Ex-EVANESCENCE Guitarist Has 'Absolute Respect' For His Former Bandmates

August 1, 2005

MTV.com recently spoke to former EVANESCENCE guitarist Ben Moody about his departure from the group and his upcoming solo album. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

MTV: Now that you've had more time away and perspective, how do you feel about the EVANESCENCE split?

Moody: "I have a lot more peace about it, even more than the day I left. ... I still feel it was the right decision because EVANESCENCE has carried on, and they've had great success since me. So I know for a fact I made the right choice. If I stayed, I think Amy [Lee, vocals] and I would have destroyed it because we just weren't heading in the same direction; we were pulling it in two different directions. It was bad."

MTV: It seems like you exited for the greater good and still have a lot of love and respect for EVANESCENCE as people.

Moody: "I do. There was animosity at the time because I was so upset that I had built something for so long and we couldn't make it work. I was pissed off about that. At the same time, I was denying my responsibility for that, you know? Now I can go back and go, 'It was what it was.' As much as they can't blame me for who I am as a person, I can't blame [Amy], or the rest of them for who they are. I totally love them and have absolute respect for them. If I didn't, instead of jumping ship, I would have taken it down. I would much rather see them succeed, because I have nothing but respect for them."

MTV: In a previous interview with MTV News, you described Amy as having the attitude that "Nothing's ever going to be OK," and you said you couldn't live like that.

Moody: "That might have been harsher than it needed to be said at the time, but for me, that's why [my solo] record took so long [to complete] and took so much out of me. Because once you express it and you get it out, you've just got to move on. That's one of the things [behind the breakup]: I was miserable and I wanted to be happy. And there were times where I didn't think she wanted to let stuff go, for whatever reasons, and that's just not me."

Read the entire interview at MTV.com.

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