Some moments are too hard to relive.
On July 20, Lea Michele kicked off her tour, "An Evening With Lea Michele: Life in Music," and her long-awaited return to the stage featured an emotional tribute to Cory Monteith, who passed away in 2013. During the concert, the actress made a speech before she she sang Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love," which she performed in a special episode of Glee dedicated to Cory after his death.
Lea—who had been dating the actor at the time—revealed that Glee creator Ryan Murphy asked her to choose the song her character (Rachel Berry) would sing in Cory's tribute episode for his character, Finn Hudson.
"I don't even remember what I was listening to at the time. Like, nothing. I was just in such a hole," Lea admitted during her show. "I'm grateful that [Murphy] asked me. Because it needed to be something that felt real for me."
The Funny Girl star went on to share that the song was actually one that she and Cory had listened to during their time together. According to Lea, some of her memories with Cory inspired other scenes in the episode: "A lot of what I say to [Matthew Morrison's] character in that classroom were exact words I said to Ryan after everything."
Although the filming process proved to be "wild and hard" for Lea, she told fans that it was therapeutic as well, and helped her to cope with her loss. Despite this, she admitted she's never watched "The Quarterback" episode for herself.
"It's the only one I've not seen," she said. "Because I think if I don't watch it, it just kind of feels like Finn is still there. So this [song] is very special."
Earlier this month Lea, honored Cory on the ninth anniversary of his passing on her Instagram Story. The photo was one from their time on the set of the Fox show, with the two walking side by side and smiling from ear to ear. Lea included a simple heart emoji alongside the snap.