Just as Amy Lee and Lzzy Hale are co-headliners, they’re also co-interviewees.
Lee, the lead singer of Evanescence, and Hale, the lead singer of Halestorm, teamed up for an arena tour, and when it came time to do phone interviews to promote it, neither was going to put the burden solely on the other.
Taking turns singing the praises of each other, Lee and Hale made it clear why going out on the road in partnership is all upside.
Question: When did you two first discuss the possibility of doing this tour together?
Lee: I don’t remember how it came up. It was just this really natural choice. We both had to cancel and postpone quite a bit over the past couple of years, and when it finally got to be a time where it’s like, “OK, I think we can really, honestly book a U.S. tour by November,” it was a very natural, beautiful, wonderful “yes, that’s what I want to do most of all” idea, to have it be with Halestorm. We love touring together. We love singing together. We like hanging out with each other. All our bands get along. This is a time as never before to just say exactly what you want and make it happen because there’s no looking back. Seize the day. I’m going to tour with my favorite band to tour with, Halestorm.
Hale: I think we’ve been talking about it since 2012, the last time we actually toured together. As you know we’re both busy ladies, so it’s like “bucket list, what’s the best thing here?” I couldn’t imagine a better tour, to be like, “let’s get back out there.” It’s gonna be fun.
Q: It’s rare for two co-headliners of an arena tour to team up to do a phone interview together like this. Usually, conflicting schedules or conflicting egos wouldn’t allow for it. Why do you want to share the spotlight?
Lee: It just feels completely empowering and awesome. We’re a certain kind of people that like working with other talented people. On a creative level, when we’ve worked together, I feel challenged by Lzzy because she’s so talented. It’s an inspirational thing. When you can work with somebody like that who inspires you, it’s the best. I can’t imagine not wanting to.
Hale: I love her, and I think it’s important for not only the boys that love our music but especially the little girls to kind of see us united, because there’s always been this misunderstanding that girls don’t want to share the spotlight together, and it’s really important for us to show that’s not true, and that united front I think will inspire other girls to break that stigma.
Q: There’s lots of talk in the press releases for the tour about the rarity of two female artists headlining a tour of this size. Are the milestones you achieve as female artists something you think is important to make note of, or would you prefer to just be judged by your music, and leave gender out of the discussion?
Hale: I’m going to steal one of Amy’s lines, where she doesn’t want to be the greatest woman of all time, she wants to be the greatest of all time, and I think that both of us have always had that mission statement. It’s something to talk about, so the press likes to talk about it, so it is a thing, and I’m not going to say it’s not a thing. But I think that something we’ve seen on the front lines of our genre is that this music, this heavy music, is absolutely genderless. There’s all walks of life, all ages, all genders. A rock show doesn’t care if you’re a boy or a girl. We’re all the same there. This is our communion. This is our fellowship. Especially after everything that everybody has gone through over the past... it feels like a million years... I think it’s important for everybody to put aside those differences and really just celebrate that we’re all here to be together.
Q: Does doing this tour together have more to do with your friendship or with the way each band’s music fits with the other’s?
Lee: I think those go hand in hand. It’s really both. Any opportunity to work with somebody that musically and on a real-life level I love is a special thing that I wouldn’t want to waste, so there’s that. But I think our music works really well together. Our fans -– Halestorm fans and Evanescence fans – have loved and talked about our 2012 tour and asked us to do it again ever since. They’re not all the same. Some of them are from one team or the other but we all just get along so well. Combining those two worlds is a beautiful thing.
Hale: I can’t imagine anybody in this world who doesn’t know who Evanescence is. Our fanbase will have such an amazing time being with their brothers and sisters from that other army. With our forces combined, this will be big.
If you go
What: Evanescence and Halestorm with Lilith Czar
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12
Where: Heritage Bank Center, 100 Broadway, Downtown; 513-421-4111
Tickets: $79.50-$39.50
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