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Amy Lee was born to parents [[John Lee]], a disc jockey and TV personality, and [[Sara Cargill]]. She has two sisters, [[Carrie Lee|Carrie]] and [[Lori Lee|Lori]]. Lee had a younger sister named [[Bonnie Lee|Bonnie]] who died in 1987 at the age of three from an unidentified illness, and a brother [[Robby Lee|Robby]] who died in 2018. 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|''The Open Door'']].<ref>Bottomley, C. (September 18, 2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20071028133537/http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1540914/story.jhtml "Evanescence: Amy Lee Explains the New Songs"]. ''VH1.com''.</ref><sup> </sup>Amy took classical piano lessons for nine years. Her family moved to many places, including Florida and Illinois, and eventually settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Evanescence started. She briefly attended Middle Tennessee State University to study music theory and composition and later dropped out to focus on Evanescence.
In an interview on
===Engagement and Marriage===
Lee revealed during the live broadcast of MuchMusic's January 9, 2007, episode of Live @ Much, that she had become engaged the prior evening. She later confirmed on [[EvThreads|EvThreads.com]] that [[Josh Hartzler]], a therapist and long-time friend, proposed to her.<ref>Lee, Amy (January 9, 2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20120328110343/http://www.evthreads.com/showpost.php?p=112785&postcount=100 "Amy's Engaged!: *clink clink* *ahem...*"]. ''EvThreads''.</ref> She noted in an interview that the songs "[[Good Enough]]" and "[[Bring Me To Life]]" were inspired by him.<ref name=":4">Eells, Josh (October 2006). [https://www.webcitation.org/5RdgnH67h "Amy Lee: Back in Black"]. ''Blender''.</ref> The couple married on May 6, 2007,<ref>Rubin, Courtney (May 10, 2007). [https://people.com/celebrity/evanescence-singer-amy-lee-gets-married/ "Evanescence Singer Amy Lee Gets Married"]. ''People.com''.</ref> and honeymooned near The Bahamas. She has posted on EvThreads that she is "now officially Mrs. Amy Hartzler."<ref>Lee, Amy (May 18, 2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20070521163504/http://www.evthreads.com/showthread.php?p=268958#post268958 "i've got a new ring & now you've got the scoop."]. ''EvThreads''.</ref> The couple's first child, [[Jack Lion Hartzler]], was born on July 24, 2014.<ref>Duncan, Gabi (July 28, 2014). [https://www.eonline.com/news/563858/evanescence-s-amy-lee-welcomes-baby-boy-see-the-precious-pic "Evanescence's Amy Lee Welcomes Baby Boy—See the Precious Pic!"]. ''E!''</ref> They lived in New York from 2006<ref>[https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/evanescence-new-york-show-a-homecoming-for-amy-lee/ "EVANESCENCE New York Show A Homecoming For AMY LEE"]. October 11, 2006. ''Blabbermouth.net''.</ref> until 2019 when they moved to Nashville, TN.<ref>Eloise, Marianne (September 30, 2020). [https://thefortyfive.com/interviews/evanescence-amy-lee-interview-2020-misogyny-grief-the-bitter-truth/ "Evanescence’s Amy Lee: “What we’re up against now is something that involves everyone”"]. ''The Forty-Five''.</ref>
==Evanescence==
===Founding===
Amy co-founded the rock band Evanescence with guitarist [[Ben Moody]]. Apparently, the two met at a youth camp after Moody heard Lee playing
Within a month, the pair were playing acoustic sets at Arkansas book stores and coffee houses, and they eventually recorded two
On October 22, 2003, 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.
Lee became the American chairperson for ''Out of the Shadows'' in 2006. This organization is an international foundation with the goal of providing education about epilepsy. Lee's younger brother, Robby, was previously diagnosed with this condition. The singer also made a brief guest appearance in the music video for Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down" in late 2006. As each celebrity featured in the shoot was allowed to choose what they would be doing for the video, Lee chose to appear laying flowers on a grave. Her scene was recorded at Trinity Church in Manhattan, during which she wore a black velvet coat that previously belonged to Tim Burton.
In 2004, Lee claimed to be working on music for ''The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'',<ref>D'Angelo, Joe (November 18, 2004). [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1493917/20041118/evanescence.jhtml?headlines=true "Evanescence's New Sound Is Reminiscent Of ... Evanescence"]. ''MTV News''.</ref> but that the music was rejected by the studio for being "too dark and epic."<ref name=":4" /><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070918232606/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=45141 "EVANESCENCE Frontwoman: 'If I Can't Write Dark, Epic Music, I Can't Live'"]. December 5, 2005. ''Blabbermouth.net''.</ref> However, the producers of ''Narnia'' stated that Lee was never asked to compose any music for the film, whose score was written by Gregson-Williams, and that "No Evanescence music was planned for the soundtrack."<ref>[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=7000569 "Wardrobe closed to Evanescence singer"]. ''The New Zealand Herald''. November 27, 2004.</ref> While there was some speculation that one of the supposed songs had been cut and used in several tracks of ''[[The Open Door]]'', Lee stated this was not true except for part of it being used to segue into the last track of the album, "[[Good Enough]]".<ref>Lee, Amy (July 14, 2006). [http://web.archive.org/web/20090409030533/http://www.evboard.com/912102-post1009.html "Discussion of The Open Door album"]. ''EvBoard''.</ref> The song that was originally written for ''Narnia'' is "[[Together Again (song)|Together Again]]",<ref name=":5">[http://web.archive.org/web/20071025031050/http://www.evanescencewebsite.com/AmyLeeInterview.php "An Interview with Amy Lee"]. ''EvanescenceWebsite.com''. October 2007.</ref> which was released in January 2010 to benefit the United Nations Foundation for their recovery efforts following the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake 2010 Haiti earthquake].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20100208182033/http://www.unfoundation.org/press-center/press-releases/2010/evanescence-teams-up-with-united-nations-foundation.html "Evanescence Teams Up with the United Nations Foundation to Raise Money for the Victims of the Earthquake in Haiti"]. ''United Nations Foundation''. January 22, 2010.</ref>
In February 2007, MTV released ''MTV Unplugged: Korn'' to television and radio, in which Lee is featured during the song "Freak on a Leash". The song was also released as the first single from the album. In November 2007, VH1 produced a rockumentary in the style of ''Behind the Music'', titled ''Rock Band Cometh: The Rock Band Band Story'', to promote the video game ''Rock Band''. Lee was one of the celebrity cameos featured on the show.
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