The Big Metal Bands Pop Star Halsey Used to Book as a Teen

Halsey may toil in the pop world, but in her pre-fame teenage years the aspiring musician actually used to work as a promoter booking hardcore shows in New Jersey.

The singer revealed as much in a fan interaction during an in-store appearance for her make-up brand About Face that’s been circulating on TikTok.

What Halsey Said About Her Teenage Music Promoter Years

The fan approached Halsey and asked her about her interest in hardcore, to which the singer can be seen responding, “I super fuck with hardcore.”

She then elaborated, “I used to promote hardcore shows. In Jersey before I started making music. I did a lot of hardcore, but then also some of the more commercial hardcore. The biggest show I ever booked, I was 16, was like August Burns Red and The Devil Wears Prada.”

Within the discussion, she revealed that she chose a Defeater lyric for usage in her high school yearbook, but within the comments on the post she backtracked after remembering it was a Hundredth lyric while she had used while the Defeater lyric was for another commemorative moment.

To conclude the interaction, Halsey thanked the fan for asking her that question as she felt that was one she didn’t get often. She then doubled down when the TikTok clip got posted, adding in the comments, “This was a really cool moment in my day that day. Thank you so much.”

The Devil Wears Prada took notice as well, leaving a thank you comment in the thread.

Halsey’s Other Rock + Metal Nods

Back in 2019, Halsey got to venture a bit more into exploring her rock side while collaborating with Bring Me the Horizon‘s Oli Sykes and Jordan Fish in co-writing the track “Experiment on Me.” The song, which she sang, was eventually released in early 2020 on the Birds of Prey soundtrack. Not long after, the singer started speaking in interviews about her desire to release a rock album.

That desire to have more of a rock presence in her music came through the 2021 album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power that was produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and featured contributions from Dave Grohl, Lindsey Buckingham and Dave Sitek.

READ MORE: Six Pop Singers Who’ve Released Rock Albums

Then, in 2024, Halsey leaned into her influences even more as an artist on The Great Impersonator album in which she attempted to embody the artists that inspired each individual track. In promotion for the record, she even recreated the looks of some of her favorite icons and inspirations as songs were revealed. That included a makeover to mirror Evanescence’s Fallen album cover when teasing the song “Lonely Is the Muse” for the album.