Evanescence’s multi-million-selling debut album, 2003’s Fallen, put them on the map in the biggest way imaginable. But by the time of follow-up The Open Door three years later, everything had changed - co-founder and guitarist Ben Moody was gone, and singer Amy Lee was in charge.
With an expanded 20th anniversary reissue of The Open Door set for release in November 2026, we look back at this classic 2006 interview with Amy Lee, in which she addresses the pressures of fame, the tumult of the previous few years and just how she took control of her own destiny.
Life ain’t easy being a goth metal princess. As Evanescence get set to release their new album, The Open Door, singer Amy Lee is naturally upbeat about its prospects. If she feels the pressure of following up Fallen, the band’s major label debut, released in April 2003, it isn’t showing. To date, Fallen has sold 14 million copies worldwide – 1.2 million in the UK alone. That surely makes Evanescence one of the biggest rock’n’roll success stories of recent times.
“I was just a kid when I wrote a lot of the stuff on the first album, so I had the ability to step it up a gear this time,” she says with a shrug. “Making the new record was pretty intense but it wasn’t particularly hard, actually.I have definitely gotten to be a better musician and singer from touring so much. The Open Door is an even better record than the last one, for sure.”
But away from all the usual talking-up-the-new album hyperbole, there’s been plenty of stuff bubbling under the surface of Evanescence to address. A series of line-up changes – notably the unexpected departure of original guitarist and co-founder Ben Moody at the end of 2003 – has led to Lee being accused of being a control freak (an accusation she doesn’t deny to Classic Rock today). The singer was also in a two-year relationship with Seether frontman Shaun Morgan that turned sour. Although she is reluctant to name names, there’s little doubt that the bust-up fuelled the lyrics of Evanescence’s new single, Call Me When You’re Sober: ‘You never call me when you’re sober/You only want it cos it’s over – it’s over’. (Ironically, the day the song hit the airwaves in the States, Morgan went into rehab and Seether’s tour dates were cancelled).
Like we said, life ain’t easy being a goth metal princess. But Lee, to her credit, finds that particular sobriquet rather amusing.
“Ha-ha! It doesn’t annoy me, it just makes me laugh. If you knew me in real life you’d probably just call me a dork. I don’t live life that way. I write music that’s very passionate, because that’s what it’s for… It’s for my deepest feelings. And when I’m on stage I need to represent the way my lyrics feel. Hence my stage persona, which is kinda dramatic. But for real life, when I’m rushing around, doing everyday things, I just look like a funky dork.”
One of the most overused words in rock journalism is ‘ethereal’. But we have no qualms about applying that adjective to Evanescence, because it sums them up perfectly. Their music is a dark and mysterious mix of crunching hard rock and sublime classical sensibilities. It’s bolstered by Lee’s searing, stricken lyrics and her near-operatic voice. On stage Lee has a presence that is both wraith- and waif-like. Her otherworldly charisma is palpable.
For Evanescence, it all came together on the amazing video to Evanescence’s single Bring Me To Life. You must remember it, it was on MTV practically 24 hours a day. The song itself went to No.1 in the UK, where it stayed for five weeks in summer 2003. Seemingly set in a tower block in Batman’s Gotham City, the video depicts Lee in the throes of a nightmare. She repeatedly falls from a building but never actually hits the ground. And the scene where she slips suddenly from stuff of legend. It’s surely one of the greatest rock video moments of all time.
Besides the video, key to the success of Bring Me To Life was the vocal contribution of Paul McCoy, the frontman with 12 Stones. Was Lee tempted to replicate that nu metal style on any of the tracks on The Open Door?
“The male vocal? That Linkin Park kinda thing? No, never. That was something requested of us and we didn’t want to do it. But we gave in because it felt like we had to; we didn’t have a choice. In the end it worked out, you know. I love the song, but if there’s one thing we did that really sacrificed what I wanted for the band, it was that.”
So all the shouty stuff was foisted upon you?
“I didn’t really talk about it at first because I didn’t want it sound like I didn’t have faith in my own music. It grew on me and eventually I got to say: ‘Okay, that’s pretty cool.’ It’s awesome live because the fans get to scream that part. But it’s not the way the song was originally written, and it’s not something that we want to repeat.”
Lee is a complex personality. She seems to relish the trappings of fame while simultaneously being discomfited by them.
