Some cynical crank, who shall remain nameless, said he's going to get a kick out of seeing ZZ Top fans beat the crap out of Sum 41 fans at Stage 13 during the band changeover Sunday - two groups, sociologically speaking, that shouldn't come anywhere near each other except on the radio.

How can there be such negative thoughts when there's love in the air?

Amy Lee, lead singer of Evanescence, and Shaun Morgan, lead singer of Seether, are going steady. Have been for just over a year.

They both play tomorrow night at the Stage 13 festival in Camrose.

God bless these crazy kids for trying to make the difficult long-distance showbiz relationship work, and we see how well it did for Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. What's that? They're still together? Married, you say? Well, there, you see. It is possible.

In separate phone interviews scheduled back to back (coincidence? Not really. They're on the same record label, on the same tour, in the same house on the same afternoon, doing phone interviews. Hey, it could happen), Lee and Morgan are candid.

From the cozy confines of the closed circuit Love Limo that is the Edmonton Sun, we can find out what they think of each other right now.

HE SAID: "We played a big radio show in Texas last year. They actually opened for us. Afterwards, they have this cool karaoke party and they were handing out vodka and Red Bull, back when I used to drink that stuff. It was awesome. I got fairly off my face and I went up to her and said we have to do a karaoke song together. I suggested Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing. They didn't have that, for some reason, which is bizarre at a karaoke party, so we ended up doing something from Grease."

SHE SAID: "He probably said we were both totally drunk. I wasn't as drunk as he was. He was really drunk ... we wanted to sing the song from Dirty Dancing, (sings), 'I had the time of my life.' That was going to be funny. They didn't have that, which is weird, but they had this song from Grease.

"You know the one at the end where she has tight pants and he looks like a nerd? Like, (sings), 'You better shape up!' "

HE SAID: "I don't remember what it was. I don't remember anything ... we used to drink a lot. Any given night, each one of us could down a bottle of Yager and then a couple of beers, and we'd start fighting with each other. It was getting bad. We still drink. We just don't drink the wrong things anymore."

SHE SAID: "We actually met before that. We hung out the night before. It was cool to see someone on the tour you could really talk to. Everyone there is either in a band and busy or a groupie. So I didn't fit into either of those categories, really. So I was just sitting in the corner by myself and he comes up, 'Hey somebody I know!' And I was like, 'Hey!' So we're standing outside talking, having a beer and having a real conversation rather than getting our freak-on with somebody you don't know. It was really refreshing and nice."

HE SAID: "I didn't think anything would come from it. I was a loud, drunk guy and I thought she was a conservative Christian rock chick. Little did I know."

SHE SAID: "He walked me to the bus and he kissed my hand. Like a real gentleman. That's what did it. I was like, wow. It was very sweet. I've never told anyone. Now he'll probably be really embarrassed."

Lee will be on stage during Seether's set singing their hit duet, Broken. It'll be a moment to watch.

WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE?

The average fan of ZZ Top may wonder what all the fuss is about. Well, granddad, Evanescence is only the biggest thing in modern rock since Nickelback.

Lee - a sensational singer who has the potential for opera - is somehow plunked in the middle of this hard-rock mook-metal band. The result is a lovely gothic-pop melange that's delighted legions of fans, at least since October.

You may have seen the video, worn the black clothing. Lee founded the band with guitarist/cohort Ben Moody, the latter leaving under mysterious circumstances shortly after Evanescence became the biggest thing in modern rock since Nickelback.

Some fans imagine Lee as the sweet and wholesome lass corrupted by Moody's heavy metal ways, but it's possible the opposite is the case.

One fan - on the "Jesusfreak" message board - suggested Moody left Evanescence because the band had left the Christian path. Lee won't even talk about it, save to say that Ben was so unhappy he was spreading his misery around. He had to go.

Anyway, if you're wondering, Evanescence is even less a Christian band than it wasn't before.

Lee says, "I think a lot of people just assume that I want to just be this ethereal, quiet singer and then the rock element comes after. It's not really true.

"One of the biggest inspirations from my youth was Nine Inch Nails.

"The spectrum of human emotion is so big, and so often people only tap into part of it. I want the softness and the sadness and piano and weepy vocals, and I want the aggressive guitars, the tribal drums, the drama of the strings and choirs. I want it all."

Seether, meanwhile, hails from Down Under - which was where Morgan's head was at before he set himself on the path of music.

"I actually had a gun in my hand and had it against my head - but I decided to play guitar first," he says. Nineteen at the time, Morgan had been in a travelling rock band in Australia, which failed catastrophically.

He ended up totally broke, without his guitar and stranded in a strange town with his mother and a drunk stepfather who hated everything.

Morgan recalls, "It's all so dramatic when you're a teenager. Things still affect me the same way. I just deal with them better now ... I thought: It takes a lot of balls to shoot yourself in the head, but it takes more balls to hang around and sort out the stuff that's making you unhappy."

Also, he has a therapeutic release in the band - which may explain why Seether's songs are generally so dark and depressing while the guy who sings them seems like a well-adjusted person.

"The whole thing of playing and writing the music definitely gets rid of my anger and frustration," Morgan says.

"People who know me really well know I get really short-tempered when I stop playing live for awhile.

"It's like an addiction. It's definitely my way to get things out of my system.

"It's the whole experience. In a live show you totally abandon everything. That's when you're out there trying to sell this music to people who've generally never heard of you. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It's a rush of being the underdog. The whole thing is a thrill.

"The whole experience and way of life, it's what makes me who I am. If that gets taken away I become kind of different."

So, in short, keep this guy on the road singing rock, preferably with his famous girlfriend somewhere on the bill, and everything is grand.

Could these two one day work together in the same band?

Amy Lee doesn't think so. "No. That would be hard, just politically."

So the world has been denied a gothic John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John for the new millennium.