Lzzy Hale remembers all too well when the Black Dog first started scratching at her door. She was “around 11 or 12 years old” when she began experiencing unexplained, highly emotional panic attacks in the middle of classes. While she now recognises that mental health problems had run in her family for years - “bipolar issues, depression, PTSD and anxiety” amongst them - at the time it was a frightening experience unlike anything she’d felt before.
“It was before I really knew what the word for ‘anxiety’ was,” she recalls on a video call from her home in Nashville today. “I’d excuse myself and go figure it out, not really knowing what was going on, but knowing that I was having an episode. I remember one time I was sent home because I was really upset, and I just couldn’t explain why I was having these feelings, but I couldn’t control it. My parents didn’t know what it was either; they were just like, ‘OK, you’re just stressed about a test coming up or something!’”
“I COULDN’T EXPLAIN IT. I COULDN’T CONTROL IT”
LZZY HALE
After struggling for a couple of years with her issues, Lzzy would discover the hobby that would change her life: picking up instruments, starting a band with her brother Arejay and channelling her experiences into the project that would become Halestorm. Not only had she found her true calling as a bona fide rock star, but she’d also found a way to properly process her experiences.