I Heart Amy Lee

It may or may not be surprising to find out that both terms Kinderwhore and Riot Grrrl originated with Kurt Cobain.

Kurt came up with the band name Amy Carter and the idea for the fanzine "I [Heart] Amy Carter:. The band members consisted of Tammy Rae, Kathleen Hanna, and Heidi Aborgast.

Kurt and I had been discussing the fact that the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter happened to be from my mother's home state of Georgia. Pres. Carter's fourth daughter's name was Amy Lynn Carter. (This is where the stagename for Amy Lynn Lee Hartzler originated as well as from my name being Amy Lee.)

In 1991, Nirvana released the song On A Plain which was a reference to Pres. Jimmy Carter's hometown of Plains, Georgia.

Pour Some Sugar On Me ~ Oh! Nevermind

With the release of Nirvana's 20th Anniversary Edition of Nevermind, I thought fans would like to know where the title "Nevermind" came from.

The first song Joe Elliott and I worked on together was Pour Some Sugar On Me in May of '83. After discussing how much I loved Aerosmith's '75 Toys In The Attic album (Toys In The Attic being a euphemism for insanity which I used in Sweet Sacrifice "It's true, we're all a little insane"), we discussed my favorite songs off the album and how I would use it in a song.

"Step inside, WALK THIS WAY"

I always liked to draw connections between songs I wrote. The next would be the '84 song Sugar Walls performed by Scottish born Sheena Easton. Prince was allowed to claim the song under the pseudonym "Alexander NEVERMIND". This happened after I wrote all the songs for his '84 Purple Rain album and gave him the idea for the movie.

There is actually a rumor that Prince wrote songs for Def Leppard, which would be a common misconception considering I wrote songs for both over the years.

Heart Shaped Box Origin

Heart Shaped Box was inspired by Jessica Tandy, the original Blanche Dubois, and Vivian "Leigh" starring in Tennessee William's A Street Car Named Desire.

Inspired by Blanche's Seahorse Pin ~ Kurt Cobain's Seahorse drawing)

In 1982 Jessica Tandy and Joe Elliott's favorite actress Meryl Streep starred in the movie Still of the Night which inspired me to write the song "Still of the Night" performed by Whitesnake.

Inspiration for Evanescence

“The light of memory, or rather the light that memory lends to things, is the palest light of all. I am not quite sure whether I am dreaming or remembering, whether I have lived my life or dreamed it. Just as dreams do, memory makes me profoundly aware of the unreality, the evanescence of the world, a fleeting image in the moving water.” Eugene Ionesco




It was upon meeting Stuart Goddard, lead singer for Adam & The Ants, in June of '83 who encouraged me to read newspaper articles for inspiration to makeup songs.






Inspiration to write Like A Virgin, performed by Madonna, and the name of the band Evanescence came from the review of a Chorus Line by Frank Rich of the New York Times Oct '83.

Rock Till You Drop

Sunday, May 15, 1983, my friends invited me to the Def Leppard concert. I didn't know who they were, but told it was a rock band. Of course, this was cool on so many levels being a 15 year old girl and never having been to a rock concert before.

Monday, May 16, 1983, I returned home from school, dropped my school books on the dresser as the doorbell rang. A young goodlooking guy with bright blue eyes smiled as I opened the door. Without a word he pointed to the old van parked at the top of my drive. The side door swung open and my mouth dropped as the lead singer in full stage costume exited. If the phone had not started ringing, distracting me, I might have been more concerned about how and why this man knew where I lived.