LZZY HALE Is 'Excited' About HALESTORM's Upcoming 'Bucket List' Tour With ALICE COOPER

When HALESTORM hits the road with ALICE COOPER this summer, it will be a "bucket list" moment for the group's vocalist/guitarist Lzzy Hale.

As Hale told Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio prior to the group's performance at the recent Sonic Temple Music + Art Festival in Columbus, Ohio (see full interview below),she has been a fan of the legendary shock rocker since she was in grade school. "I'm so excited," Hale said. "We're ticking that off the bucket list. We've done a couple one-off shows with him over the years, and we've gotten to know him and his family, but this is the first time we're on a full-fledged tour with him.

"ALICE COOPER was the reason that I found out I was not cool when I was a kid," she continued. "My parents moved to a new place when I was 11 years old. At this point in time, I loved ALICE COOPER; I loved DIO and BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE, VANILLA FUDGE, that kind of thing. Moving to a new place; don't know anybody there; a couple of the neighborhood girls invite me to a sleepover. They're, like, 'Bring some of your favorite CDs. We're going to listen to everybody's favorite music and do each other's makeup,' that whole thing.

"I'm 11, and I end up bringing to the sleepover ALICE COOPER's 'Love It To Death' and DIO's 'Holy Diver'. This is '96, so this is [the era of] TLC, BACKSTREET BOYS, that kind of thing... They're playing [TLC's] 'Waterfalls' and there's a bunch of other things going on. 'Oh, let's listen to Liz's CD.' Put in the ALICE COOPER CD. We didn't make it past the first chorus. They're, like, 'Let's put [another] CD back on.'

"I remember going back home, and Dad was, like, 'How was the sleepover?' I'm, like, 'It was fun, but they didn't like my music. Dad's, like, 'That's good.' I'm, like, 'Why is that good? They don't like my music.' He's, like, 'They like all of that music because it's on the radio and people in school think you're supposed to like it. You love this CD — you love ALICE COOPER — because you really love it. It's a part of you.' I told that story to Alice. It's weird to retrace where that origin comes from, because that ended up being now, that's my mission statement as an adult. This is why there are songs like 'Freak Like Me', 'I Get Off', 'Familiar Taste Of Poison' — because of that monumental moment [realizing that] you need to own your weirdness... That's how you find your inner you. Without going through those things, those imperfections — what you think are imperfections amongst your peers — are actually what reveal who you are and your true beauty."

HALESTORM's latest album, "Vicious", came out in July 2018 via Atlantic. It was recorded at Nashville, Tennessee's Rock Falcon recording studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz (RUSH, ALICE IN CHAINS, DEFTONES).

The group's 19-date summer tour with ALICE COOPER kicks off on July 17 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.