Amy Stolzenbach
Amy Stolzenbach has a solid reputation as a versatile, highly charismatic guitar player, best known as the Angus Young-channeling founder of AC/DC cover band Hell's Belles. She turned quite a few heads earlier this year when she became a finalist in Limp Bizkit's national search for a new guitar player and then abruptly left Hell's Belles amid a flurry of gossip (which she nobly refuses to engage in). Although she hasn't made it into Fred Durst's inner circle, Stolzenbach has kept herself busy with a slew of projects, including several altruistic endeavors focusing on young musicians, and agreeing to play at a benefit for the Vera Project at Sit & Spin on Sat June 1. I chatted with Stolzenbach recently as she was running out the door for her other career as a guitar teacher.

Where do you teach? "I've been teaching group guitar lessons to girls at Ground Zero in Bellevue for about four or five years now. The Boys and Girls Club has this lesson program available nationwide provided by the Bonnie Raitt Foundation and Fender guitars. Bonnie's vision is to provide free lessons to girls to boost the number of women playing guitar. I also teach private lessons there and at my house. I even have a nine-year-old piano student!"

Playing a benefit for the Vera Project is obviously a good cause--but is there any particular reason you're involved? "I really want to support all-ages music in the way I know best--and that's playing music. The energy you give and receive at an all-ages show is so pure. I owe the kids and the people who make those shows happen a lot for enriching my life."

What can people expect from your set at the benefit? "I've been exploring a lot of musical styles--I'm trying not to censor myself. I've been writing and recording everything from country to heavy industrial music in my studio at home. Some won't translate well to acoustic guitar so I'll pick some new favorites and some old favorites. It's still me singing it, so that's the common thread I guess!"

I know you've worked at American Music for a while. What's the most bizarre thing that's happened to you while working there? "A guy came in wearing a big gold codpiece over his jeans, rainbow suspenders--think Mork--and a cardboard Burger King crown. He went straight to the guitar straps and grabbed a rainbow-colored one, held it up to his suspenders, looked at me, and asked very seriously, 'Do these match?' I said, 'Yes,' and he bought it."

Interview by Hannah Levin