Halestorm vocalist Lzzy Hale recently opened up about stage fright, pre-show nerves, and her stance on backing tracks in a conversation featured on the Mark And Me podcast.
Hale explained how her relationship with performing live has evolved over the years — from battling introversion as a child to embracing what she now calls a “beautiful panic” before every show. She also addressed the topic of backing tracks, making clear that while she personally avoids them, she holds no judgment toward artists who choose to use them.
“Now, as far as stage fright or nervousness, that’s different now than it was when I was a kid,” she said. “When I was a kid, I had to work very hard to figure out how to look at people and be outward on stage. I call myself a reformed introvert. I cite this band with helping me out with that.”
“But now, there’s still this… I feel like it’s an internal countdown in my head. As soon as we get to maybe 15 minutes before we’re about to take the stage, I’m, like, ‘Okay.’ And I can’t sit down, and I’m kind of pacing. I call it a beautiful panic now because now what I love about that is that it’s not really like I’m terrified or I’m having a panic attack and I’m, like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this.'”
Hale went on to describe the feeling as a physical rush, comparing it to an extreme sport. She also shared a lighthearted backstage ritual she has with her bandmates.
“It’s more like I’m physically getting ready to jump out of an airplane or jump off a cliff, that kind of thing. And we even have kind of a running joke, where — I forget, a couple of shows before [playing at U.K.’s] Download [festival], I turn to my bass player and I’m, like, ‘Okay, you ready to do this?’ He’s, like, ‘Yeah, don’t worry. I packed your parachute. We’re all good.’ He’s, like, ‘I think.’ And so that’s what we do every night. Anything could happen.”
She then reflected on why the unpredictability of live performance is precisely what keeps her and the band addicted to it.
“I feel like that is the biggest part of the excitement for us of playing live and keeping it in the moment is that you have to,” she continued. “A moment goes by, you can’t worry about things if, ‘Oh, maybe I flubbed a note,’ or ‘maybe I did this.’ You have to constantly be living in the moment, which is something that you rarely get in normal life. So I feel like that’s why we’re addicted to it, but it’s so exciting to be, like, ‘Okay, here we go. Anything could happen, literally.’ And it depends on us listening to each other and whether we’re prepared enough to go out there. Do we know that certain part that we just added a couple days ago, that weird part that we’re, like, ‘Oh, let’s do that. That’s a good idea.’ Is it gonna work? Are people gonna be into it?’ It’s incredible. I think that’s the beauty of live music.”
Wrapping up, Hale addressed the backing tracks debate directly, emphasizing that her choice to avoid them is personal rather than a criticism of others.
“And, again, I talk a lot about how we don’t use tracks, and I kind of wanna make clear that I’m not against anybody for using tracks or not because that is your prerogative,” she said. “But, for me, if we ended up doing that, then the live show would be less exciting for me. It would be more, like, ‘Okay, are we dancing correctly? Am I miming correctly?’ Which, I feel like I’d be a terrible lip syncer. [Laughs]”
The comments were made during Episode 497 of the Mark And Me podcast, which featured Hale as a guest.
Hale’s remarks come at a particularly active stretch for Halestorm on the live circuit. The band has continued to make a strong impression on stages across the world in 2026. The conviction behind her words is not merely philosophical — it is backed by years of deliberate practice and a band-wide commitment to raw, unfiltered performance.
Halestorm has long prided itself on being one of the few rock acts that performs completely live, without the aid of backing tracks or even a click track. The absence of a click track gives the band the freedom to adjust tempos on the fly, let songs breathe, and react directly to the energy of the crowd — a dynamic that would be impossible to replicate with a pre-programmed setup.
That philosophy was on full display when Halestorm headlined the Opus Stage at Download Festival in the U.K. in June 2026. The performance drew widespread praise and served as a timely reminder of what Hale has always argued: that the unpredictability of live music is a feature, not a flaw.
Guitarist Joe Hottinger has echoed Hale’s sentiments on the matter, framing the band’s approach as a point of pride. “It’s supposed to be a little dangerous,” Hottinger has said of Halestorm’s live show, underlining the shared belief within the band that authenticity on stage is non-negotiable.
Hale’s versatility as a live performer was also on display beyond Halestorm’s own shows. In May and June 2024, she stepped in as guest vocalist for Skid Row across four concerts, filling in after Erik Gronwall’s departure — a testament to her standing in the rock community and her ability to deliver under pressure, with no safety net required.
