Amy Lee of Evanescence says she could record a full album of Portishead covers and reflects on performing “Bring Me to Life” after earlier abuse

Amy Lee, the singer and songwriter behind Evanescence, said she would “happily” make an entire album consisting of Portishead cover songs, pointing to the trip-hop group as an inspiration even as Evanescence hits the road again. In a wide-ranging interview published Monday by The Guardian, Lee also discussed how her approach to performing long-standing material has changed over time and how she processes themes that were drawn from personal experience.

Lee, who wrote “Bring Me to Life” when she was 19, said that when she performs the song now she relates to the younger version of herself through the context she later came to understand. According to the interview, Lee said she was “in an abusive relationship” when the track was written, and described the song as partly about “processing the reality of that abuse” and interrogating what it means to survive it, rather than simply repeating the past for nostalgia.

Asked about the cultural pressure around artists’ bodies and how performers are discussed in public, Lee responded to questions about sexualization in show business. In the interview, she addressed how women in music can be treated as objects of attention and said her perspective is shaped by what she experiences as both a performer and a person, tying her views to how she wants audiences to understand the work behind the stage persona.

Lee also discussed creative sources that extend beyond conventional rock influences. She said she draws inspiration from dreams, describing the role imagination plays in shaping the mood and meaning of new material. She connected that process to a specific type of on-the-road memory, referencing “Spinal Tap moments” as an example of how tours generate accidental stories and exchanges that can later feed into artistic thinking.

The interview portrayed the band’s current live period as a moment of conversation between past work and present identity. Lee’s remarks about revisiting “Bring Me to Life” focused on how performance can re-open emotional material, even for artists who have repeated the same song for years. She suggested that maintaining emotional honesty in the performance is part of why the song still lands, rather than treating it as a fixed artifact of her early career.

The Guardian’s interview did not provide additional details about the exact dates or locations of Evanescence’s tour run in the excerpted material available here, but it framed the discussion around Lee’s readiness to keep expanding her musical palette while remaining grounded in the history behind her most recognizable work. The comments about covers, dreams, and sexualization add to a broader public conversation about how mainstream artists navigate lasting fame and changing expectations.

For fans and critics following Evanescence, Lee’s remarks may also clarify how she thinks about the relationship between the personal origin of a song and its later public life. Even without new announcements tied directly to a Portishead-cover project, her statement that she could make a full covers album indicates how she continues to think in terms of albums and thematic consistency, not just single-track experimentation.