Amy Lee

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Amy Lee
Amy Lee singing at a concert in 2006.
Background information
Birth name	Amy Lynn Lee
Born	December 13, 1981 (age 25) Riverside, California, USA
Origin	Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Genre(s)	Alternative rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Instrument(s)	Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active	1998 – present
Label(s)	Wind-up
Associated acts	Evanescence
Website	Evanescence.com

Amy Lynn Lee (born December 13, 1981 in Riverside, California) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a founding member and lead singer of the Grammy Award winning rock band Evanescence. Her influences range from classical musicians such as Mozart to modern artists like Björk, Tori Amos, Danny Elfman^[1] and Plumb.^[2]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Evanescence 1.2.1 Founding 1.2.2 Departure of Ben Moody 1.2.3 Lawsuit 1.2.4 The Open Door 1.3 Engagement 2 Image 3 Other projects 4 Discography 5 References 6 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] Evanescence

[edit] Founding

She founded the band with Ben Moody. The two met at a youth camp when Lee was playing Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)" on the piano.^[6] Within a month, the pair were playing acoustic sets at Arkansas book stores and coffee houses^[7] before recording two EPs, Evanescence EP (in 1998) and then the Sound Asleep EP (in 1999). Another song, "You", was written by Amy Lee but was never intended to be released. Rumors, though unsubstantiated, circulated that when "You" was leaked, she asked people to stop distributing the song and its lyrics.^[8] Many, but not all, lyrics websites complied with her wishes. 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.^[9] The "band version" was included on later versions of Fallen, notably the Brazilian and Argentine 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".^[7] 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.^[10]

[edit] The Open Door

Main article: The Open Door

Lee was working on the opening theme of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and writing additional music for the film, but the music was rejected for being "too dark and epic". However, Lee has been quoted as saying that the rejected material is "just more great stuff for the new album".^[11]

There was some speculation that the song had been cut and used in several tracks though Lee has stated that this is not true.^[12] Lee has stated that the song was used to segue into the last track on the album, "Good Enough".^[12]

[edit] Engagement

Lee revealed on January 9, 2007 during MuchMusic's Live @ Much that she had become engaged the previous evening. She later confirmed on EvThreads.com that she was proposed to by "Josh," a 28-year-old therapist, long-time friend and recent beau. She noted in an interview that she wrote the songs "Good Enough" and "Bring Me To Life" about him. ^[13][14]

[edit] Image

Lee has a recognizable neo-goth style, marked by her occasional use of gothic make-up and taste for Victorian-styled clothing.^{[citation needed]} She also designs many of her own clothes, including those worn in the music video for Going Under and the dress she wore at the 2004 Grammy awards. After she designed it she chose Japanese designer H. Naoto to make it for her,^[15] although she does sometimes make her own clothes. In concerts, she often wears a corset and fishnets, and 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.^[16]

In 2006 Blender Magazine listed her as one of the hottest women in rock along side such singers as Joan Jett, Courtney Love and Liz Phair.^[17]

[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".^[18] 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.^[19] Lee later performed a duet with her ex-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.

2006 has seen Lee become 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.^[20] The singer also made a brief guest appearance in the music video for Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down".^[21]

On Korn's last release 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.

[edit] Discography

Main article: Evanescence discography

• Evanescence EP (1998)
• Sound Asleep EP (1999)
• Origin (2000)
• Mystary EP (2003)
• Fallen (2003)
• Anywhere But Home (2004)
• The Open Door (2006)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Evanescence.com - Official U.S. website
• Out of the Shadows - The Amy Lee Fund for Epilepsy
• EvClub - Official fan club of Evanescence

Evanescence
Amy Lee • Terry Balsamo • Rocky Gray • John LeCompt • Tim McCord
Former members: Will Boyd • David Hodges • Ben Moody
Discography
Commercial albums: Fallen • Anywhere but Home • The Open Door
Private releases: Evanescence EP • Sound Asleep EP • Origin • Mystary EP
Singles: "Bring Me to Life" • "Going Under" • "My Immortal" • "Everybody's Fool" • "Call Me When You're Sober" • "Lithium" • "Sweet Sacrifice"
Related content
Evanescence songs • Evanescence albums This box: view • talk • edit

Persondata
NAME	Amy Lynn Lee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Amy Lee
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Evanescence vocalist and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH	December 13, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH	Riverside, California, USA
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH