Pop Star Halsey Used to Book and Promote Hardcore Shows in New Jersey

You may not recognize it by her music, but pop star and New Jersey native Halsey is a massive metal fan. Over the years she’s definitely not hidden that fact, having worked with Nine Inch Nails and Bring Me The Horizon, but her love of the genre apparently goes way deeper than that.

According to a recent TikTok post, the pop star was asked by In Dissonant drummer Christian Leyva about her musical tastes and love of hardcore. In the clip, she revealed that in her teenage years she used to be directly involved in the scene by booking and promoting gigs in the Garden State.

“I mean I super fuck with hardcore music. I used to promote hardcore shows in Jersey before I started making music. I did a lot of hardcore, but then also like, some of the more commercial hardcore. The biggest show I ever booked, I was like 16 – the biggest show I ever booked was August Burns Red and The Devil Wears Prada. Like I said, a little more commercial. My senior yearbook quote was a Defeater lyric. So you guessed right, I was for sure a hardcore kid.”

Having grown up in Edison, New Jersey, Halsey certainly had plenty of locations and venues to potentially put a hardcore show together. And while she kind of shrugged a little at the concept of “commercial hardcore,” it’s still crazy impressive that she was able to get bigger bands like The Devil Wears Prada and August Burns Red while still going to high school. It’s obvious she’s passionate about the music, even if it’s not the type of music she makes for a living.