fully know where something is going.
“We like to challenge ourselves. Dave has a house studio in Savannah, Georgia, and we were actually living there… unsupervised! The night before we left for Savannah, Joe [Hottinger, guitar] and I were sat out on the porch feeling a bit frustrated with life, thinking about why the good seem to die first, and why the darkness always wins. I thought ‘Oh, write that down!’ So that’s where Darkness Always Wins comes from – and the rest of the songs came along in a similarly instinctive way. On this record, you can really hear our personalities.”
Having to create everything in the moment would make some bands wilt under pressure…
“There was that fear – can we pull this off? What we learned was that this very immediate approach to writing and recording took away dilemmas about whether something would work for radio, or whether the label or management would be on board with it. Those fears, those pressures, just weren’t there. Also, Savannah is a great, sleepy little place – they have actual bookstores and they like tea. There’s Spanish moss everywhere and everything’s haunted, so for us it was like being on a different planet. It was just the four of us together, like going back in time to when we were 19. Back then, we’d be holed up in my parents’ basement making whatever we thought was good.”
What do you hope fans will take from this record?
“I love the fact that our diehard fans really listen to what I have to say. I am hoping they see themselves reflected in Everest. When we were touring Europe for the last album I was going through a hard time – I was depressed and enveloped by imposter syndrome. There were amazing things happening for me, but I didn’t believe I deserved it.
“On tour, there’s this group of around 10 women in the UK who call themselves The Lzzy Birds, and travel with us to all our European dates. At one point they realised I wasn’t okay. Next night, each of them had written me a letter, saying things like, ‘You have been here for us every step of the way, and we are here for you now.’ I sat backstage, crying, holding these letters. After the next show I explained to them about the pressure I often feel and how I sometimes don’t know what to do. We had a hug about it, but the main thing that came out of this was my developing a much deeper relationship with our fans. As long as I am speaking my truth, be it sadness or joy, I know those fans will see themselves in it.”
You’re about to tour Europe with no less an act than Iron Maiden – how does that feel?
“I think I’m seeing the sun set on my imposter syndrome – and in making Everest I feel like I’m ready for these shows now. All my friends in bands who have opened for Iron Maiden have said things like, ‘They’re gonna love you!’ Apparently Maiden don’t like bands that mime or use tracks, so I’m told they’ll love us for not doing that, and also that they’re quite simply the greatest dudes. I’m so excited. In fact, when I got the email, I thought, ‘Can this be real? We’re just some band from Pennsylvania!’ This really is quite the honour.”
You’re also part of Black Sabbath’s huge Back To The Beginning show on July 5. What will you be doing?
“I know! It’s incredible! We got an email from Sharon Osbourne asking us to be part of it, and inviting us to contact Tom Morello, who is acting as musical director. At first he advised us to be ready for anything that might be thrown at us. So, I quietly thought, ‘Oh God, do I have to learn every possible Ozzy or Sabbath song?’ But no, we’ll be doing some of our own tunes plus some Sabbath songs, and I have also been asked to be part of the supergroup, so I’ll do some songs with everybody there. I feel particularly honoured because Sharon told me I’m the only woman [performing] there. I talked to my friends Amy Lee and Courtney LaPlante and I told them, ‘Girls, I’m gonna carry you with me and represent in the best way possible all of us women in metal.’ I’m so looking forward to it.”
There’s a UK arena tour to follow that Sabbath date. Is this a real ‘we’ve made it’ moment?
“I look at this way: the UK is the first country in which we ever felt that ‘fandemonium’ from the crowd. The first time we came over we were opening a four-band bill. We were signing at the merch table every night, but by the halfway point in the tour security told us we couldn’t do it anymore due to the sheer numbers of people crowding around. We’d never experienced that before. Coming back this year and headlining arenas for you guys – that’s gonna be such an amazing, full-circle moment for us. We’re not just gonna be showcasing the new music, but we’ve seriously upped the production. We’ve got so many crazy ideas; stuff we’ve never done before. There’s gonna be a lot of surprises – you just have to be there!”
Everest is released on August 8 via Atlantic. Halestorm tour with Iron Maiden in June, and at Black Sabbath's Back To The Beginning show in Birmingham on July 5. The nEVEREST tour hits the UK on November 20 – get your tickets here.
Catch them on tour with Bloodywood and Kelsy Karter:
Halestorm nEVEREST UK dates
November 2025
20 Cardiff Utilitia Arena
21 Glasgow Hydro
23 Birmingham RWA/BP Pulse
24 Manchester AO Arena
26 London The O2
