We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hailey Ezzell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hailey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I have always been interested in music in one way or another. I mean, when I was growing up, my mom says I taught myself how to read using the lyrics from “Phantom of the Opera”. I was surrounded by a constant stream of music: between the radio and the home karaoke system we had, music was an inherent part of my life early on. On a whim, I started piano lessons at age 8. Around the same time, I started vocal lessons at my school.

Despite all of this, I actually had more of an interest in writing as a child. I wrote stories and illustrated little books. I also was writing lyrics, except I wasn’t thinking of them as lyrics yet. Just words to little ditties about spirit week and silly thoughts. As a child, I think you kind of dip your toes into multiple pools and I was certainly swimming.

In middle school, I developed an interest in rock music. I discovered Guns N’ Rose’s and quickly delved into the world of 80s Hair Metal. Eventually, this developed into a general love for 70s and 80s rock of all kinds as I fell in love with the likes of Styx, Heart, Journey, Foreigner, and others. This is when I decided to not just play piano and sing, but to be a musician. I started seriously trying to learn music and write lyrics. I became a student of it, which I am still to this day.

I puttered around in a few small bands that all fell apart pretty quickly- such is the nature of music, sometimes. But once I finally started my own band with my dad, Stone Lace, I knew I wanted to really pursue music professionally.

I would say that there was not one specific moment that sealed the deal for me. I did several shows with my local School of Rock. I filled in with a cover band at 15. I did some open mics and sang at karaoke. Though all of these experiences I met so many people with one thing in common. They were all cheering me on, telling me to keep going, giving me advice, and supporting me along the way.

When people ask me why I decided to pursue music professionally, I always say, “Too many people said yes for me to say no”. Essentially, too many people were ready to support and help me for me not give it a shot. And now here I am, all because some people decided to applaud.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a musician. I’m primarily a singer and keyboardist, but I also play bass, drums, acoustic guitar, melodica, and mandolin. I write my own songs, heavily influenced by the 70s and 80s rock music that I love so dearly. I’ve released four original songs so far and I’m working on my debut album. I want to keep rock alive and I hope you’ll join me on this journey!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

So, to make a long story short, I have a long history of accidentally ending up in serious medical situations. One of them being that I once broke my knee standing still. I broke the cartilage in my knee and could not walk without crutches. The problem with this (besides just not being able to walk) was that I had two shows on my immediate schedule. I kept both of the shows on my schedule. I’ve got some really cool photos of me performing in a bulky knee brace! I gave my all and the audience seemed to appreciate it. It helped solidfy my mindset that, unless I’m dead, I’m going to do my best to walk out on that stage and give people the show they came to see.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

As simple as it sounds, the best thing you can do is tell your friends about us. Liking our photos, commenting, and sharing helps to get our stuff picked up in the various algorithms and shows us to new people. As much as the internet wants to run the whole show, word of mouth is still extremely helpful.

And, of course, buying physical media, t-shirts, stickers, etc is always very helpful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haileyezzell_musician?igsh=a2ljcjEwbjEycGVo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HaileyEzzellMusician?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@haileyezzellmusician?si=jI7XydItAunvtN_y

Image Credits

Stone Lace
Courtney Sheflin
Hailey Ezzell