Amy Lee opens up about the struggles she has faced as a woman in music

November 30, 2017

[Photo by: P.R. Brown]

Evanescence have recently released their newest studio album Synthesis and are on the road in support of the record. But that's not to say it's been an easy road by any means, and in a new interview, frontwoman Amy Lee has opened up about the struggles she has faced as a woman in the music industry—particularly, in the hard rock world.

“I have fought so many fights. I feel like I've won most of them,” she tells Billboard.

She cites the rap by 12 Stones singer Paul McCoy that was “forced onto” the band's “Bring Me To Life” as one of the biggest battles she had to fight, with her label insisting that his presence on the track would ensure radio play. And it's continuous battles throughout the years that has led to the extended time between albums.

“It was sometimes difficult to distinguish the difference between just being treated like a young idiot—you know, ‘You’re just a kid, everybody knows better than you’—and being treated that way because I was female,” Lee tells Billboard.

“I learned as I got more experienced, and a lot of it was because I’m a female. People naturally see us as the softer sex that’s going to step aside and let the men do the real work, so there’ve been plenty of times when I’ve had to look at that, recognize it, and go, ‘No, this is what’s going to happen, because I’m positive that I’m right, and it’s my art and you’re not going to change it.’”

With Synthesis, Lee feels as though it's one of the first times she's been able to fully get to do what she wants on an album and have a team that believes in her, too. And Lee has had an influence on some of the other leading ladies in rock, with Billboard citing such artists as Lzzy Hale and Taylor Momsen as fans of her work ethic and innovation.

“She showed me an open door—no pun intended—because up until she blew up the radio, I was largely the only female rocker in my area,” Halestorm's Lzzy Hale says. “A lot of industry folks just didn’t believe a girl rock band could get on radio. So when Amy proved them all wrong, it showed everyone that I wasn’t crazy for pursuing this career.”

And Momsen agrees. “The fact that she’s still [recording] and still dominating the rock world is amazing,” Momsen tells Billboard. “She took rock ’n’ roll and she put a female voice in it and didn’t try to be anyone else. She really created her own identity, and that’s something any woman should look up to. She mixed pop to rock to opera to metal, [combined] them and made a really unique balance that hadn’t been heard before.”

Evanescence are currently wrapping up their North American tour in support of Synthesis. Check out the remaining list of cities and dates below.

Dates:
11/30 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre
12/2 – Carmel, IN @ The Palladium
12/5 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre
12/6 – Madison, WI @ Orpheum Theatre
12/8 – Toronto, ON Canada @ Sony Centre for Performing Arts
12/9 – Windsor, ON Canada @ Caesar's Windsor
12/11 – Kansas City, MO @ Kansas City Music Hall
12/13 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
12/15 – Reno, NV @ Grand Theatre at The Grand Sierra Resort
12/16 – San Francisco, CA @ Masonic Auditorium
12/19 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

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