Ben Moody was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on January 22, 1981. Though he is a guitarist, he has not had any type of training or lessons pertaining to guitar. He has been trained in piano. From 1994 to October of 2003, he was the lead guitarist for the gothic rock band Evanescence, a band that he formed while in high school with Amy Lee. He is present on the albums Evanescence EP, Sound Asleep EP, Origin, and the band's major label debut, Fallen. He is credited to have written or co-written Anywhere, Going Under, Haunted, Imaginary, My Immortal, October, Taking Over Me, and Understanding. On October 22nd, 2004, Moody left the band due to friction between him and co-founder Amy Lee.

Later, in an interview with Kerrang magazine Ben is quoted as saying, "I knew in my heart that we were not going to make it through another record. I didn't want the band to die, so the only thing i could do to save it was get on a plane. It was hard to walk away from something i created, but it was either that or the whole thing would just go to shit."

In the same interview, he is also quoted as saying:

It's been reported that you also had a drug problem...
I was medicating myself constantly. I couldn't wake up and talk to anybody without having two or three Screwdrivers (Cocktails) in me. I was doing a lot of drugs. It became a daily routine after a while. All of a sudden you're just doing enough drugs to be normal. I did enough coke to kill a small country!

You seem happy to talk openly about it now...
I'm trying to use what podium I have left to try and break the stigma. I was diagnosed as bipolar (Manic Depressive) a long time ago and that's where the drugs and alcohol came in. I was trying to medicate myself and take that pain away.

Was there a point where you realised that you had to do something before you ended up dead?
There was a time earlier this year where I got in deep with drugs that I never thought I'd touch. I was just lying on the floor and a friend (reported to be Avril Lavigne) sent me a text message and it saved my life. She said 'I want you to know that I love you and you're worth having around'. The next day I got help. I saw death and ran.

After leaving Evanescence and putting the past behind him, Ben Moody started anew by collaborating on a song called The End Has Come for the Punisher Soundtrack and recorded a song and music video for a duet with Anastacia for the Fantastic Four Soundtrack called Everything Burns.

Moody has also co-written Nobody's Home for Avril Lavigne's album Under My Skin as well as Because of You and Addicted for Kelly Clarkson's album Breakaway. He later also collaborated with Lindsay Lohan on Edge of Seventeen from her album A Little More Personal and Bo Bice on his song My World.

In April 2006, Moody began working on the debut album of Billings, Montana singer-songwriter Hana Pestle. He co-produced and co-wrote alongside Michael "Fish" Herring, and contributed vocals and instrumentals to the album. He later produced the Godhead album The Shadow Line with Julian Beeston, and played a clown in their music video for the song "Push." He collaborated with David Hodges again on American Idol Chris Daughtry's debut album, Daughtry, for the song "What About Now."

In between all this he also started a movie company called Makeshift Movies and has made cameos in numerous movies. Yet his most anticipated project is probably his solo album titled All for This which was released on June 9, 2009.

Shortly after the release of All for This, it was announced that Moody is a member of the new rock band, We Are the Fallen, with American Idol 7 finalist Carly Smithson, former Evanescence members Rocky Gray and John LeCompt, and his friend Marty O'Brien.

 

 

 

 

Part of Philos, The Fanlistings, and Mystical Magick