Korn aren’t the only band in the spotlight on this summer’s Family Values tour: the mostly metal and male-dominated line-up has undergone a gender makeover with the addition of the Amy Lee–fronted Evanescence at the top of the bill. Lee has emerged as a potent presence in the wake of Evanescence’s Grammy-winning 2003 album Fallen (Wind-up), wresting control of the band from guitarist/co-founder Ben Moody and, just this past May, handing guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray their walking papers. But that hasn’t stopped Evanescence from moving five million copies of their latest album, last year’s The Open Door (Wind-up), worldwide. We spoke to the recently married Lee about touring, her marriage, and the state of music today. Here’s some of what she had to say.
Do you remember some of the original inspirations for Evanescence?
When I was growing up and when I was formulating ideas for Evanescence, I was obsessed with the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo + Juliet — not just the soundtrack though, something about the movie. Back then, Tim Burton and Danny Elfman movies were huge. I would just listen to the scores. At the same time, I loved Soundgarden, Depeche Mode, Björk, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins. There was so much music that, to me, was so good. I guess I still listen to more music from back then.
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How Do You Feel About the State of music today?
I think it’s a little confused. I don’t think rock is dead or anything like that; I just think we’re going through a weird period with the Internet. A lot of bands are struggling. Luckily, a lot of new bands that you would never hear are coming through. If you have the time and if you know what you’re doing, you can use the Internet and go to MySpace and search for bands that don’t have record deals. That’s really cool. At the same time, I think labels are pushing signed artists to do things more and more that they wouldn’t want to do — to put out less music and water it down because they’re so afraid of losing money. So I don’t know. I don’t have a ton of bands that are brand new that I absolutely love right now. I love Muse — we’ve been listening to them a ton backstage lately. They’re not that new, but I think they’re incredible.
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What kind of music did you have at your wedding?
It was actually just two guys playing guitar and singing. They kind of sang half the time — mostly it was just guitar. It was like from Pink Floyd to Coldplay, really eclectic. My dad’s a musician; he plays a billion different instruments. So he found these guys and I don’t know what he told them. I was scared too because we got married in Arkansas and he got a band that lives there and I was really afraid. But it turned out great.
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You’ve made it clear with the changes you’ve made in the band that you’re in charge. Is that DIFFICULT as a woman?
I don’t know it any other way. I don’t feel like I get treated badly or anything. Being a girl, I don’t feel like I can’t be a good leader.But as far as getting respect from the public as a writer, that was the hard part for me. I feel like I’ve gotten it now, but for a long time it was a tough fight. With Ben [Moody], when he was in the band, it was very important to him for some reason to prove to everyone that I wasn’t doing anything — that I was just up there singing and there was some mastermind guy behind the whole thing. So by the time he left the band and we made another record, and it was really good, we sort of proved everything he said wrong. That changed things for us — the proof is in the pudding.
“Family Values” tour with Evanescense + Korn | Tweeter Center, 885 South Main St, Mansfield | July 27 | 508.339.2333
