Through the Open Door

Amy Lee scares the hell outta me. Oh, it's not so much that she's hot or that she's talented or that she's famous (though she is decidedly all three), but that she's sweet. And sweet can be scary, especially when it's coming from someone so supposedly creepy.

By phone, the frontwoman for hard-rock band Evanescence is friendly, informal, chatty even — just another Arkansas-born star calling to check in. So breezy was our talk, in fact, that I hung up with a smile. Then I crept through The Open Door and crawled right under my bed.

In case you live in a place that doesn't get hard rock, The Open Door is the band's 2006 followup to its incredibly massive 2003 debut, Fallen, released on the originally Christian-oriented label Wind-Up Records. The centerpiece of the latter was "Bring Me to Life," the track that pit Lee's soaring voice both with and against the rap-infused gruff of the 12 Stones' Paul McCoy. The song — huge, heavy, and mightily histrionic — helped net Evanescence two Grammys, for Best New Artist and Best Hard Rock Performance.

But as wildly popular as the song was, everyone better recalls the video: Lee, sheerly clad, is seen first in bed, then windblown and falling. Finally she is spectacularly swept up, sleepwalking before a gothopolis backdrop that would make Tim Burton green with envy. It made the dame a household name.

Then came The Open Door, and the dark got even darker. Gone was the Bible-belting original guitarist/songwriter Ben Moody. In his place came ex-Cold cat Terry Balsamo. Balsamo and Lee proved to be a dreamily creepy team — harder, earthier, and infinitely more shadowed. "Call Me When You're Sober" sent a man away, "Lacrymosa" kept him there, and "Cloud Nine" told the clueless dolt why he would no longer ever be welcomed back.

But it was with tracks such as "Like You" that Lee really got her creep on: "I long to be like you/Lie cold in the ground like you/There's room inside for two/I'm not grieving for you/I'm coming for you." Yet despite the illusional necromancy, there's something almost life-affirming about Lee's dark dig into the deep. Like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, she goes down, down, down to check the air, but unlike the little tweety bird, Lee wasn't sent — she chose to plunge, herself.

It worked: The Open Door debuted last September at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The band has been touring behind it ever since.

Lee recently spoke with New Times about the new CD, her career, and opening for Iron Maiden.

You told Billboard the Christian tag that marked your early career was "a Ben thing" and you're "over it," so I won't ask you about that.

Wow, that's a really, really old quote, and I'm not sure how relevant it is today. Actually I think it's one of those things I said that people took and spun and made it like I said things I shouldn't have, and I think it was taken totally out of context.

Are you still in touch with Moody?

No.

Not at all?

Not gonna happen.

Ouch. What about the boys of 12 Stones — you still talk to them?

You know what? I don't. We were never close; it was sort of like we knew each other, kinda, barely, when the whole thing happened and we were sort of forced with that rapping song.... I haven't really kept in touch with them. I think they're doing all right now.

You've just done a summer of outdoor shows: Rock on the Range with ZZ Top, Family Values with Korn, a bunch of dates with Velvet Revolver.... Any one in particular stand out among the others?

Oh, wow, you just named a lot of standouts. ZZ Top actually was awesome. I'd never seen 'em live. Over the course of this year, really, I've gotten to play with bands that I've never even seen live before that were huge and awesome and inspiring. And actually we opened up for Iron Maiden this year.

That's funny.

That was more than funny; that was one of the most insane experiences of my life. It was crazy and I was scared out of my mind.

They still have a pretty rabid fan base then?

Oh yeah. And this was in front of like 100,000 of them. It was definitely intimidating, and we survived somehow without getting a single thing thrown at us, so, I was impressed anyway. I definitely surprised myself there [laughs].

Where was this?

Donnington, you know, the big UK metal festival.

Okay, more old quotes. You said your influences range from Björk, Tori Amos, and Danny Elfman to Mozart. Are there any other you care to cite?

Wow, there's a whole lot: Smashing Pumpkins is a huge influence for me, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode....

Is "Call Me When You're Sober" about anybody in particular?

Uh, yeah [laughs]. It was definitely about someone in particular, but at the same time, when I was writing it, it applied to a bunch of people in my life that I was sort of severing ties with. I don't know, it's been so long now. No hard feelings or anything....