EVANESCENCE's AMY LEE On 'Bring Me To Life': 'It's An Amazing Gift To Have Our Big Song Be A Duet'

In a new interview with Canada's iHeart Radio, EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee reflected on the band's breakthrough 2003 hit "Bring Me To Life", which featured guest vocals from Paul McCoy of 12 STONES. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When we first did the song, I didn't wanna do the rap. That was like a concession kind of a thing with the label, trying to find a place for us. And LINKIN PARK was hot on the radio at the time. That was part of their [the label's] calculation of what was gonna help break a female through. And it was hard for me, actually. I got to write it. I was a part of it, like all of it, Paul was wonderful — still wonderful. But it was something that I like had an internal struggle with. But all these years later, with just — I don't want to use the word 'success', 'cause it's deeper than that, but the life that that song has had and all of these live shows, now that we're at this point now, 20 years later, and playing festivals with so many… It's just really, really, really an amazing gift to have our big song be a duet, because whenever we're out with somebody who's even remotely kind of in the realm of that would fit that voice, we get to have them up on our set. So that's been this really fun guest finale moment a lot. And even if the person isn't like the most famous person — it's cool when that happens — but when it's not, too, it just changes the energy of the song and is this easy, plug-in, really fun… I don't know. I don't know if that's the answer you were looking for, but I've gotten to a point where I'm super grateful that we have that song for that reason. The crowd goes nuts and everybody knows it, so it's super fun to have it be a collab."

HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale, who took part in the interview with Lee in order to promote HALESTORM's upcoming Canadian tour with EVANESCENCE, also offered her thoughts on "Bring Me To Life", saying: "I know with 'Bring Me To Life', it was monumental, not just for me, but for all of the girls hoping to see themselves in some semblance in the music videos, in the genre that we love so much. And for me personally, we were an unsigned band at the time and we were kind of shopping to labels, talking to people, and I got this all the time, the door kind of slammed in my face, like, 'Hey, females in rock are not really a thing right now. So we don't know what to do with you. We love what you do, but we don't have a place here at the table for you.' And, of course, you just take that as, 'Well, that's ridiculous. I'm gonna do it anyway.' But then, when Amy came out on the scene with 'Bring Me To Life' and you watch that video and it's just so compelling, and that voice, and we're, like, 'What is this alien from outer space that just dropped it and just proved everybody wrong?'"

Lzzy continued: "It's so wonderful to know [Amy], and also knowing that in a past life and having that foundation, but then to go out on tour with Amy and see her fans just [in] tears and you see a light turn on because not only is this such an important moment in their life when you guys broke out in the scene, but the song, everybody remembers that moment. I remember the carpet that I was sitting on with the beanbag chair when the video came on. Everybody has the moment that where that happened. And so to see that in real time with thousands of people all having that same experience, it's magical."

Back in February 2022, EVANESCENCE's music video for "Bring Me To Life" surpassed one billion views on YouTube. The Philipp Stölzl-directed clip, which was uploaded to YouTube in December of 2009, was filmed in Romania in January 2003. It features Amy in a night gown and barefoot, in her room, inside a tall building in the city at night. The rest of the band is playing on a higher floor of the building.

The album version of "Bring Me to Life" was included on the soundtrack of superhero film "Daredevil".

In 2021, Amy spoke to Germany's Sonic Seducer about the lyrical inspiration for "Bring Me To Life". The song reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was EVANESCENCE's first U.K. No. 1 single.

"I remember what I wrote 'Bring Me To Life' about, because I wrote it about my current husband before we were married," she said. "There was this moment — I was in a tough place and in a bad relationship. And my husband now, Josh, at the time was just a friend and a person that I barely knew; it was maybe the third or fourth time we'd ever met. And we went in to go grab a seat at a restaurant while our friends parked the car. And we sat across from each other, and he looked at me and he just said, 'So, are you happy?' And it took me so off guard, and I just felt like it pierced my heart, because I felt like I had been pretending really well, and it was, like, somebody could see through me. And then that whole first verse came out of it: 'How can you see into my eyes, like open doors.' It really made me feel and recognize the sense of yearning that I had to get to a better place. And it really kind of set me out on a journey. And it's amazing that that became the song, the first song that broke us on to the scene and made everyone hear of us, because it was about something — I don't know — something so personal that I was recognizing in my life."

In March 2021, Lee told Alternative Press that EVANESCENCE's original record label Wind Up threatened not to release the group's debut album, "Fallen", if she and her bandmates didn't add a male voice to lead single "Bring Me To Life" to make it more palatable for radio.

"Fallen" sold 17 million copies and won two Grammys, including "Best Rock Performance" for "Bring Me To Life".

EVANESCENCE's latest album, "The Bitter Truth", arrived in March 2021 via BMG. It was EVANESCENCE's first album of original music in ten years.

Photo credit: Nick Fancher