Filler: Suderland, UK, 12/91
Filler: KROQ, Los Angeles, CA, 1/13/93
Filler: Berlin, Germany, 4/9/94
Possible Filler: Extra B-Sides:
Filler: B-Sides
David Byrne: People get carried away by music, they get inspired by music, they get inspired to do terrible things and inspired to do wonderful things. More than they would if you held up a painting and showed it to them.Do you think music is the most dangerous of the arts? Tori Amos: Yeah. David Byrne:David Byrne: You can't imagine somebody running off to war after having looked at a painting, but after they've heard some music... Tori Amos: Yeah. David Byrne: You could imagine that. Tori Amos: Prokofiev, and those Ruskies. I think music can also be dangerous when certain people play it . It's like, "Oh no, I'm dying here!" I think, for me, I can't imagine my life without it. I really can't. I think I'd be one foot in as a sewage manager in some plant somewhere, 'cause I don't know how I would have handled my aggression if I didn't have music. I put a lot into the piano. I sort stuff out. David Byrne: So, you think it's as dangerous for you as it is for the audience? Tori Amos: No, I think it'd be dangerous if I didn't have music. This is where I work stuff out. If we're talking about Joseph Campbell, they say that you probably have many myths running through your history. I think a lot in the new age puts me off because, "say the word 'love,' and it's all going to be okay." I don't agree with any of that. I feel like you gotta go to the shadow and you've gotta really see the stuff that you're hiding over here, and it's somewhere in here. I feel as far as the mythology goes, when I play, I pull on many different sides and it's not always about the good guys or the good gals, it's characters that have maybe done stuff that we kind of cock our heads at and go, "well, I don't know if this is a good character." I'm going, "that's not the point." They're in the myth, too, and sometimes I try and channel them. I try and bring those characters in and there's this tension that you create and you try and put yourself in everybody's position in the story, and that's what I try and do. David Byrne: Do you think when you changed your name or took what in the old days was called a stage name, do you think that was a way of self-determination? Of saying, "I'm going to be reborn as this new person?" Tori Amos: Well, I think it's also correcting a serious mistake my mother made. I'm screaming from the womb, "No, Mother, Myra Ellen? That's like the worst!" I hated that name. Especially with what boys can do as nine-year-olds with the word "Myra," on the east coast. Oh, and their accents are horrible anyway. But Myra! It was just the worst. And everybody called me Ellen instead, but Eh-wen, they dropped the "ll"s? And I gotta tell you, I wanted to torch them. And so, I went through some really bad names, when I was going through my name change period. I almost became Sammi Jay. David Byrne: That's not so bad. Tori Amos: Thanks, 'cause I was watching Dallas or no, Dynasty? David Byrne: I didn't know that was one of the characters. Tori Amos: Yeah, Sammi Jay. She was Heather Locklear's character. Anyway, I was getting into the whole Sammi Jay thing and thank God one of my friend's boyfriends said, "You're a Tori," and I went, "You know what? You're right." David Byrne: Here's a little contradiction. In high school you were homecoming queen, voted most likely to succeed, etc., etc., and yet you still seemed to feel like somewhat of an outsider. Is that right? Tori Amos: One of my girlfriends I went to high school with, Cindy, came back to a show a month ago in Houston, she goes, "You know, I am pissed off with you," and I said, "Why?" And she goes, "You know, we were the cool chicks, we hung out together and you're telling everybody we were nerds," and I said, "Well, you weren't a nerd." Everybody knew I played the piano and I never got a date without playing a song for a guy, and I was pretty much intrinsically linked with this thing, this instrument. So, sometimes I felt like because of it, that was really my way in. And sometimes I was a bit manipulative. Write a song, pass a course, little things like that, and I knew if I really wanted to go out with a guy, if things were going all wrong maybe I could get him near a piano and maybe -- David Byrne: That would sell him -- Tori Amos: He would like me. David Byrne: The decision to work with a band, was any of that influenced by people having done dance remixes of some of the songs? Tori Amos: Well, a couple of things happened. Before all that happened, on Boys for Pele, Manu Katche played drums. I used to record almost all the tracks, piano/vocal or piano/ harpsichord live to tape, and then all the musicians would play on top of that rhythm because I had trouble with, not all drummers, but I'd had trouble surrendering that and trying to find a time where the songs didn't get pushed. David Byrne: Yeah, it's a lot to surrender, to make room for other people's parts. Tori Amos: And you gotta trust this drummer, that he knows your internal rhythm and who this song, I call them girls, who this particular one is and when she wants to pull back and when she wants to push. I've always said, you don't f**k to a metronome. And the thing is, I was going, "Manu, I don't know if I'm ready," and he said "Listen, I'm not talking about me." And this is why I loved him so much. He said, "You need to find a drummer that you can trust. That, for some reason, you have that thing." 'Cause he's one of the greatest drummers in the world, and he said, "It's not about that. It's about some kind of secret language you have." And Eric Ross, who produced Under the Pink, who I lived with a long time, called me up after I lost the baby and said, "I know the guy. This is Matt Chamberlain, you've got to play with him." He had worked with Matt's band, and Matt came to the tropics and we hired a drum set and we jammed. And it was like, "I know you." He goes, "I know you." And that was it. And I think that was a real, huge turnaround. David Byrne: I want to ask about RAINN, the organization that you founded? Tori Amos: Yeah, with other people. David Byrne: We know about benefit concerts and that kind of thing, but what's the ongoing work there? Tori Amos: Well, what RAINN really is, is a group of people that make sure that the phone line is running, the number is 1-800-656-HOPE, and RAINN picks up the bills for people when they call from anywhere in America to a rape crisis center. Rape crisis centers can't afford the collect calls. They're funded, they have to take care of their bills and there are about 600 rape crisis centers now that the phone line takes the caller to a counselor at one of these places, and RAINN is able to do that, and there are people. It works out of the DC Rape Crisis Center. That's where the hub of RAINN is. Part of the DC Rape Crisis Center is RAINN now. David Byrne: Does knowing that an ear on the other end of the telephone exists, help people call and say what's happened to them? Tori Amos: Well, I've been told we've had about 225 thousand calls now since 1994, that's a lot. That's the good news and the bad news, but I've had people come up to me and say that they really were helped by RAINN, because it's not just a friend who is sitting there going, "yeah, yeah, you know," and kind of going like this to watch the tv show and they've heard it enough and you feel like you're imposing. Those people at the other end of the phone line are really there to talk about that. And to direct you. Some people need medical attention. Some people need legal advice. Some people need therapy, they really do. Some people are very ill.
