TOM KEIFER: LZZY HALE 'Has Been An Incredible Inspiration For Me Vocally'

In October 2017, CINDERELLA vocalist Tom Keifer released a special "deluxe edition" version of his critically acclaimed debut solo album, "The Way Life Goes". This CD/DVD set featured two new studio tracks recorded by three-time Grammy Award winner Vance Powell, including the the spectacular duet recording of "Nobody's Fool" with a special guest appearance by Lzzy Hale of HALESTORM.

Asked in a new interview with LA Metal Media how the Lzzy collaboration came about, Keifer said (hear audio below): "It first started… We were out on tour for 'The Way Life Goes', the first year, in 2013, and we ended up on a bill with HALESTORM and doing some shows together. And one thing led to another, and Lzzy and I ended up on the phone a couple of weeks before the first show and started talking about maybe doing a song in the encore together. And we picked 'Nobody's Fool' and we did it at the first show and then we did it at the next show. And the crowds were loving it.

"Singing with her is just — I know she cites me as an influence, but I would have to say she's been an incredible inspiration for me vocally, because singing with her really makes you feel like you need to step up, because she can sing," Keifer said. "So, you always walk out there when you're gonna sing with Lzzy and say, 'Okay, I've gotta step up here.' So, she's a huge inspiration — not only vocally; she's a great guitarist, a great writer and just a great person. The whole band is. I really, really love HALESTORM and their music, and their band and our band are all good friends.

"We did a bunch of shows together, and we always do that song whenever we play together, and it was going down so well, when we decided to do the deluxe edition for 'The Way Life Goes', we were kicking around ideas for bonus tracks, and that one was just kind of an obvious one," Tom explained. "The fans, over the years, since we've been doing it live and they've been seeing it live, have been saying, 'Please do a studio version.' So we decided to do that. And Lzzy was up for coming into the studio and recording it with us, and it was just a blast doing it. I'm very proud of it. I think it came out really cool."

Although CINDERELLA hasn't released a new studio album since 1994's "Still Climbing", the band started playing sporadic shows again in 2010 but has been largely inactive for the last few years while Keifer has toured as a solo artist.

Keifer released his second solo album, "Rise", on September 13 via Cleopatra Records. The disc sees Tom joined by his #keiferband — Savannah Keifer, Tony Higbee, Billy Mercer, Kendra Chantelle, Jarred Pope and Kory Myers.