Terry Balsamo (born October 8, 1973, in Jacksonville, Florida) is Evanescence's current lead guitarist. He joined the band after Ben Moody left the band. Originally he was just gonna stay till they were done with their tour, but later he decided to join Evanescence. He co-wrote most tracks on The Open Door along with Amy Lee. His style and sound have most definitely made an impact on the band, and with astounding results. He has become main collaborator for Evanescence. Amy Lee said about the writing process of The Open Door:
| [After Moody's departure], I didn't have somebody — I don't want to be mean — holding me back. Instead, I had [Balsamo] lifting me up. Terry is just an amazing instigator. He'll push me to do something I wouldn't have done maybe, because I'd be afraid to or something. He's a great writer, and it was just like we were just having fun with it for a change. It was like, 'Let's stop taking everything so seriously and have fun,' and we wrote a lot of songs that I'm just totally in love with. [...] I was finally creating in the same room with someone. When Ben was in the band, we never wrote together. I would write my music, and I'd go as far as I could with it, and we'd come together and he'd write guitars and stuff. More commonly, he'd write stuff and bring it to me and I'd do lyrics and melodies and pianos and vocals. We could never really sit in the same room and create. I always felt my writing was too personal and too hard to share. But it was also that we didn't jell perfectly as writing partners. With Terry, I knew I liked his writing style, but I didn't know what the process would be like. But what we've come up with as a team is definitely better than what we could have done on our own. |