Lzzy Hale joins us for an Audacy Check In to talk about what's next for Halestorm, and their new single, "Darkness Always Wins.” 🤘
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MusicTranscript
00:00you're on the final ozzy show july 5th and you're the only woman at least i know tom morello so
00:06there'll be some surprise guests so you're the only woman does that mean you and ozzy will be
00:12doing close your eyes forever the duets is that so according to tom morello that is in the works
00:21it's an odyssey checking it's ape cannon lizzie hale the new song darkness always wins awesome
00:27new song this song is so great and uh tell me about it what it's it's it's different it's way
00:34different than most other hailstorm songs um oh absolutely uh this whole album is um it's kind
00:40of like this long road back to the beginning almost uh when we were recording it with dave
00:46cobb in savannah georgia it um it felt like we were back in my parents basement we were in this house
00:53um unsupervised just the four of us with all the equipment we could ever want um everything ready
00:59to go no distractions no girlfriends no wives no friends um very sleepy town savannah they they read
01:06actual books there's actual bookstores and um and they like tea so so it was wonderful we'd wake up
01:12in this house um like around whatever around 11 a.m every day um and just start on whatever got us
01:19excited and then dave cobb would kind of come in around 1 p.m and like throw a wrench in the works
01:24somewhere like oh i love that let's go there you know um his adhd works very well with our adhd so
01:29that worked out but um darkness always wins uh was the first song that we ended up writing in dave
01:35cobb's studio so uh first time getting it together with dave cobb and savannah and we roll in with our bag
01:41of tricks we have you know half written songs riffs for days lyrics all that stuff and then uh dave
01:47turns to us he's like oh no like we were like setting up the computer like so we can show him
01:51some songs right and he's like oh no we're not doing any of that and i'm like what he's like oh
01:55i hate demos what what i want to do with you guys is just start from scratch let's write a song
02:02and as we're writing it in real time we'll be recording it so we're getting all of these takes
02:08of like the the inception of the song and the first second takes of me doing the vocals and the
02:14you know all of that and um and it's funny because i when i listen to the to the recording
02:20of darkness always wins i can tell with all of us um because of our performance uh that we really
02:28had something to prove you know because we're like oh no now we don't have a plan we've never
02:32done a record like that before because usually when we do a hailstorm record it's like we write
02:36the songs and everybody decides on what the songs their favorite songs are and then we go in the
02:40studio for a month and bang it out you know this was the complete opposite we're like we don't have
02:44a plan we don't know what we want to write about so we were just kind of letting almost letting the
02:49music tell us what to do versus the other way around and um darkness always wins um wait wait hang
02:56on so some of those riffs some of those riffs that you guys had didn't make it and like you didn't
03:00pretend like i just came up with this riff oh not at all no because there had been a few things
03:06right that you guys had planned well there were there were a few things that i think when i was
03:11like combing through especially lyric wise and poetry wise like i'd land on a line or something
03:17like that be like what about this oh yeah like for instance with with darkness always wins um the
03:22title was something i had written down literally i have it over here like written down in my little
03:26my booklet here and oh wow right right right before we left and uh and i didn't know what it mean
03:34what it meant but you know i think we were just talking about the state of the world and i turned
03:38to dave cobb and i said you know why does evil always have to prevail why does the darkness always
03:43win and he's like dude that's the title of this song that we're writing i'm like okay what's wrong
03:49with that um yeah and the song is let me explain the song a little bit this darkness always wins is not
03:55a song of hope um nor it is a song of despair it it it's reality it's history repeating itself over
04:05and over again it's evil prevailing and it's the good departing first you know how many times have
04:11we said why did why did the good ones die young why did the good ones leave and we're left with all
04:15these you know all these just horrible people that don't have any faith in humanity um but in the song
04:23i i i explained that we are not doomed you know as long as we persist and keep our fires burning
04:31because everybody that's going to follow us like like the war may might not be won in like this
04:37lifetime you know like and we're talking about like the the mental health war the political unrest
04:42you know all everything going on right now that that is just looming no matter how much you try to
04:47ignore it it's right here you know we might not win the war in this lifetime but we can
04:53pass the torch so that the people follow us that follow us you know can have something to fight
