During a special “unplugged” performance by Halestorm‘s Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger at the Garage in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 14, 2026, the frontwoman reflected on her time singing for Skid Row. In May and June 2024, Hale filled in as the band’s vocalist for a run of four shows following the departure of Erik Grönwall, who left to focus on his health.
Before diving into an acoustic cover of the Skid Row classic “I Remember You,” Hale shared her perspective on the experience with the crowd, detailing how it felt to live out a teenage dream.
“It was awesome. It was so great. I got to live out my teenage fantasy,” Lzzy said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
“I was a weird kid in the ’90s. I was listening to Skid Row and Alice Cooper and Dio. Yeah, those other girls were not having it. My friends were, like, ‘Alice Cooper, who is she?’ But anyway, so the boys [in Skid Row] asked me to join their band. They were having some in-between dates going on. And it was such a wonderful thing, ’cause we had all of these Halestorm fans coming and they would bring in their dads. So it was like a dad-son, dad-daughter date happening, going on, and it was just awesome,” she explained.
She then touched on the famously tense relationship between original frontman Sebastian Bach and the rest of the classic Skid Row lineup, revealing a humorous anecdote she heard through Dimebag Darrell‘s partner, Rita Haney.
“I know there’s some stuff… I didn’t get any of the real scoop between what’s happening with the Sebastian versus the rest of the guys,” she added. “I know Sebastian very well. He’s always been sweet to me. And the best was, after it all went down, I got to talk to Dimebag Darrell‘s wife [Rita Haney]. And she’s, like, ‘Hey, we were up all night with Sebastian watching those Skid Row videos of you singing with them.’ I’m, like, ‘Uh-oh. What’d he say?’ And apparently, he looks at Rita and he’s, like, ‘Man, I hate those guys, but she’s f**king awesome.’ I’m, like, ‘Okay, good.’”
Reflecting further on the surreal nature of the performances, she added:
“No, it’s fantastic. It’s so weird to have watched all these music videos back when music videos were a thing… And then just to actually be up there and singing these songs. These songs were meant for singers. They’re amazing. And we wanna do one of them for you right now,” she concluded.
Hale‘s connection to Skid Row stretches back long before she stepped up to the microphone for them. When her temporary stint was initially announced in March 2024, she shared a heartfelt message on social media outlining the profound impact their music had on her early development as an artist.
“This is totally wild! I can’t believe my VHS audition tape finally made it in the mail! (I kid, I kid),” she wrote at the time.
Hale continued: “I started listening Skid Row when I was a teenager growing up on the east coast in central Pennsylvania. They were one of the only bands at that time that truly bridged the gap for my love of 80s big choruses and riffs, but had the same poignant dirt and grime that was seeping into the cracks of my mind during the 90s. By the early 00s Halestorm was well coming into its own, inspired by these powerful songs that helped me unlock a door within myself as a young musician. I can say without a second thought that if it weren’t for Skid Row in my bones, I would not be the rocker I am today.”
She expanded on this during a 2024 interview with Terrie Carr of radio station “105.5 WDHA“, explaining how the group helped bridge the gap between the polished rock of the 1980s and the grittier sound of the 1990s.
“I can honestly tell you right now that I would not be the rocker that I am today without Skid Row and those albums, because not only did they have those beautiful melodies and the vocal prowess and the riffs and the loud noise that I loved, but then the subject matter they were talking about was always very real and it hit me at the right time in the right place,” she said at the time.
She also revealed exactly how the opportunity to front the legendary band originally came about during a casual encounter with bassist Rachel Bolan.
“And so this is just a beautiful example of that age doesn’t matter. Time doesn’t matter. Whenever you discover music, it doesn’t matter. It’s when it hits you. And so again, those men that raised me, the men from Jersey, the men from PA that all put these records in my hands. Then years later, I’m living in Nashville for the first time and I meet Rachel Bolan and I meet Snake [Dave Sabo], and they’re, like, ‘Oh, man, there’s more to Nashville than country. Let me introduce you to this guy.’ Then I got to meet Tom Keifer from Cinderella and all those boys, and now I’m up playing Aerosmith songs with all these weird guys that I grew up listening to. Then fast forward to a couple months ago when my good buddy Rachel — we were just at a birthday party, and Rachel‘s, like, ‘Hey, would you ever consider singing with us?’ And I’m, like, ‘Oh, yeah, you mean like we do all the time down at Mercy Lounge?’ He’s, like, ‘No, like actually be like our front person for some shows. There’s some stuff going on.’ And so I said, ‘Well, yeah, sure. Just let me know when,'” she explained.
“And then, you know, a couple of months later he goes, ‘Hey, were you serious about that?” she continued. “Because this is going down now, and we’ve gotta know.’ And so I cleared my schedule and I told everybody that that is on my team, ‘Let me put up all these dates because I really wanna do this for these guys,’ And so I’m helping my buddies out and they’re helping me out and it’s all full circle. But then we announced it, and I’m hearing from people I haven’t heard from in 15 years saying, ‘Oh my God, this is gonna save my life.’ And we’re bringing these two worlds together. It’s giving everybody reason to smile and an event for someone to look forward to. And like generational gaps be damned. And it’s just all gonna be great. And it’s just wonderful.”
“For me, I joked with the boys. I said, ‘Oh, so my audition tape from ’96 finally made it in the mail. Thanks for finally opening it up. My revised audition is in the mail.’ So now I have all their songs on a playlist in the order of how they’re doing their set. And I’m on the stationary bike trying to make sure I can hit the high notes. And I’m turning it like it’s an Olympic sport. It’s gonna be great.”
Although she ultimately declined a permanent position with Skid Row to maintain her nearly three-decade commitment to Halestorm, Hale remains closely tied to both the band and its former singer. In fact, back in 2012, Sebastian Bach joined Halestorm onstage at Japan’s Loud Park festival to perform “Slave To The Grind,” a track Halestorm previously covered on their 2011 EP, ReAniMate: The CoVeRs eP.
