Amy Lee Reflects on Bring Me to Life's Rap: "Not My Style"
Amy Lee reveals her discomfort with the rap in Bring Me to Life and highlights her commitment to creative freedom.
- Amy Lee reiterates her dislike for the rap segment in Bring Me to Life, calling it a ‘difficult pill to swallow.’
- Evanescence’s label forced the inclusion of the rap, but the band retained their core sound despite the compromise.
- Amy dismisses genre labels** like nu metal, emphasizing the importance of creative freedom and individuality in music.
Amy Lee, the unmistakable voice of Evanescence, hasn’t minced words about her feelings toward the now-iconic rap segment in Bring Me to Life. For two decades, she’s openly expressed her discomfort with the label-driven decision to shoehorn in Paul McCoy’s rap—something neither she nor the band originally envisioned for their breakout hit.
In a recent chat with Metal Hammer, Amy revisited the subject with her trademark candor. When asked about her relationship with the track’s rap section today, she was blunt: “I stopped performing it a long time ago. We never really did perform it.” She clarified that the rap part only resurfaces on rare occasions, like when touring with artists who can fill that slot. “When we’re on tour with somebody like P.O.D., Sonny [Sandoval] will jump in a few times. And if Paul [McCoy] happens to be around, we’ll bring him up because it’s fun, nostalgic.”
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But make no mistake—her personal distaste for the style remains. “That part, that sound, that’s not my style,” she admitted. “It was a difficult pill to swallow, even for just one song. But we won because we didn’t have to change our entire sound.”
The conversation drifted to the ever-contentious subject of nu metal labels, another box Lee finds restrictive. “Those are just words,” she said, brushing off the genre debate with a shrug that you could almost hear. “I don’t super get or agree with the boxes we feel the need to put things in. If you’re doing it right, every band is its own unique shade.”
As for defining Evanescence’s style, Lee doesn’t play that game. “One of the questions I’ve been asked so many times is, ‘How would you define your sound? What’s your genre?’ I don’t know how to do that. I want to keep the freedom to try something completely new whenever I want.”
For those ready to relive Evanescence’s stormy blend of gothic rock and sweeping vocals, the band will be making their way back to the UK this June (2023) for Download Festival.
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