04:58with you know and something to guide their way and uh and so that's like it's like the movie
05:02it's like the movie 300 leonidas didn't get the job done but his crew came in behind him and got the
05:08job absolutely first of all one of my favorite movies of all time i'm sure that crept its way into
05:14i haven't watched that in years but i'm sure my subconscious crept its way in but it really is like
05:19if you listen to the music of the record the reason that there's that whole bridge is because
05:23we wanted to have this kind of battle scene you know like we're you know we're gonna keep trying
05:28we're gonna keep fighting and and uh because we have to you know in order to uh survive both uh and
05:37not become completely insane or so hardened by by this crazy world we live in um i'm very lucky
05:46to be a musician i we're out on uh this uh this acoustic tour run my my guitar player and i and
05:53every night i have people that are surrounding me i get to keep my faith in humanity because i see
06:00these people every day that it doesn't matter their walk of life we have all ages all colors all genders
06:07and everybody is the same at the rock show and it's something that i see every night and so that's uh
06:12you know um i guess that's the uh the closest place to um to peace and uh and some type of
06:20spiritual experience that i can experience on this earth you know i want to go back to the song
06:24darkness always wins because it starts out it starts out slow and i feel like it so you like scream
06:32then you have this awesome guitar riff then it leads into the solo like i feel like the climax of
06:38the song is that solo like it goes oh absolutely that i i love that solo like it just i love that
06:45guitar solo have you heard that new song from young blood oh yeah hello yes that song too it like
06:50leads like i love how the guitar solo seems to be back in rock music yeah so i you know what it's
06:56something that um is needed because you know if if rock music continues to just be like oh here's like
07:04an overly tuned voice with a background band it might as well be pop music you know like the rock
07:10music is dangerous we take risks and i'll tell you what my guitar player joe hottinger um wrote that
07:15wrote that solo and he i think it's the best solo he's ever written this entire album is full of that
07:21stuff because something different about this record than than any of the other albums that we've ever done
07:28um is we were not thinking about we didn't have time to think about is it going to be a hit on the
07:37radio is are the fans going to like it is the label going to like it is it going to be promoted will it
07:41win a grammy had had no time to think about that because as we were writing we were recording it so we're
07:46just kind of have blinders on and being led along by this music and this feeling um so we ended up just
07:54kind of doing whatever we wanted what makes us feel good and during that you know that uh liftoff
07:59into the solo i couldn't help but do like these screams and just let it go and yeah a lot and a lot
08:08of these moments i have no recollection of when i did that because it all was i know it was all
08:14happening so fast it was kind of like yeah that almost like detachment from reality situation um
08:20and uh and i'm and i'm so like happy that we we that we had a producer that was willing to do all
08:26of that and catch that on tape the other thing about this album and that you'll notice once you
08:30listen to it in its entirety is that the majority of the songs we forgot to put a click track on
08:35you know we forgot to put like the time code in so that we could all play to a click track we were
08:41all just listening to each other so my brother on the drums is the only timekeeper and then we would
08:46say it at the end we're like oh no we forgot the click and then whenever we would go back and try
08:50to do it with the click it would squeeze the life out of it it wouldn't have the same energy
08:55so there's all this push and pull this human element in the album um that we've never really
09:01done before on an album except for a live album so yeah that's pretty awesome like it's more real
09:07right it feels just oh yeah maybe you should always do that i you know honestly i think we should
09:11we've discussed that you know like i said the solo it's like you look at like free bird november
09:16rain stairway to heaven like the solo is just as important as the chorus so i think it's really
09:21cool like you said it's maybe his greatest solo ever and it'll become an iconic part of that song
09:26well you think about think about any slash solo any any guns and roses solo think about any judas
09:32priest solo any black sabbath solo for heaven's sakes it's all singable it's a part of the song it's a
09:38very important piece because i mean look this might be like the weirdest thing that you'll ever
09:44hear a lead singer say but it shouldn't be all about me you know it's it shouldn't because i am
09:51just one piece of i'm one pillar that holds up hailstorm it's myself it's my little brother on
09:57drums it's my best friend josh on bass we've known each other since we were 19 and and my guitar player
10:03joe we've all been the same four members for 22 years um we haven't killed each other yet um we've
