Amy Lee Biography

Born in California on December 13, 1981, Amy Lynn Lee moved around a lot as a child, from Florida to Illinois. Her family finally settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the young Amy took enthusiastically to music. In junior high, she joined the choir and attended all-state competitions; in high school, she was the president of her choir council and was involved in the all-region choir, mixed chorus, select ensemble, spring musical, and art club.

It was while she was at band camp in 1995 that Amy first met future bandmate, Ben Moody. Amy was playing Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love" on a piano, and Moody was instantly impressed. Throughout high school, the pair composed songs together and formed Evanescence. 

Early history

Evanescence was founded by singer, pianist and songwriter Amy Lee and former lead guitarist and songwriter Ben Moody. The two met in 1994 at a youth camp in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Moody heard Lee playing "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meat Loaf on the piano. Their first songs were "Solitude" and "Give Unto Me," written by Lee, "Understanding", and "My Immortal", written by Moody. The songs were edited by both artists, and they shared equal credit.

Two of Lee and Moody's songs found playtime on local radio stations, raising local awareness of the group and demand for a show. The band eventually appeared live, and became one of the most popular acts in the area. After experimenting with band names, such as Childish Intentions and Stricken, they decided on Evanescence, which means "disappearance" or "fading away" (from the word evanesce, which means "to disappear"). Lee has stated she loves the name because "it is mysterious and dark, and places a picture in the listeners' mind".

Their first full-length demo CD, Origin (released in 2000), is relatively unknown. The band also released two Extended plays (EPs). First, the self-titled Evanescence EP (1998) of which about 100 copies were made, and second the Sound Asleep EP, also known as the Whisper EP (1999), limited to 50 copies. Origin and the EPs contain demo versions of some of the songs on their debut album, Fallen. For example, the recording of "My Immortal" found on Fallen can also be found on Origin, minus a handful of additional string accompaniments. Only 2500 copies of this record were produced; in response, Lee and Moody encouraged fans to download the band's older songs from the Internet.