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Shaun Morgan
Shaun Morgan
Date of Birth December 21, 1978
Origin South Africa

Shaun Morgan (December 21, 1978) was born in South Africa and is the lead singer and lead guitarist of Seether.

Early Life[]

Welgemoed (pronounced "Velgamoot" (guttural 'g') spent all of his early life in South Africa. His parents divorced when Welgemoed was still a child. At 12 years old, he first discovered the Seattle grunge movement after listening to Nirvana’s Nevermind album, which inspired him to become a musician. He began to play the guitar, first learning Polly”, before starting to piece together bands. However his father did not approve of his son playing in a band, so Welgemoed ran away from home in order to “cut a demo” while living in friends’ cars and garages. Welgemoed then returned home to live with his mother and start playing in a band again, although he stopped playing music after three years as he was not getting anywhere.

Seether[]

In May 1999, Welgemoed became the rhythm guitarist and back-up vocalist of a new band, Saron Gas. There were four other members to the band; a female vocalist, a lead guitarist, bassist and drummer. However, when the singer and guitarist did not turn up to the first practice, the band decided to stay as a three-piece, with Welgemoed on lead vocals and guitar. Saron Gas enjoyed moderate success before the bass player decided to quit in January 2000, causing Welgemoed to get in touch with the only other good bass player he knew, Dale Stewart. The band released an album later that year, entitled Fragile.

In January 2002, the band relocated to the United States to sign with Wind-up Records. During this time the band’s original drummer left to return home to South Africa, whilst the two remaining members were left to think of a new band name, at the request of Wind-up. Eventually they settled on Seether, after the Veruca Salt song of the same name. Around this time Welgemoed also decided to use his middle name while performing for Seether. He said on many occasions that Americans have a hard time pronouncing Welgemoed. Shaun Morgan and Seether went on to release their debut major-label album, Disclaimer, on August 20, 2002.

Since then, Seether have released six more studio albums; Karma and Effect (2005), Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces (2007), Holding On To Strings Better Left To Fray (2011), Isolate and Medicate (2015), Poison the Parish (2017), and Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum (2020) In addition, they released the compilation album Disclaimer II in 2004, and the live CD/DVDOne Cold Night in 2006. In January 2009 the band released two new songs; one a Seether original entitled “No Shelter”, and the second a cover of George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” which Shaun and Dale have said had a special significance to the band.

Relationship with Amy Lee[]

From 2004 to 2005, he dated Amy Lee.[1] During that time, Shaun and Amy sang his song "Broken" which became a hit after their voices were heard together. They recorded the song and it was on The Punisher Album in 2004. Their relationship ended bitterly. When Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces was released on October 23, 2007, its third single, "Breakdown", was rumored to be about Amy Lee.[2] However, Morgan implied the songs of their latest effort were about, if anyone, his more recent ex, saying, "Amy and I, at our worst moments, were still better than this last girl and I at our best moments."

He was the main inspiration on most songs of Evanescence's second studio album, The Open Door.[1] The lead single, "Call Me When You're Sober", is about their break-up.

I had no intention of hurting [Shaun], but when the song came out so bluntly instead of hiding behind metaphors, I had to keep it. There were times when I was like, "Am I really gonna say this?" My favorite line is when I sing, "I've made up your mind" at the end, after singing "Make up your mind" the whole song. It's like, "I've had enough. I'm worth a lot more than this." But at the same time, I don't hate Shaun. I hope he gets healthy and finds happiness.[3]

—Amy Lee, Spin (October 2006)


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References[]

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