Amy Lee has opened up about the sexism she faced from music industry heavyweights when Evanescence were first starting out.
In a new interview with News Corp about the band’s bombastic new album of orchestral reworkings Synthesis, the goth kween sheds some more light on the band’s breakthrough 2003 single ‘Bring Me To Life’ and the male rap from guest vocalist Paul McCoy that they were forced to include.
“God bless the rap, it’s part of what got us on the radio I guess,” Lee says. “At least according to all the rules of radio that I don’t agree with or understand. The rap wasn’t part of our original idea or sound, it was a compromise in many ways. So to be able to go back to the original vision for the song [in Synthesis] was great.”
As The Fader points out, the inspirational heavy rock vocalist has previously spoken of how the band’s record label Wind Up threatened not to release their debut album Fallen at all, if they didn’t add a male voice to the lead single to make it more palatable for radio.
“I remember having many talks with the suits…the powers that were, about [my femininity] being a negative thing,” Lee recalled in an older interview that’s since been archived on YouTube, recalling industry heavyweights telling her: “There’s nothing like this on the radio right now — how are we going to break you in?”
So they went ahead and spliced it with the kind of nu-metal rap that was in vogue at the time.
But that’s all changed now, thanks to Evanescence’s new album Synthesis, which they’ll be touring across Australia in February of 2018.
“I forget the rap’s there now to be honest,” Lee tells News Corp. “At the time it was a big issue, it was our first single. I wanted people to understand who we were. That’s a struggle you always fight as an artist. If we only had the one hit, if no one ever heard from us again then nobody would understand who we were.
“We’ve made it past that point so the rap doesn’t make me angry any more,” she adds. “I’m so glad to put a new version out there without the rap though.”
Catch all the details about Evanescence’s 2018 Australian Synthesis tour right here, and check out both versions of ‘Bring Me To Life’ below.
