Ashlee Simpson Not Alone

Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels was unavailable for comment, but he told AP Radio that artists have lip-synced on the show before. (Eminem's camp has been denying speculation that the rapper lip-synced during his SNL set this past weekend.) Adds Kid Kelly, a Top Forty-radio veteran who oversees pop programming for Sirius Satellite Radio, "Just about every band that's playing live TV has an accompanying track -- with the possible exception of a jam band."

Many rock bands use backing tracks in concert, too, to re-create the studio sound of their albums. "A lot of the heavy acts do that -- they thicken up the guitar sounds when they play live," says a concert-industry source. "Kiss has backing tracks galore." And bands aren't embarrassed by it. "When you go into the recording studio you have layers and layers of guitars," says Evanescence manager Dennis Rider. "Unless you have three or four guitar players onstage, you can't duplicate that. And people want to hear the record they bought."