EVANESCENCE Singer: 'I Never Wanted To Be A Rock Star'

EVANESCENCE's self-titled third major label album came out last October, five years after the group issued its last effort, 2006's "The Open Door". Asked if there is a reason EVANESCENCE tends to take a long time between CDs, singer Amy Lee told Michigan Live, "Part of it is being on the road. When we released our first record in 2003, we toured for a solid year and a half after that, and wrote the next record over the course of the next year. People were saying, 'It's been so long!' but we were working the whole time! But great things take time. You can't force inspiration. There's a lot of pressure to strike when the iron's hot, but I think that's watering down the industry. I just wanted to live life a little bit, so I'd have something to write about.

Led by Lee's operatic, passionate vocals, EVANESCENCE has sold close to 25 million albums since its 2003 debut, "Fallen". The project's premiere single, "Bring Me To Life", snagged the band a Grammy for best hard rock performance. Other massive hits followed, including "My Immortal", "Going Under", and "Call Me When You're Sober", establishing EVANESCENCE as worldwide tour headliners.

"I don't think it would be wrong to say some moments [since the release of the 'Fallen'] were traumatic, but a lot of pretty amazing things happened, too," Amy told Michigan Live. "I have a very interesting life because of this."

She continued, "The photo that's on the cover of 'Fallen' was taken on my 21st birthday, and I had been working on this band every day since I was 17, and it goes all the way back to when I was 14. We had spent time in Los Angeles doing artist development, and we moved to Tennessee, so (success) came after a lot of work. But it happened really quickly, and I was really young.

"One of the traumatic things is, you don't get any chances to make mistakes. You get crucified for it. I definitely felt like I was under the microscope. I was frustrated, and had always been an anti-fan of fame. Now, I'm more comfortable with it, because a lot of our fans are people like me, who need music in their lives. Like me, they find catharsis through our music.

"When I think I've had enough, and want to have a normal life and go home, I end up at a meet-and-greet, and meet a fan who tells me their life has changed because a song touched them. And then it's like, 'This show is for you!'

"We take a lot of inspiration from our fans. But it did take some time to process the fame. I never wanted to be a rock star or any of that. I just wanted to make my music."