10:10been through so many ups and downs and we have a lot of trust in each other you're on the final
10:15aussie show july 5th and you're the only woman at least i know tom morello so there'll be some
10:22surprise guests so you're the only woman does that mean you and aussie will be doing close your eyes
10:28forever the duets is that happening so according to tom morello that is in the works but we're gonna
10:36have to wait he said he said you're gonna have to be patient with the confirmation for that
10:40because of you know but because of uh you know aussie's health and everything we're gonna have
10:45to see like pretty much on the day whether aussie's going how much aussie's going to be singing and
10:50willing to do but um hailstorm is doing a set we're also doing a uh black sabbath cover and i've been
10:56asked to sing in the uh in the super group with tom morello and and everybody there so it's just
11:02dude dude when so we got this email from sharon osborne okay and i didn't answer it for two days
11:10because i'm like is this for is this real what you just expect everything's fake that's what i would
11:15do well it's it's wild because so i've been a black sabbath fan since i was 11 okay the first riff
11:21i ever learned on guitar was heaven and hell by black sabbath um my abc yeah and then you opened
11:27for heaven and hell yeah and then we opened up for heaven hell in 2009 with ronnie james zio and
11:33that was ronnie james zio's last show before he passed away so it's this incredible full circle
11:40like in fathomable dream like if you had told me this when i was 13 i'd be like you're a liar this
11:46will never happen to me so yeah and then to be and then to be the only woman asked to be there
11:52is an honor as well i was talking to my friends uh taylor mompson and amy lee and maria brink and
11:58all of my sisters in this genre and and i and they're all so proud of me and i said hey girls
12:04i'm carrying you with me you're gonna be there in spirit i'm gonna make you girls so proud you know
12:10and so it's just it's this beautiful event that everyone gets to look forward to i'm so glad they're
12:14doing it um uh geezer butler ended up mentioning our band in his book uh because of oh wow because
12:22of us opening up for heaven and hell right before ronnie passed and i got some amazing words of advice
12:27from ronnie james zio at that gig that i carry with me every day it's just you know there's a difference
12:34between believing that you are capable of doing and being a part of great things and then it actually
12:41happening you know it's like because you can believe all you want it doesn't mean it's gonna
12:45happen so um yeah i'm i'm very uh i'm very grateful uh for all the people that believe in us and and
12:52believe in me and and i'm so um i'm so happy that we we're still a band we haven't you know disbanded
12:59yet and and we didn't give up before the miracles started happening you know yeah and you know i don't
13:05know what he's he's so he's the music director right time yeah so he's like putting the whole show
13:11together essentially right yeah sounds like a shit show i do not envy that job at all
13:15i'm wondering like he's talking about surprises i'm like who could be the surprises the lineup is
13:22crazy like is rage against i know is it gonna be a rage against the machine performance like that's
13:28i i don't know what other surprises except like you said some of the female artists but besides female
13:34artists every rock band and metal band is on the bill yeah i know i that's what i keep saying
13:40they've been keeping us a little bit in the dark i get bits and pieces from tom like every time tom
13:44calls me i'm like uh-oh am i learning a new song what's happening you know and um and and so there's
13:51all these moving pieces i mean it's got to be hard because you have you know um you have the legacy
13:56of black sabbath and then you have all of their everyone attached to black sabbath all of the
14:03ex-bandmates the family members that you know um and then the the rock royalty like wolfie van halen and
14:09um you know and billy corgan and all of these guys yeah and tool and and you know everybody that
14:15wants to be a part of it so i'm with you i'm like who else could possibly fit on this stage right now
14:23and you know what i think it's gonna be i think it's gonna i think it's gonna be paul mccartney
14:27because ozzy ozzy grew up idolizing paul mccartney oh my gosh they're in england so that's my guess
14:35yeah and and ranging that's the machine reunion would be fucking awesome you know that that would
14:41be sick yeah you know what dude that just makes me even more excited because i've never met paul
14:46mccartney and that would be fun well i'm just i'm just you know when i grew up like oz fest was like
14:53every summer i went to oz fest it was such an important part of my childhood and i remember being
14:59at the oz fest when black sabbath i don't know if people remember this but black sabbath reunited at
15:04the oz fest they did a full ozzy set and then black sabbath played like eight or nine songs
15:09and it was like one of the best moments of my childhood it's amazing i'm i'm jealous of the
15:16oz fest because i uh my my uh i could never afford to go when uh when i was a kid um the only thing i
