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 Instant Fashion Profile: Inside Amy Lee's Grammy Dressing Room
Evanescence: I'd Do Anything For Rock (But I Won't Do That)
(Interview, June 2003)
Linkin Park: Inconspicuously Huge
Creed: Multiplatinum Underdogs
Drowning Pool: Off The Deep End
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-- by Joe D'Angelo
Few were more shocked than Amy Lee to learn that Ben Moody was not in his hotel room on October 22. Two days before a show in Berlin, Evanescence's manager informed her that her guitarist, co-songwriter and friend for the past eight years would be a no-show at the gig.
"It was like, one in the morning," Lee recalled, "and our manager called and just said, 'What are we going to do? Ben's gone.' "
Although his exodus was swift, tensions between Evanescence's creative pillars had been building for some time. The goth-rock group, whose cornerstone was laid when a 14-year-old Moody spied a 13-year-old Lee playing a Meat Loaf song on a piano at summer camp, was the rock success story of 2003, with Fallen selling more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. in just seven months. And with that success came increased media coverage, which intensified the conflicts that had begun to simmer long before most people even knew what the word "evanescence" meant.
Fans now know the definition — "vanishing like vapor" — and despite mounting animosity successfully kept hidden from public view, Moody's exit seemed to epitomize the term.
"By that time, it was just so clear that [Amy and I] have grown into two completely different people," Moody said during a rare break from the assorted projects that have kept him busy since he touched down in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. "We didn't have any of the same desires for anything, especially not pertaining to our careers."
After Germany, the pair did not see or speak to one another until February 8, the day of the Grammy Awards. Moody arrived at the event separately from the rest of the band, which now includes his replacement, former Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo. Sporting a long wig and an extended goatee, wearing a pin-striped black suit and carrying a pimp cane with a crystal knob, he looked like he should be rolling with Snoop Dogg and the Archbishop Don "Magic" Juan rather than with his rocker brethren.
As a co-founder of a band that was up for five awards that night (the group won two — for Best New Artist and Best Hard Rock Performance), pride was what brought him to the show. He donned the attire to show the world that he wasn't emotionally rocked after leaving the band — a gesture that was lost on Lee.
"She didn't get the outfit, let's just say that," Moody said. "But then again, she never did. Nothing against her, but she doesn't get my sense of humor. Like I said, eight years down the road, we're very different people."
Taking the stage to accept the Best New Artist award provided an awkward moment, 50 Cent's bum-rush notwithstanding. Moody and Lee barely made eye contact before she gave the speech while Moody stood stoically behind her.
"Everyone who knows me knows the sh-- I do, and knows I'm always doing something stupid," he explained. "I wanted them to get the message that Ben's OK. He's not off somewhere drinking himself to death because [his time with] Evanescence is over. He's Ben. He's himself and he's having a good time."
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Photo: Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com
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MTV Overdrive