“I’ve changed so much in the past year. Before, I was almost ashamed of my fame and I tried to hide from it. This was because of the last relationship I was in. I felt guilty for being who I was. It made me very defensive and not as nice to fans as I wish I had been.
“I’ll give you an example. I’d be walking around a mall with my boyfriend, and some fans would come up and compliment me. But they’d ignore my boyfriend, who was in a less successful band. I felt like I couldn’t go: ‘Hey, thanks! I’m really grateful’ without it being perceived by my boyfriend as being egotistical, and without it hurting him.”
This was Shaun Morgan of Seether?
“It was Shaun. I regret every time I wasn’t completely kind, and grateful, and open with our fans during that period. That’s one thing I’m aiming to fix now.”
Your new single Call Me When You’re Sober was written about Shaun, presumably?
“It actually applies to a few people who have been in my life. But it’s especially about breaking up, and my last big relationship that came to an end. I said those words – call me when you’re sober – so many times in real life.”
How about Ben Moody, who quit Evanescence in the midst of a European tour a couple of years back? Lee met Moody at a youth camp when they were both 13 years old. Moody heard Lee playing Meat Loaf’s I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) on the piano. He was a fan of Hendrix; she loved Björk. From there an unlikely music partnership blossomed. But despite being an important part of Evanescence’s history, there isn’t a single mention of Moody in recent press releases or on the band’s official website
Lee sighs: “It would be impossible to erase Ben’s name from Evanescence’s past and I wouldn’t try to. But the point of him not being on the website now is that we’re trying to establish the new band. We’ve changed; we’ve moved on. Ben’s presence is not what makes Evanescence; he’s not necessary to make it live on. He’s definitely not part of the present, which is everything to me.”
Moody was replaced by Terry Balsamo, with whom Lee had to forge a new songwriting partnership. Balsamo suffered a stroke last year, and Evanescence’s bass player, Will Boyd, recently left. The band’s line-up has never been particularly stable, but recently there’s been a lot of internal strife. Did it surprise Lee when Boyd said he didn’t want to tour any more?
“It shocked me. It made me really, really sad, actually. I sat there and cried with him. I’ve just known Will forever. He’s been playing with us since the beginning of Evanescence, since he was 15 or something. He left for a little while before – he wasn’t on the last album – but then he came back when we started touring. But as I get older I realise this is what life is like – it’s all about change.”
Since Evanescence came to prominence, the market for female-fronted goth metal bands has exploded, particularly in Europe. How much in common do Evanescence have with bands such as Lacuna Coil, Nightwish and Within Temptation?
“I don’t think that really is our style. With Evanescence, a lot people just see an image of a woman singer in Victorian clothing, theatrical makeup and everything, but the music is a lot different. I like to sing about real life and things I’ve been through. A lot of those other bands sing about vanity, and other stuff that I just can’t relate to.”
Lee recently described The Open Door as being “a more sensual album” than Fallen. What did she mean by that?
“Like I said earlier, a lot of the writing on Fallen was done when I was younger and more insecure. I’m an adult now; I’m more confident. I’m not just expressing one or two emotions, it’s the whole spectrum. So there are moments on the album that feel a lot more soulful and, yes, even sensual. Whereas on Fallen I was constantly singing about either being afraid, or being trapped, or about how I wanted someone to save me. I’ve matured. I feel I can stand up and fight my corner. I’m not ashamed of myself any more.”
We read an interview where Lee called herself the director and owner of Evanescence LLC (which stands for ‘limited liability company’, the US equivalent to ‘public limited company’). It made her sound like a control freak.
“I am a control freak. I have to be that way about the band. It’s my art. The album’s called The Open Door, which implies that things come and go. There isn’t some sort of natural security that I can rely on. You just hope that people can stay healthy and do a perfect job. You do have to be a control freak in order to make things happen.
“But I wouldn’t have said LLC. I wouldn’t have expressed myself as a company owner like that. I was probably misquoted a bit. I’m sure they tacked on the LLC to make me look bitchy. But it’s just what journalists do,” she laughs. “It’s what you do, you bastard!”
Goth metal princess? Funky dork? Nah. We’ll just call Amy Lee one tough cookie.
The Open Door is reissued on November 6 via Craft Recordings