15:23could afford to go the shows i could afford to go to were local shows in pennsylvania and all my
15:28friends would be going to oz fest like are you coming i'm like no like i can't and so it's kind of
15:33like i skipped a lot of important steps and now i'm getting to open up for black sabbath yeah it's
15:39awesome sharing a stage with them but um but oz fest was funded like like like fundamental you know in
15:46our upbringing because anybody that was worth you know their stuff in anything was at oz fest and you
15:53know any new band like disturbed got broke through oz fest so did the system of a down you know we
15:58probably wouldn't have these acts if it wasn't for sharing being like hey get on oz fest so it's
16:03like it's it's a big deal i just want to bring up also skid row because you did those skid row shows
16:09didn't you grew up loving skid row right oh yeah i was a weird kid in the 90s when everybody was
16:15listening to backstreet boys i was listening to skid bro and cinderella and bon jovi and shit yeah
16:19um it's funny because for a year when i would get telemarketer calls i would tell them you have the
16:27wrong number and i'd say they'd say well what's your name i'm like snake sabo so i would i would
16:33say snake sabo for a year and eventually they changed my name and all their lists to snake sabo
16:40so i started oh that's incredible yeah and i i was recording them every time they go can i speak to
16:45mr snake sabo please so like it made telemarketer calls so much fun so i recommend to people like say
16:51your name's lizzie hale or something like make it fun for yourself because i'm like this is awesome
16:55like he's mr sabo i'm like what's my name what's what do you have for my first name snake sabo it
17:00was just so random and stupid but it was oh that's insane i have to tell snake that story and and what
17:06once you know and and he'll love watching this as well because i think that'll make his day
17:11you're like lizzie hale the fourth i know it's like not lizzie hale but i always said if you have an
17:18awesome last name i don't understand why you always have to take the dude's last name like i know so many
17:24people that like i don't understand why more uh parents don't name the daughter after the mother
17:30like you're one of the few you're one of the few people you're the fourth like that's awesome like
17:35i don't know why it's always like this is my son jr it's like what about your daughter why can't she
17:39be like uh jennifer jr or something yeah exactly you never see that you're the only person i've ever
17:44seen that with i think my um so there's a lot of um well there's a lot of insanity in my family
17:51um if you can't tell but uh but um so so yes um i'm the fourth elizabeth may in my family
17:59and my mom's the the the third and then my i've my grandmother elizabeth may and my great-grandmother
18:05um and all of our all of the women in my family um uh have gone through um different levels of um
18:15sexual abuse physical abuse and emotional abuse from their husbands um a lot of divorce a lot of
18:23that kind of stuff sorry not to make it dark but in order to turn that into something hopeful and
18:29positive um the women on my side of the on my mom's side of the family started doing that being like
18:34let's carry on our lineage even if we can't take the last names let's take the first and middle name
18:40and and carry it down and so we all have different nicknames like i'm lizzie my mom goes by beth my
18:46grandmother went by betty and then my um and my great-grandmother was elizabeth so it's uh so it's
18:52kind of funny um and i i used to be like uh when i was a kid i used to be embarrassed by it because
18:59like we would be traveling like i'd get on a plane with my mom and sometimes the the the they would
19:06cancel one of our flights because they saw it was two of the same name even though we have two totally
19:11different social security numbers you know it's like it was just not confusing so i'm like but
19:14if it was if it was two guys they would never consider canceling it exactly exactly so so it's almost
19:20like this weird act of defiance in my family um but but but i'm i'm very proud of it now and we
19:25talk about it a lot but um uh but yeah it's it's it's interesting and and i i always said you know
19:31because i you know i'm not married i've been with the same guy since i uh since i was uh
19:36um 20 years old and i but i'm also bisexual so that you know complicates things
19:42but i always said i always said to my partner i said i you know either i don't want to get married
19:50or if i do i want to keep my name because i have a really cool last name yeah why why change it you
19:55know yeah it's part of the band name damn it you know if eddie van halen had a daughter and her last
20:00name was van halen and i married her i would beg her can i be abe van halen yeah like that's the
20:05great what the hell like the cooler last name is the name you take hail i agree uh okay so
20:15darkness always wins great song new album you guys are touring with volbeat in the summer
20:20anything else uh you want to mention oh my gosh there's so much we're swinging volbeat in the
20:25summer um uh coming up in may we open up for iron maiden and then we have the july 5th show with
20:31black sabbath um we're going to be rolling out um a lot of songs uh before the album is released
20:38this summer and um man i just can't wait for everybody to hear it um i want to thank every
20:46single person uh for you know everything over the years for following us for not giving up
20:51on us for for your patience all we make new music you know um i i swear it was worth the wait and uh
20:58um this album is our opus it's our story it's our it's a beautiful end to a chapter and a beautiful
21:08beginning to another and uh uh strap in buttercup it's gonna be a crazy ride and what do you want
21:15to say just to wrap things up directly to your fans because you have some really passionate hardcore
21:19awesome fans um you know what i'll i'll end with a small story uh on our last album cycle we were in
21:27europe um this is years ago um and uh i was going through a bit of a hard time i was uh really
21:34depressed on tour um i uh i could pull it off for the show but kind of immediately after the show i
21:39would kind of like curl into my bunk and just kind of feel sorry for myself um i was going through a
21:44lot of imposter syndrome uh because the fame kind of happened in a big way in my 30s and it was hard
21:49for me to handle i i call myself a reformed introvert you know um i i never really wanted attention
21:54but i got it and um i was struggling with the fact that i'm not a perfect person but i now all of a
22:01sudden am a role model and all these people look up to me so one day during a meet and greet we have
22:06we have the most amazing fans in europe there uh there's about a group of 10 to 20 fans that come
22:11to every meet and greet every show we do in europe i don't know where they get the money or the travel
22:15but god bless them and so this one meet and greet that all of them were in this meet and greet and
22:20they said hey are you okay because it sounds like it looks like there's something wrong we've seen
22:26you a million times and i said something like oh i'm just tired it's tour and the next day they came
22:32to the next meet and greet and each of them handed me a note like a letter wow and each and each in
22:37their own way they said hey we know something's wrong because we've seen you a million times and
22:42there is a light that is gone from behind your eyes that's normally there and and they told me they
22:49said in each their own way they said look if you have to quit the tour if you have to go away for
22:53a while if you have to stop you know and and take a break and take care of you we will still be here
23:00you know we're not you know we're not expecting you to be the hero all the time you know your music
23:05has saved us over and over again your words have saved us and let us return the favor and promise you
23:12that we will always be here if you have to go and take care of yourself and so i'm backstage in europe
23:17um i forget where this was in europe but i i was just bawling reading these letters and the guys
23:22came in they're like what's wrong and i said and i said i just i love our fans so much and not because
23:28they buy our cds or they buy our tickets because they've just given me this tremendous gift so the
23:34next day i gathered some of those super fans and i brought them back to the buses with us and i told
23:40them exactly what was going on with me i told them about my my bad moods my my fear you know my
23:45depression and my my you know imposter syndrome and we all hugged it out and the next show it was
23:53like i was cured it was like this weight had been lifted off of me whereas and and then what happened
23:58was so magical because the fans ended up saying like well now this is more inspirational than ever
24:06before because not only are you now someone that we strive to be but you're just like us you have
24:12bad days too so that means so it takes it made the bridge to our dream of being kind of like to your
24:19level just a little bit shorter because she's just like us she has bad days she gets depressed she
24:24doesn't believe in herself all the time it's not always i am the fire and all that stuff and so i
24:30realized that it's more important to be genuine and to be human and to be yourself your messy crazy self
24:37than it is to pretend to be something that you're not and um so i just want to thank the entire freak
24:43fam for being there for me um and for uh loving me unconditionally um for enabling us to do what we
24:50love every single day uh for being my parachute when you know i i had dared myself to jump off the
24:57cliffs you know um and uh this album is for you guys too and this song is for all of us we're all
25:04fighters holding up our lighters chasing off the monsters drowning on our sins with every last
25:09breath we try to stop the sunset um running with the shadows the darkness always wins but we will
25:16prevail hell yeah and that and that i see that light now behind your eyes again so that's awesome
25:21oh thank you you're back you're back i'm back baby i'm lizzie hale this was awesome always awesome
25:27talking to you love the new song everyone check it out darkness always wins thank you so much
25:32you're welcome a bit a and anything you need darlin if you want to come out to a show if you want to
25:36hang out you let me know all right i'll roll up the red carpet for you you owe me big hugs next time
25:41i see you okay yes good talking to you bye all right bye honey
25:45you