Note:Misspelling, and errors are on my account... please e-mail me for corrections :-)
On her debut solo album Little Earthquakes singer tori
amos wrote a stunning song about what it is like to be raped, you can
laugh-she wrote- it's kind of funny things you think times like this.....
this album was both critically acclaimed and commercial success, and tonight
for the first time on television,she tells Nancy Collins? about the
trauma of the rape and about reclaming her soul.
What is it about the music of this tiny red-headed preachers daughter that sells out concerts accross the country.
And turn this clasically trained pianist into a pop star after only three albums.
Her poetic lyrics are evocative, resonating with the familiar and the forbidden
She is sensual, soul searching, irreverent and though she's become a cult figure, whose fans line up to hear her sing her personal journey, in the end she's a girl and her piano and a story.
Tori: my strength isn't as a technician, my strength is as a composer, I didn't wanna play all this dead guys music, to be honest with you. I was like, 'you know they did a... they did something fantastic, but who's gonna be breaking those boundaries and limitations for our time'.
Some would say Tori Amos, she grew up rebellious, the daughter of a methodist minister and his part cherokee wife.
Nancy C:one thinks it's always hard to be the preachers girl, did your father expect you to toe(?) a religious mark(?)
Tori:I went to church 4 times a week till I was 21, my father would really have liked me to write religious music
She begun playing the piano when she was 2, at 5 she was the youngest pupil to be accepted to baltimores prestigious peabody institute, where she learnt to play Mozart and Brahams.
Tori: ever since I remember I would crawl up and play, and I always knew how to play.
When she was 11 Tori lost her scholarship to the peabody.
Tori: I just didn't fit in, they didn't think I was ever gonna be a concert pianist, and I wasn't
Two years later it was her father who came up with the unortodox idea to the next leg of her career
Tori: My father looked at me finally after a lot of talking and pulling back and forh 'what are you gonna do with your life' 'why do I have to do anything with my life, I'm thirteen, why..mmmm' you know, the whole thing that happens. And um I said 'I wanna play my music' he said, 'all right then get dressed, dress up'. And um , we went down and we knocked on about 13 or 14 doors that night, just knocked,
Nancy C: On bars...
Tori: On bars, and he says 'my daughter's really good, can we come in and play for you' and there was a lot going of... that (a rather surprised look on their faces) going on, and um, the gay clubs opened the door, they said 'bring her in then'. I was very influenced by...um this wondeful gay men. Who gave me the confidence to dress up, and taught me how to put on make up, and gave me the courage on, you know, how to kiss a boy, and
Nancy C: they taught, they taught you that
Tori: they taught me
Nancy C: really
Tori:how to become a young woman.
Nancy C: what was it about their experience that is so important to you
Tori: tenderness, they taught me about tenderness.
At 21 Tori headed to LA and formed a band, it's only album flopped miserably.
Tori: when you are a failure in the entertainment business they're quite (??)viciuos(??), but it was my great gift, that was the greatest gift I've ever had because..
She sat down alone at her piano and begun listening to her inner voice
Tori: and I said, you know, 'what is my intention as a musician' and I started to remember what that was and I said wether anybody comes here to listen to what I do or not.. I'm going to finally say what I've always thought. what it's been hushed up, which I've hushed up.
The result was her first hit album Little Earthquakes
Tori: I had to write that work to begin to feel, like I wanted to be in my own skin again, so just feeling that was such an incredible feeling, like wow I do have thoughts about things, and they're my thoughts
It's centerpiece was a haunting anthem called me and a gun which spoke to many women, Tori Amos singing about the time she was raped.
Though it happened on her early 20's, she never talked about it to anyone.
Tori: I saw thelma and louise, and it brought up things that even I, didn't understand..and I think there's some things um,.... I don't wanna remember.
One night after she finished playing at a piano bar Tori offered a ride to someone she thought was a friend.
Nancy C: did you ever _____ charges ...did you _____ the police in...
Tori: no.no,no, it's not that simple sometimes you're ina a situation where you come forth- forward? you are nailed. you.. the law isn't um... supportive of violent situations for women, come on I was a night club singer, I dressed sexy, look, let's not kidd each other, my case was closed before I'd begin.
Nancy C: did you thik it was your fault?
Tori: Yeah, I did um... violence is such a strange... experience if you , if you feel that kind of hate from another person, it's like um it gets into yourself, it gets into every part of your being, and so I've been.. committing myself to...um.. becoming a phoenix out of the ashes for myself. and me and a gun has been a great teacher for me It is quite a double edge sword that song
Nancy C: how so?
Tori: There's a place where when I sing it everynight.. um I'm trying to get to, sometimes I get to it, sometimes I don't. where I'm just trying to free the demons, my commitment is to crossing over that river, the the river of victimhood,um but you have to be in that river, you will be in that river if you've been violated, I'm really, at a place where I believe you can heal, you can heal, and yet not forget um and it's a new way thinking
These days of healing continues on tour, she and her _____ (??) crew will be delivering the gospel according to Tori for the next six months just a girl and her piano on the road.
Nancy C: how do you feel about your piano?
Tori: the piano was very much my identity for a long long time, now I feel like we're partners. I think the real musicians, the real, the ones who feel it in their souls. um, hear their instrument speaking.
Tori Amos current US tour is now hitting the east coast, her latest album BFP entered the billboard chart at no. 2 it's just gone platinum.