Mz. Hyde

Album: The Strange Case Of... (2012)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song was seen as the focal point of Halestorm's The Strange Case Of... album. When the band were writing songs for the new record, they had ballads, like "Beautiful With You," and heavy songs like "You Call Me a Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing," but nothing to truly tie them together. This song, which addresses Halestorm singer Lzzy Hale's Jekyll/Hyde personality wound up serving as the thematic glue that binded the record together. "It was one of the later songs we wrote," Hale told Yahoo! Music: "At one point, we were looking at a good chunk of 17 to 50 songs that were all over the place. The guys in the band were saying, 'Well, how can we put all these songs onto this record? We love them all, but there's no common theme.' So I came to them with this idea about this Mz. Hyde character. It was actually a personal thing because it was a character I invented that helped me come out of my shell when I was a kid. Growing up, I was a very shy and introverted, so I more or less had to invent Mz. Hyde in order to be the rock star I wanted to be onstage."

    "For years, I've been writing about these two sides of myself, and I wanted to capture that in a song.," Hele continued. "So I brought this to the guys, and all three of them looked at me at the same time and said, 'Oh my God, that's it! Lzzy, you are Mz. Hyde! Once we put this song on the record, everything else makes sense because we have the soft side of you and then the harder side of you. That works because you're like a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing!' And I was like, 'Well, okay, I'm glad we were able to work that out, basically at my expense.'"
  • Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel The Strange Case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde was written by the Scottish novelist in three days in his Bournemouth villa . Wracked by coughing fits caused by tuberculosis and drinking himself into stupors to try to counteract this, Stevenson had a nightmare about a man being pressed into a cabinet where he swallowed a drug and changed into another being. This gave him the basic outline of the plot, which he based on William Brodie a respected businessman and Edinburgh town councillor by day and a leader of a gang of robbers by night.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Sarah Brightman

Sarah BrightmanSongwriter Interviews

One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.

Edie Brickell

Edie BrickellSongwriter Interviews

Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.

Trucking Songs That Were #1 Hits

Trucking Songs That Were #1 HitsSong Writing

The stories behind the biggest hit songs about trucking.

Grateful Dead Characters

Grateful Dead CharactersMusic Quiz

Many unusual folks appear in Grateful Dead songs. Can you identify them?

Angelo Moore of Fishbone

Angelo Moore of FishboneSongwriter Interviews

Fishbone has always enjoyed much more acclaim than popularity - Angelo might know why.

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," Kiss

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," KissSong Writing

After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."