Amy Lee

Biography

[edit] Early life

Lee was born to parents John Lee, a disc jockey and TV personality, and Sara Cargill. She has one brother, Robby, and two sisters, Carrie and Lori. Lee had a third sister, who died in 1987 at the age of three from an unidentified illness.[3] The song "Hello" from Fallen has been reported to have been written for her late sister, as well as the song "Like You" from The Open Door with the lyrics, "I long to be like you, sis; Lie cold in the ground like you, did," also hinting at the death of her sister and her grief for it.[4] Lee took classical piano lessons for nine years. Her family moved to many places, including Florida and Illinois,[5] but finally settled
in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Evanescence started. She graduated from Pulaski Academy in 2000 and also briefly attended Middle Tennessee State University. Lee has stated that she is of mostly Scottish and English heritage.[6]

In an interview on AOL Music, Lee revealed that the first songs she remembered writing were called "Eternity of the Remorse" and "A Single Tear". The first was written when she was eleven years old and wanted to become a classical composer, and the second was for an assignment when she was in the eighth grade.[7]

[edit] Evanescence

[edit] Founding

She co-founded the band with Ben Moody. The two met at a youth camp after he heard Lee playing Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)" on the piano.[8] Within a month, the pair were playing acoustic sets at Arkansas book stores and coffee houses,[9] and they eventually recorded two EPs, Evanescence EP (1998) and Sound Asleep EP (1999), selling them at various local venues. In 2000, Evanescence recorded the longer EP Origin. This demo contains three songs from the debut album Fallen and was written by Lee and Moody: "Whisper", "Imaginary" and "My Immortal". Whereas "Whisper" and "Imaginary" underwent further modifications before being included on Fallen, "My Immortal" is virtually identical. A later band version of "My Immortal" was made available for download for those who had bought an official version of Fallen through their official web site, but required that a CD checker program also be downloaded for verification before it would play.[10] The band version was included on later copies of Fallen, notably the Brazilian and Argentinian editions.

[edit] Departure of Ben Moody

On October 22, 2003, guitarist Ben Moody left the band citing "creative differences". In an interview several months later, Amy said: "We'd gotten to a point that if something didn't change, we wouldn't have been able to make a second record". She also said "We're finally a real band, not just Ben and I and a few others thrown together".[9] Ex-Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo replaced Moody in the band, both on guitar and as Lee's writing partner.

[edit] Lawsuit

On December 1, 2005, former Evanescence manager Dennis Rider filed a lawsuit against Lee for breach of contract. The suit claims Rider was prematurely and unjustly terminated from his position as manager of Evanescence.

In return, Lee filed a counter-suit against Rider for "breach of fiduciary duty, sexual assault and battery, professional negligence, currency conversion, and other charges". The suit also claims Rider "neglected Lee's career and business and has focused his efforts on having extramarital affairs, hiding them from his wife, becoming intoxicated during business meetings, physically abusing women and boasting about it, making repeated unwelcome sexual advances toward Lee, receiving fees in excess of what was provided for in his management agreement and using Lee's corporate credit card to purchase gifts for his mistress."

Rider's attorney, Bert Deixler, claimed in a statement that Rider had fully performed all of the duties and obligations owed by the firm under the management agreement, and that he had always conducted himself by the highest professional standards.[11]
Amy Lee singing at a concert in 2006.
Amy Lee singing at a concert in 2006.

[edit] The Open Door

Main article: The Open Door

Lee had claimed to be working on music for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but that the music was rejected for being "Too dark and epic." However, the producers of Narnia stated that Lee was never asked to compose any music for the film, whose score was written by Harry Gregson-Williams, and that "No Evanescence music was planned for the soundtrack."[12][13]

While there was some speculation that one of the supposed songs had been cut and used in several tracks of The Open Door, Lee stated this was not true except for part of it being used to segue into the last track of the album, "Good Enough".[14]

[edit] Engagement and marriage

Lee revealed during the taping of MuchMusic's January 9, 2007 episode of Live @ Much that she had become engaged the previous evening. She later confirmed on EvThreads.com that she had been proposed to by Josh Hartzler, a 29-year-old therapist and longtime friend.[15] She noted in an interview that the songs "Good Enough" and "Bring Me To Life" were inspired by him.[16] The couple were married on May 6, 2007, and honeymooned near The Bahamas.[17] She has posted on EvThreads that she is "now officially Mrs. Amy Hartzler."[18]
Amy Lee, performing at an Evanescence concert.
Amy Lee, performing at an Evanescence concert.

[edit] Image

Lee has a recognizable goth style, marked by her occasional use of Gothic make-up and taste for Victorian-styled clothing.[19] She also designs many of her own clothes, including those worn in the music video for "Going Under", the dress she wore at the 2004 Grammy awards, and the dress worn for the cover of The Open Door. After she designed it she chose Japanese designer H. Naoto to make it for her.[20] In concerts, she often wears a corset and fishnets, as well as long skirts and knee-high boots. She used to have a notable piercing on her left eyebrow which is visible on the cover of Fallen.

She has stated on a number of occasions that she would never flash her breasts or engage in other publicity stunts that would draw attention to herself. In fact, in the music video for "Everybody's Fool," she aimed to mock such artists by suggesting that celebrities who use sex to appeal to an audience are, in fact, merely peddling "lies" (the unifying theme of the music video). Many fans praise Lee for her refusal to emulate other celebrities by using sex appeal in her music.[21]

In 2006, Blender listed Lee as one of the hottest women in rock alongside such singers as Joan Jett, Courtney Love and Liz Phair.[22]

[edit] Other projects

In 2000, Lee sang guest vocals on two of former Evanescence keyboardist David Hodges' songs: "Breathe" (The Summit Church: Summit Worship) and the unreleased "Fall Into You".[23] She performed backup vocals for "Missing You", a song on Big Dismal's 2003 debut album Believe, and sang backup vocals on two songs with 'supergroup' The Damning Well, though her vocals were taken off the final release due to record label issues.[24] Lee later performed a duet with her then-boyfriend Shaun Morgan on the track "Broken" for Seether's 2004 album Disclaimer II. The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack for the 2004 film The Punisher.

In 2006, Lee became the American Chairperson for Out of the Shadows, an international foundation with the goal of educating others about epilepsy. Lee's younger brother, Robbie, was previously diagnosed with this condition.[25]

The singer also made a brief guest appearance in the music video for Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down",[26] where she chose to appear laying flowers on a grave. She was recorded in Trinity Church in Manhattan. During the shoot, she wore a 'long-sleeve black velvet coat' that was Tim Burton's.[16]

On Korn's MTV Unplugged: Korn, Lee was featured in the song "Freak on a Leash". The song is also the first single from the album and was released to television and radio in early February 2007.

In late 2007, VH1 produced a mockumentary in the style of Behind the Music, titled Rock Band Cometh: The Rock Band Band Story, to promote the video game Rock Band. Lee was one of the celebrity cameos featured on the show.[27]