Stone Sour and Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale Cover The Rolling Stones: Why?

November 9th, 2015 at 4:00pm
Axl Rosenberg

Stone Sour have teamed up with Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale for a pointless cover of The Rolling Stones classic “Gimme Shelter.” I say “pointless” because the band has in no way made the song their own; in fact, guitarist Josh Rand even told Rolling Stone that they “tried to recreate the sounds and tones that the original artist used.” So, basically, Stone Sour’s “Gimme Shelter” : The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” :: Gus Van Sant’s Psycho : Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho.

That approach to covers always confounds me, but in this case, I’m extra-baffled as to why the band would do such a thing. You’re talking about a song that has achieved such monumental stature in pop culture that Martin Scorsese has used it in approximately 87% of all every film he’s ever made and no one ever gives him shit about it. And with all due to respect to Corey Taylor and Ms. Hale, Mick Jagger and Merry Clayton they ain’t. Pulling this off wasn’t gonna require a Herculean effort — it was gonna require a the finger of God Himself.

The only upside I see is this: if it gets one kid to check out Let it Bleed, it will have been worth it.