My name is Amy Lynn Hartzler but I'm better known as better known as Amy Lee, I am an American singer-songwriter and I am a classically trained pianist. I am a co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band Evanescence. My influences range from classical musicians such as Mozart to modern artists like Bjork, Tori Amos, Danny Elfman, and Plumb.
I 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. I did have a third sister, who died in 1987 at the age of three from an unidentified illness. The song "Hello" from Fallen was written for my late sister, as well as the song "Like You" from The Open Door. I took classical piano lessons for nine years. My family moved to many places, including Florida and Illinois, but eventually settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Evanescence started. I briefly attended Middle Tennessee State University to study music theory and composition, but later dropped out to focus on Evanescence.
In an interview on AOL Music, I said that the first songs I remembered writing were called "Eternity of the Remorse" & "A Single Tear". The first was written when I was 11 years old and wanted to become a classical composer, & the 2nd was for an assignment when I was in the 8th grade.
I revealed during the live broadcast of MuchMusic's January 9, 2007 episode of Live @ Much that I had become engaged the previous evening. I later confirmed on http://www.EvThreads.com that she had been proposed to by Joshua Hartzler, a therapist and long-time friend. I noted in an interview that the songs "Good Enough" and "Bring Me To Life" were inspired by him. The couple were married on May 6, 2007, and honeymooned near The Bahamas. I have posted on EvThreads that I am officially Mrs. Amy Hartzler.
I co-founded the band with guitarist Ben Moody, whom I met at a youth camp after Moody heard me playing Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" on the piano. Within a month, we were playing acoustic sets at Arkansas book stores & coffee houses, & they eventually recorded 2 EPs, Evanescence EP (1998) & 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 & was written by me & Moody: "Whisper", "Imaginary" & "My Immortal". Whereas "Whisper" and "Imaginary" were altered before being included on Fallen, "My Immortal" is virtually unchanged. A later band version of "My Immortal" was made available for download for those who had bought an official version of Fallen through their web site, but required that a CD checker program also be downloaded for verification before it would play. The band version was included on later copies of Fallen, notably the Brazilian, Bolivian, & Argentine editions.
On October 22, 2003, Moody left the band citing "creative differences". In an interview several months later, I said: "...we'd gotten to a point that if something didn't change, we wouldn't have been able to make a second record". I also said "We're finally a real band, not just Ben and I and a few others thrown together". Ex-Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo replaced Moody in the band, both on guitar & as my writing partner.
In the music video for "Everybody's Fool", I 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 me for my refusal to emulate other celebrities by using sex appeal in their music.
In 2006, Blender listed me as one of the hottest women in rock alongside such singers as Joan Jett, Courtney Love and Liz Phair.
