The Evanescence Connection
In 1995 Ben Moody and Amy Lee started a band called Evanescence. Their debut album "Fallen" sold over 15 million copies world wide. We're going to go through all the past and current members of Evanescence to see what they are up to now.
Aside from Ben and Amy, David Hodges was also in the band. He played keyboard and did some backing vocals. He left the band in 2002 and began working on other projects. Currently, he fronts his own band called Age of Information which was formally known as Trading Yesterday.
In 2003 while midway through their European tour, Ben Moody decided to quit and head home. There are lots of stories behind what went on behind the scenes and only the involved parties really know what went on so we won't speculate.
Since then, Ben has worked with countless other artists including the likes of Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, and Avril Lavigne to name a few. On June 9th, 2009, Ben released his long awaited solo album, "All for This". We'll come back to Ben in a bit, till then, lets move onto Will Boyd.
Will Boyd was the bassist during Evanescence's Fallen era, he also co-wrote a few songs with Amy and Ben in the early stages of the group. He decided to leave the band in 2006 after recording "The Open Door" because he didn't want to be on another big tour. After that, Will started working with the bands Two Spines and American Princes. When Will left, he was replaced by Tim McCord.
Tim McCord was in the band Revolution Smile from 2000-2004. Tim toured with Evanescence during their Open Door Tour and quickly became a fan favourite because of his outgoing nature. While Evanescence has not been on tour recently, Tim has preformed with his other band, The Snobs as well as appearing with Amy during some promotional appearances for her single "Sally's Song" which was used on the Nightmare Revisited soundtrack.
Terry Balsamo joined the band when Ben Moody left. Previous to working with Evanescence, he was in the band Cold. He jumped right in and completed the tour alongside Amy, Will, John and Rocky. Terry also co-wrote the Open Door with Amy and towards the end of recording, he suffered a stroke. He has since made a wonderful recovery and while Evanescence are on hiatus, he rejoined Cold for a reunion tour of their own. Terry also performed with Amy earlier this year during the Lyrics and Legends which we wrote about HERE.
In May of 2007, John Lecompte and Rocky Gray left Evanescence. Once again, many rumors surrounded this event and some say John was fired and then Rocky quit. Some say that Rocky was planning on quitting so he got fired, but once again, only they truly know what happened and honestly, I doubt we'll ever really know what went on.
After leaving Evanescence, John and Rocky began working on another band called Machina. Rocky also had another project on the side called Soul Embraced in which he plays guitar. We'll talk about John, Rocky and Ben a bit later.
After John and Rocky were no longer a part of Evanescence, they needed to find replacements. Troy McLawhorn and Will Hunt from the band Dark New Day were called in and they filled John and Rocky's shoes very well. Since Evanescence ended their tour in late 2007, Troy and Will recorded another album with Dark New Day, however it has not been released due to issues with the label. Troy has now joined Seether as a permininant member. Of course, now the connection can be made between Amy and Shaun Morgan. The two had a relationship which has since ended but not without a couple of jabs against eachother in the form of songs. Amy with "Call Me When You're Sober" and Shaun with "Breakdown"
Now I mentioned that we would talk about Ben, John and Rocky again. Well, late last week they announced that they would be forming their own group together called "We Are The Fallen". The lead singer they have chosen is American Idol finalist Carly Smithson. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the band and the reasons behind creating it. We'll know on Monday whether or not they plan on just being another Evanescence cover band, or if they will create something new, because thats when they'll release their first single "Bury Me Alive"
What does the future hold for Evanescence? Well, we're not sure who will be in the band, but Amy Lee has announced in a recent blog post that they are currently working on new stuff which is set to be released in 2010.
I for one cannot wait