Wasted On You

Album: The Bitter Truth (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • Amy Lee originally wrote "Wasted On You" about a disconnected relationship.

    I don't need drugs
    I'm already six feet low
    Wasted on you
    Waiting for a miracle


    Lee penned the song before the coronavirus crisis and Evanescence had not planned on releasing the track before the album. However, once the world went into indefinite lockdown its meaning changed to encapsulate the feelings of the lack of control experienced by so many. Seeing how the lyrics resonated with the COVID-19 age, the band released the track on April 24, 2020. "I didn't write these lyrics about what we're all now going through, but somehow that's exactly what they are," said Lee.
  • Getting the song ready for release in the coronavirus era meant that the band had to take a different approach. "We were recording this music right up until we couldn't go into the studio anymore, and finished it remotely through file sharing and phone calls," said Lee.
  • The Bitter Truth album title comes from one of this song's lyrics.

    I can't move on
    Feels like we're frozen in time
    I'm wasted on you
    Just pass me the Bitter Truth
  • P.R. Brown, the director behind Evanescence's clips for "Imperfection," "Hi-Lo" and "The Chain," curated the video. Using their iPhones, the band members shot themselves isolating alone at their homes and with their families. Brown then edited their clips all together.

    Said Lee: "We can't be together to make a video right now, but we took that and used it to tell the story of our real lives in this moment, and to show that although we are apart, we are all still connected."

    Brown added: "It's a time where nothing makes sense and we are all forced to see a reality we don't want to believe exists. It was clear that we all collectively needed to create something, we needed to say something. After we started looking at the footage it was clear that the band members were each going through similar things. I started building an edit and seeing those scenarios play out over and over again and linked them together to tell their stories."
  • Amy Lee told ABC the song is about "making a decision to go down that harder path and change your outcome."

    "It's a hopeful thing, but it's also a struggle, just to break out of that place and head into the unknown, which has potential to be something better than what you're apathetically choosing to stay in," she added.
  • Evanescence performed "Wasted On You" on the February 19, 2021 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! The performance saw the five band members perform separately from California, Florida, Georgia and Germany.

Comments: 2

  • Olga Z. from Montreal, CanadaThank you, Charles. I agree with you.
  • Charles from NashvilleYou can call it what you want. This is a song that is literally about expecting you're partner to show up. The person that wants more is just waiting. You can call the idea of someone being there as table stakes, as "needy", but if you want to connect with someone you're just a douchebag for not wanting to connect. From my perspective, if you are talking to someone that is willing to be real, you aren't real back, that is a waste of time. It's about wanting to be heard, and being willing to go in and do that.
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