Amy Lee Responds To Nathan Fielder’s Theory About Captain Sully And Evanescence

This season of Nathan Fielder's bonkers HBO series The Rehearsal is about how co-pilot communication impacts aviation safety. Much of last Sunday's episode "Pilot's Code" involves Fielder in costume re-creating pivotal moments in the life of Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot, played by Tom Hanks in the movie Sully, who successfully landed a crashing plane on the Hudson River. During this exercise, Fielder introduced a theory about what happened on that fateful day — a theory involving Evanescence.

There are more robust recaps out there, but the gist is: Fielder notes that there are no references to music in Sully's autobiography until after the death of his father. Not long after his dad died, the Apple iPod was released. After that point in the book, Sully makes multiple references to Evanescence's smash hit "Bring Me To Life." Sully's iPod was found submerged in the cabin of the plane he landed on the Hudson. There's a 23-second stretch of silence in the black-box recording from the cockpit — exactly the length of the "Bring Me To Life" chorus — after which point Sully asks his copilot for advice about how to handle the situation. Fielder surmises that upon acquiring an iPod, Sully developed a deeper interest in music, helping him get more in touch with his feelings — and that he specifically learned to ask for help via the lyrics from "Bring Me To Life." Was Sully listening to that chorus in his earbuds before pulling off an aviation miracle?

Like all things Fielder, the theory is bizarre verging on preposterous but also makes some kind of weird sense. So of course someone had to ask Evanescence about it. Monday, Vulture published an interview with the band's singer Amy Lee. In our We've Got A File On You interview with Lee from 2023, she talked about some of the weird times Evanescence music has appeared in pop culture, such as the viral video in which Goofy sings "Bring Me To Life." But she says this Rehearsal thing is the weirdest case she's seen so far: "This is 100% the strangest licensing we’ve ever had as far as 'Bring Me To Life' being used for something. This is the most unique thing that I can think of because it was also … kind of about the song?"

Lee says the song's placement in The Rehearsal has hipped her to Fielder's work. She calls him "some kind of genius," saying she's gotten really into this season and has gone back to catch up on the first season. "The Rehearsal is really strange and thought-provoking," Lee says. "I’m laughing out loud at parts that aren’t even funny, but like, I just can’t believe it." Lee says she found the request to use her song confusing, but she approved it immediately because it seemed "really weird and fun." As for Fielder's theory, she says it's "totally possible," but we'll never know. (Sully is still alive, so it seems like we might be able to know?)

There's also this:

This show made me get so into my own head. It made me think about all the times, especially in the beginning of my career when we were writing and recording that song. And then even more so in the aftermath of the song’s success and being in the spotlight for the first time, and how much I felt like I had to project strength and couldn’t show my weaknesses because I was a woman, but also because I was 21 years old and had to fight for everything creatively and prove myself as worthy. It’s interesting because of what the song was doing in the show, and what I know that it has done for people around the world, because they’ve told me about it: It gave someone an outlet to be allowed to break down. I don’t know. It’s just blowing my mind. It’s really beautiful.

Watch the "Bring Me To Life" moment play out onscreen below.

Big week for Amy Lee: