Amy Hartzler (born Amy Lynn Lee, December 13, 1981 in Riverside, California), best known as Amy Lee, is an American singer-songwriter and classically-trained pianist. She is a founding member and lead singer of the rock band Evanescence. Her influences range from classical musicians such as Mozart to modern artists like Björk, Tori Amos, Danny Elfman, and Plumb.
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. 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. Lee took classical piano lessons for nine years. Her family moved to many places, including Florida and Illinois, 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.
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.
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, 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. The band version was included on later copies of Fallen, notably the Brazilian and Argentinian editions.
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". Ex-Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo replaced Moody in the band, both on guitar and as Lee's writing partner.
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 and currency conversion, among other claims." 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

Having sold nearly 15 million records worldwide, more than 6 million in the U.S. alone, and earning two Grammys® with their major-label debut Fallen, Evanescence continue their meteoric rise with their latest effort, The Open Door (Wind-up Records). The Open Door debuted at the top of the Billboard charts selling more than 447,000 units in its first week and reached platinum status in just over a month. The album is defined by Amy Lee’s beautiful melodies, compelling lyrics, poignant piano and stunning vocals, fused with Terry Balsamo’s urgent yet intricate guitar to form a seamless, ethereal mixture that perfectly channels the band’s hard rock and classical sensibilities.

“Making this record was really intense,” explains Lee. “Terry suffered a stroke in October after recording his guitar parts and thankfully continues to recover, we got a new manager [Andy Lurie at 110 Management in Los Angeles], and I’d come out of a difficult breakup. But everything we’ve been through together has benefited this album.” With Fallen, says Lee, the band had much to prove while defining its identity. This time, finding a cohesive writing partner in Terry Balsamo, “we really took our time crafting this album and had the freedom to express a broader range of emotions: not just pain and sadness, but also anger and, yes, even happiness.”

Written late in 2005, The Open Door was recorded at The Record Plant in Los Angeles and mixed at Ocean Way Studios in March 2006. Marking the return of producer Dave Fortman, the album’s musical elements include a classically-infused choir and strings on several tracks, giving further color to songs of introspection, longing, doubt, self-respect and, ultimately, empowerment. The album opens with “Sweet Sacrifice,” a post-relationship catharsis that head-dives from an otherworldly intro into a hard-driving thrash of hard rock guitars and soaring rock vocals. Its first single, the mid-tempo “Call Me When You’re Sober,” reinforces the moving-away-from-dysfunction theme.

Other standout tracks on The Open Door include the second single, “Lithium,” which embraces feeling over numbness, “All That I’m Living For,” Lee’s tribute to band life, “Weight of the World,” her plea for perspective from the expectation of young fans, and “Good Enough,” a string-and-choir-infused closer distinguished as the band’s first truly (almost) contented song (“It feels really good ending the album this way,” says Lee).

Its tour began immediately after the debut of The Open Door, rewarding hardcore fans with a “sneak peak” at the album with handful of more intimate theater dates in the US and Europe before segueing into much larger arena shows at the end of 2006. Since the album’s release, the band has performed in front of well in excess of one million fans in more than 25 countries, including the US, Canada, France, UK, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Israel, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

As The Open Door nears sales of 2 million copies in the U.S. and more than 4 million copies worldwide, Evanescence will headline a North American tour, including 3 arena shows in Mexico, this Fall. The tour will begin October 23rd in Miami and conclude on or about December 10th. With the recent additions of Dark New Day’s (Warner Bros. Records) Will Hunt on drums and Troy McLawhorn on guitar, Evanescence is poised to finish up 2007 with a bang. Evanescence has chosen Australian modern rock trio Sick Puppies and electronic rock act Julien-K to support them on the tour.

Evanescence is Amy Lee (vocals, piano), Terry Balsamo (guitar), Tim McCord (bass), Troy McLawhorn (guitar) and Will Hunt (drums). Fallen, their major-label debut, was released in April 2003 to critical and commercial success and has sold more than fifteen million copies. Their second major label debut, The Open Door, debuted at Number One on