After Tori's 1000 Oceans Set...I guess she cracked her voice er somethin' Tori Amos:I wish I could do that again... Jay:You can. (cut) (She plays it again and this is the one showed to Westcoastees everywhere) Jay Leno:How have you been, you alright? Tori Amos: I'm pretty good. Jay Leno:You look a lot like you've got a little sleep in your eyes. Tori Amos: Yeah, well..you know. Jay Leno: Are you done with your tour with Alanis? Tori Amos: Almost done, we have a few shows left. Jay Leno: Okay, then good, then having fun? Do you have your mike? Tori Amos: Oh, I don't have it. Jay Leno: (Tori fiddles with mike) There, here you go. Tori Amos: Well, I'll just hold it. Jay Leno: You wanna hold it? Okay. Tori Amos: Is that okay? Jay Leno: Yeah, so the tour's been...the tour went well with Alanis? Tori Amos: Yeah, I'm loving it. You know it's like having two pirate ships going into a cove. Lots of dirty laundry from many crewmen. (Sniffs nose...hmmm) Jay Leno: I have no idea what that means but it sounds exciting (laughter) And how's uh...how's pop the preacher. Good? Tori Amos: He's, uh, he's like a road dog. He and my mother doing like a car trip. He sells posters out of the back of the car I think, just to get a few extra bucks. Jay Leno: Well, that's nice. Tori Amos: He's fantastic. They're doing well. Jay Leno: Now does he wear his clerk, clerk, clergy... Tori Amos: Of course. Then people can recognise him and than he can um, he has his own little fan club. Jay Leno: right, so um's like a ministry within the fan club? Tori Amos: Well..yah, all the little satanists come and like get his autograph. (cheers) Jay Leno: Now, I, I was reading about this new ah, you came up with the title To Venus And Back before you wrote the song right? Tori Amos: Yes, I came up with..well actually a friend of mine helped me come up with it. Jay Leno: Mhmmm... Tori Amos: We were having a really good bottle of (phonetic spelling here :P) cortonceronmai... Jay Leno: Okay, good bottle of wine so... Tori Amos: Yah.. Jay Leno: You came up with the To Venus and they came up with the And Back... Tori Amos: No, I came up with the To And Back. Jay Leno: Oh, well okay, and they came up with the... Tori Amos: Venus Jay Leno: I see, I see. Tori Amos: Opposed to...(cocks head to her right) Jay Leno: Now do you use different wines for different things (laughter about Tori's last remark settles in) Tori Amos: Um, of course. Jay Leno: Yeah. Tori Amos: Yean, they say..um somebody taught me once, Al Stewart got me into wine. You know, Year of the Cat Jay Leno: Al Stewart, Year of the Cat of course! Tori Amos: And he looked at me and he said you have never had good wine you know I'd eh (sniffs underpits!!) (crowd laughs) I don't know what that means but finally I realised he looked at me and said, burgundy is for sex, bourdeaux is for intellect. So I have a lot of bourdeaux - I need that. Jay Leno: Now, okay, like Mad Dog 20/20..what would that be for..(laughs) I'm just curious. Tori Amos: (The Tori Look...pauses) Um, for my crew. (crowd laughs) Jay Leno: Like did you ever perform for Al (chuckles a little bit) did you ever preform with Al Stewart? Tori Amos: Yeah, actually. Jay Leno: That's my kind of generation - Al Stewart, what year was year of the cat? What year was that? Tori Amos: Well, year of the cat is 1963. Jay Leno: Ok, it's before my time..(mumbled) Tori Amos: That's not when it came out (Jay Leno: No) Tori Amos: but he sings about (Jay Leno: Right) year of the cat. Jay Leno: Yeah, but but when did the song come out? When did i when did i Tori Amos: I know it's the seventies, you were on drugs see (Jay Leno: Yeah) Jay Leno: (jokingly) Yeah that was me, I was on drugs, yeah that was me yeah...(crowd's laughing) We'll be back right after this...(screams of I love you Tori!!) [Commercial] Jay Leno: To Venus And Back, it's the new CD. Well, it's good to see, you gotta come back often real soon. Tori Amos: (mouths okay) (smiles) (Cheers from Toriphile packed crowd) Jay Leno: (tries to say something but then taps desk - goes on to say about the guests then ends the show)
