EVANESCENCE - FORMER EVANESCENCE STAR TEAMS UP WITH IDOL

Former EVANESCENCE star BEN MOODY has teamed up with AMERICAN IDOL winner KELLY CLARKSON to give her music a rocky edge.

The guitarist, who quit the goth rockers late last year (03), has been writing songs with AVRIL LAVIGNE and now he's turning his attention to Clarkson.

Moody admits he's in demand: "Let's face it, everyone wants to rock. It's just that some people aren't allowed to on their first record. We're born to do it. If you have an entire record without a guitar anywhere, that shouldn't be legal."

The rocker has been very impressed with what he has heard of Clarkson so far.

He adds, "It's cool because she wants to do some branching out, and I'm doing nothing but branching out. We got together and she had all these songs in mind of what she wanted to do. It's just a really, really cool process for me, because everybody is a new experience. Everybody works differently."

Meanwhile, Moody has been working with GODHEAD singer JASON MILLER, new DROWNING POOL singer JASON JONES and drummer LANCE GARVIN on THE PUNISHER theme THE END HAS COME.

He and former Evanescence bandmate DAVID HODGES have also written music for the soundtrack of MEL GIBSON's controversial movie THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST.