What It's Like Opening For Metallica (Ft. Evanescence's Amy Lee)

Metallica are looking ahead to their Las Vegas Sphere residency after an exhausting three years of the M72 world tour and Evanescence's Amy Lee looks back on opening for the metal legends in late 2025.

That November, Evanescence and Suicidal Tendencies were tabbed as the special guests on a brief run of five dates in Australia and one in New Zealand. Although the trek was short, the memories will last a lifetime.

What Amy Lee Said About Opening for Metallica

"It was so fun," Lee told Loudwire Nights radio host Chuck Armstrong in a recent digital cover story interview as Evanescence prepared to released their new album Sanctuary.

"They were so great. They were so gracious," she continued, acknowledging there's always some internal politics to deal with as an opener. "You never know how it's going to be coming into somebody else's world. It's their show and you have full-on respect. It's Metallica, we'll back off," the singer stated, "But, also, can we have some good production? What exactly can we get away with and how nice will you be about it? And they ended up being so cool. They let me put our grand piano out on the Snake Pit so it could just live there and I could go for the couple of moments that I spend at the piano just surrounded by the crowd."

Lee called being surrounded by crowds of upwards of 80,000 people "beautiful" and took note of Metallica's good nature. "They gave us a cake when we got there," she remembers, "made time for us to hang out a little bit. It's so cool when you lift up the other bands and let it feel like this is a night of music and we want every level, every chapter of it to be amazing for the fans and feel like a big show. By giving us that and letting us have our moment in that way, it felt like it was our show too for the the time that we were up there."

Another highlight? Watching her young son get blown away by the power and enormity of it all, taking in Metallica's set and at just the right age.

"I got to bring my son who's 11 now — the perfect age to fall in love with metal," Lee beams, "So him getting to experience that in the stadium... rain gently starts falling during 'Nothing Else Matters' and I'm watching his mind go, 'I'm in.' It was just such a good, good thing for my heart and just took me back to that age of falling in love with music."

What It's Like Opening for Metallica (Ft. Amy Lee)

As has been customary on the M72 tour, Metallica also thanked Evanescence for joining them on the road, showcasing Evanescence onstage in a photo carousel on Instagram.

Metallica + Evanescence 2026 Tour Dates

Evanescence are currently winding their way through the United States into early August before venturing overseas for a U.K. and European run through the beginning of October, with even more dates around the world before 2026 draws to a close.

See all dates at the Evanescence website.

Metallica, meanwhile, will break from the M72 grind with their history-making Life Burns Faster show coming to the Las Vegas Sphere this fall. They'll become the first metal band to play the multi-billion dollar venue and wrap up 2026 with a pair of arena dates in Connecticut.

Head to Metallica's website for further details.

Below, see all of the artists who have opened for Metallica over the last decade.