Lzzy Hale’s 2025: “Our little garage band being asked to play with Ozzy was the biggest honour. I called my mom straight away”

Releasing an album. Playing at Back To The Beginning. Touring with Iron Maiden. Headlining The O2. It'd be quite nice to have done any of this stuff, ever. Halestorm scored a full house in 2025, cramming it all into a 12 months that singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale calls "this crazy, intense, amazing blur".

Having spent most of the year away, right now she's relaxing at home, looking forward to watching ’80s Christmas classics Scrooged and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, catching up with the fam, and drinking her neighbours’ booze. Before all that, just enough time for a look back at everything, and try to make sense of it all. “I’ve spent a lot of time this year going, ‘Did that really happen?’”

So, 2025: a very good year?
“It's been a tremendous year! It was kind of non-stop. We had all the build-up at the start of the year, and then we’ve been out on tour since May. I’m finally home now, and it's the weirdest thing, the re-entry, after such a long year on the road. I’m like, ‘Okay, why does my bed not move? What the hell am I putting in the refrigerator?’ I’m so used to our bus fridge where it’s, like, survival food almost, that having normal groceries feels like a huge treat.”

You finished on a high, headlining The O2 in London. How was that?
“That was so awesome. They gave us little trophies for playing there. Part of the trophy is made from a bit of the roof that got blown off in the big storm a couple years ago. They got it out of the river, cleaned it up, and put it on all these things, so now we have a piece of The O2 with us. It was really cute.”

You also played the biggest show of the year, Back To The Beginning. How did that phone call go?
“Oh, that was unbelievable! The first email from Sharon Osbourne was really vague. ‘Hey, we're putting together this show, and there's Sabbath, and we think Metallica are in…’ A week or so later they went, ‘Okay, you can't say anything, but this is what it's actually about.’ We were absolutely floored, because we just thought we were getting thrown in the mix for a festival or something. To feel the gravity of what this was all about, and then thinking, ‘Oh my God, our little garage band has been asked to be a part of that,’ was crazy, and the biggest honour. I had to call my mom to tell her!”

How was it getting ready to go onstage on the day?
“It was the craziest set-up! Rehearsals and everything were all great, everyone was really cool, we were hanging out with Steven Tyler and watching the dudes from Tool rehearse. And then on the day there wasn’t time to think. Mastodon were on first, then us, and I remember asking how it went, and they were like, ‘I don't know! It was over in a second. I think we did good…’ It did feel like that, there was this huge build-up, and getting ready with the rotating stage was intense, and then it was over in a second, but it felt amazing.
“It was such a special day. Everybody had this, like, childlike wonder about it all. There weren’t any egos. It was one of those things where everyone is all in it together, on the same page. I remember Axl Rose came over and we started talking, and then we turned around and there were all these photographers, like fucking full-on paparazzi. Axl turns to me, and he's like, ‘Hey, you come with a lot of cameras…’”

What did Ozzy mean to you?
“We would not be the people we are without Ozzy and Black Sabbath. Ozzy lived so many lives, he was like the spooky cat mascot for metal, and he exceeded all of them. Even though we knew that was going to be his last show, we didn't think he was going to go that soon. We thought we were going to be hearing quips and whatever the hell else for a long time still. It was really intense to hear the news that he’d died, and then do a show that day. We ended up throwing in Perry Mason as a tribute. It's crazy when all of a sudden those rock gods aren’t here anymore. It’s like, ‘Wait a minute, you're not supposed to die. You're not human – you're otherworldly!’ There were so many people that loved him, and so many people that found themselves reflected in him, and he was one of those dudes that just led with love. At every show he looked like he was having the best time in the world. At Back To The Beginning he was so incredibly happy. He was trying to get out of his chair, which was so heartbreaking, but that's just how you're supposed to live this life. It was like a final lesson: ‘Hey kids, this is how you do it.’ He'll be remembered forever because of all of that. Not just because of the stories and the crazy antics, but just the way that he lived his life.”

In the middle of all this, you released Everest as well…
“It’s so weird because I still go, ‘I knew there was something else…’ I’m so proud of it, and taking it on the road, already I’ve been seeing people singing along, getting lyric tattoos. That always blows my mind, because we create music in a very personal sense, and a lot of times it can feel kind of isolating. When you're writing a song, it can feel like you're the only one that feels that way. But then I get proven wrong every single time, because you release it to the world, and then you get people saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is my song. You said something that I wasn't able to say.’ The inspiration kind of comes full-circle – they don't feel so alone, but as the writer, I realise, ‘Oh, I wasn't alone in my feelings, either.’”

What are your plans for Christmas?
“I still have some Christmas shopping to do. The year has been so intense, but now I’ve ended up back at home and suddenly going, ‘What does my mom want for Christmas?!’ It’s the only holiday where the entire industry kind of shuts down, so you do actually get some time to do the thing. I’ll get to reintroduce myself to my family. ‘Hi, I'm your daughter, I'm your cousin, I'm your aunt. I know I've been gone all year, but I’m still alive. Here's some presents…’ It's good to be around the kiddos and see how much time has gone by. Aunt Lzzy turns up like, ‘Oh, you were just six, and now you're 13. What happened?’”

How are you as a Christmas dinner chef?
“Pretty good. It's been a couple years since I was hosting and cooking a Christmas dinner, but I can do a mean turkey and stuffing. I'm not inept in the kitchen. I actually really do like cooking. It kind of switches on and off every year, depending on our plans. But I can definitely cook.”

What do you want for Christmas?
“I don't crave receiving gifts. I like giving them. When people ask what I want, I literally have next to nothing to say. Usually it's something that I need all the time, like more journals to write my lyrics in. I can always use paper and pencil. But everything else I do for myself. I don't ever ask for guitars or equipment, because those are things that you kind of find and adopt along the way.”

And how are you ringing in 2026?
“We're gonna spend some time with some friends for New Year's Eve. We have such absolutely lovely neighbours, and we do this thing every year, which is a neighbourhood crawl. It's like a pub crawl, but with everybody's house. Everybody has to host snacks and drinks and stuff. There’s more and more houses every year, which ends up being dangerous by the end of it. At least we can stumble back to the house. You get to go see everybody's house, and everybody gets to host and have a festive drink of their choice. It’s really nice.”

Read this next:

• Halestorm: “I have this innate belief that I shouldn’t be here after everything that I’ve survived – but for some reason I am”
• From Dio to Sleep Token: The icons who inspired Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale
• Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale: The 10 songs that changed my life