Amy Lee wants to record an entire Portishead covers album

Evanescence's frontwoman Amy Lee isn't holding back about her obsession with trip-hop royalty. In a recent interview, she revealed she'd be thrilled to dedicate a full record to Portishead covers—and honestly, after hearing why, it makes total sense.

Lee wrote "Bring Me to Life" at 19, a song that's now a stadium anthem. But back then? She was processing an abusive relationship and figuring out how to save herself. "It was partly about that reality," she said, "and asking myself, what are you gonna do about it?" She's crushing on her eventual husband at the time too, but the real heart of the song was bigger—a search for depth, for opening yourself up to something more. Performing it now in massive venues hits different. She's genuinely proud of that angry teenager who wrote it.

What's interesting is how her influences shaped her path. She's covered Portishead tracks like "It's a Fire" and "Glory Box," and it comes straight from somewhere deep. In the 90s, when she was a young teen soaking up music, she was all in on Portishead, Massive Attack, the whole trip-hop sound. Dark. Cool. Nothing like what else was happening.

Beth Gibbons, Portishead's vocalist, became one of Lee's biggest inspirations. "Her vocals have this way of teetering on an emotional crack," Lee explained. "Like you're on the edge of something wild, barely held together, but she never belts. Just sits there, restrained but absolutely enticing." That restraint—that's the thing. It's the opposite of power vocals. It's control wrapped around vulnerability.

So yeah, a full Portishead covers album from Amy Lee isn't some throwaway comment. It's a genuine desire to honor an artist who shaped how she thinks about her own voice and what emotion sounds like when it's not screaming. As Evanescence gears up for tour dates, Lee's clearly thinking about what moves her, what inspires her, what she actually wants to create. And right now? That's Beth Gibbons' dark, atmospheric world, track after track.