Lzzy Hale on How Heart’s ‘The Road Home’ Changed Her Life
Heart has released a number of live recordings over the course of their career, but The Road Home stands out among them. Recorded mostly acoustically, but accompanied by an orchestra, the album was produced by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. The album was released twenty-five years ago, but isn’t often mentioned among Heart’s classic albums like Dreamboat Annie, Dog And Butterfly, Heart or Magazine.
However, the album made a huge impact on Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale. She recently spoke to us about The Road Home.
“It’s funny because I was into like a lot of ‘dude’ music growing up. And I remember when I was fifteen… my mom was a rock fan; she’s one of those ‘Beatlemania’ chicks from back in the day. She wanted to marry Paul [McCartney]! And so, you know, we grew up on that, me and my brother. Even before I was into hard music we loved the Beatles movies like A Hard Day’s Night and Help!”
“So when I was like fifteen, my mom’s like, ‘All right: if you’re going to be into this rock thing, you should know that girls can do this, too.’ I think it was for my birthday or Christmas or something, she got me, like, ten CDs. It was greatest hits albums from Joan Jett and Janis Joplin. And there was a live record called The Road Home by Heart.”
“I’d heard Heart before on the radio, obviously. I heard ‘Barracuda’ and all that, but I had never them live. This was like in the ’90s, and Heart and they could still rip. And that version on that album of ‘Crazy On You’ blew my mind.”
“I remember thinking: “Oh, so girls can actually sound like that!’ Because up until then I think I was just kind of trying to emulate Dio or something. I’d started writing my little songs and everything before Halestorm started. But, you know, when I heard that, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, OK. That’s the thing. That’s… Wow. OK, cool. My life has changed.”
Halestorm just released their latest EP, Reimagined, where — like Heart on The Road Home — they reinterpret some of their own songs.
