Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale has discussed the surprising reaction one of the band's spicier songs has elicited over the years - and how the song itself helped her feel more comfortable with her sexuality.
Speaking to Metal Hammer, Lzzy discusses Halestorm's 2009 banger I Get Off, in which she sings about getting off on the idea of someone being turned on by her. As she reveals, the track initially had a far quainter, more innocent theme.
"I remember the beginnings of the song, I sang something like, 'I love the fact that you have fallen in love with me,'" Lzzy recalls. "And then it slowly devolved into, 'I get off on you getting off on me.' I always know when something is going to be special when there's only two choices: people are gonna absolutely hate it or absolutely love it."
"The crazy thing about that song is that it ended up really empowering me as far as owning that type of sexuality in lyrics, and being bold enough to say that," she continues. "Over the years, I kept thinking I was gonna get angry letters from parents or something, like, 'Excuse me, what are you saying? My kids are listening to this!'
"But it's actually been the opposite; in fact, recently, this dad came to our meet-and-greet with his two daughters, and he hugged me and he's like, 'I just wanna tell you, I hope that my two daughters are comfortable enough in their sexuality to talk about it in the way that you do in your songs.' I'm like, 'Oh my god!' It just made it that much worth it."
The song has become one of Halestorm's trademark live anthems, and Lzzy says she has a blast seeing the reactions the lyrics still provoke from people in the crowd.
"You get to see everybody think, 'Oh my god, did she actually say that?'" she laughs. "And then, of course, you get everyone that actually gets it, everyone's dancing around, the girls get up on the shoulders, it's great."
Lzzy also underlines that we really all should be well past the point that a woman expressing her sexuality through music should shock anybody, pointing out that Led Zeppelin were writing explicit rock 'n' roll songs about sex 40 years before I Get Off came out.
"You know, Robert Plant talking about the juice running down his leg from a lemon," Lzzy notes, referencing 1969's The Lemon Song. "It's like, there shouldn't be a double-standard. Women in this business...we think about it too!"
Watch the full video interview below.
Halestorm recently released their critically acclaimed latest album Everest; you can grab a luscious hot pink vinyl edition of the record from the official Louder store. Get yours here.
