Halestorm’s founding vocalist Lzzy Hale considers a song successful when it’s either loved or hated. This divisive opinion is how she knows the band has made something great, something that starts conversations and urges close listening.
Speaking with Metal Hammer, Lzzy Hale and guitarist Joe Hottinger discussed their five essential songs. Narrowing down six albums, of course, led to discussion around hits, as well as double standards in the music industry. Specifically, Hale brought up the 2009 lead single “I Get Off,” which appeared on Halestorm’s debut album.
“I Get Off” was a radical shift from Halestorm’s late-90s beginnings as an occasionally Christian rock band. Then, teen siblings Lzzy and Arejay Hale were joined on stage by their father, who played bass guitar. The early 2000s brought new ideas and new band members. By the time Halestorm made its debut in 2009, it’d embraced more suggestive themes and a solidified sound.
Hale stated that “I Get Off” was originally a holdover from more innocent times. Its main theme, she said, was, “‘I love the fact that you have fallen in love with me.’”
Eventually, she said, the song “devolved” into “I get off on you getting off on me.” Hale continued, “I always know when something is going to be special when there’s only two choices: people are gonna absolutely hate it or absolutely love it.”
Lzzy Hale on the Impact of Halestorm’s Debut Single
Lzzy Hale went on to describe how “I Get Off” became more than its sexually charged lyrics. “The crazy thing about that song is that it ended up really empowering me as far as owning that type of sexuality in lyrics, and being bold enough to say that,” she said.
“Over the years, I kept thinking I was gonna get angry letters from parents or something, like, ‘Excuse me, what are you saying? My kids are listening to this!’” She continued. “But it’s actually been the opposite.”
She then described meeting a father at a Halestorm event, who thanked her for expressing herself in her music. “In fact,” she said, “recently, this dad came to our meet-and-greet with his two daughters, and he hugged me, and he’s like, ‘I just wanna tell you, I hope that my two daughters are comfortable enough in their sexuality to talk about it in the way that you do in your songs.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my god!’ It just made it that much [more] worth it.”
Hale also brought up the double standards for women in music. Specifically, she highlighted the over-sexualized lyrics by 60s and 70s rock bands. Because the genre was predominantly male-centered, these lyrics were always from a man’s perspective (and often about underage girls). Lzzy Hale thinks that listeners shouldn’t be so shocked when a woman writes sexual lyrics as well.
“You know, Robert Plant talking about the juice running down his leg from a lemon,” she said, referencing “The Lemon Song” by Led Zeppelin. “It’s like, there shouldn’t be a double standard. Women in this business, we think about it too!”
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