Tori began playing piano at the age of about two and one-half. This young prodigy was reading scores and even composing some of her own music at age three to four. When she was five years old, she was accepted to the Peabody Conservatory (Art School). She became the youngest ever to be accepted. At seven or eight years old, she realized that there was a conflict with what she wanted musically and what Peabody wanted musically. She was kicked out of Peabody when she was eleven years old.
Tori went to Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland. Here, she was voted Homecoming Queen, Most Likely to Succeed, Most Talented, and Best All-Around.
She changed her name to Tori at age 17. She changed it for a combination of three reasons: after the Torrey Pine Tree, because she was noTORIous for wearing red leather pants while teaching Sunday School, and because an ex-boyfriend said, "You don't look like an 'Ellen', you look more like a 'Tori'".
Tori moved to Los Angeles when she was twenty-one, and her music career really started to take off. Her albums include Y Kant Tori Read, Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Boys for Pele, and From the Choirgirl Hotel.
Tori's hair really isn't red. She is brunette and dyes it.
When she was younger (17, I think), she was almost raped (some sources say she was raped) and kept all the pain inside. Some of this pain is reflected in her music and acts as relief to others in similar situations. Tori also founded the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN).
She has also claimed to see the ghost of Anastasia Romanov in October of 1992. Tori said, "I was feeling so sick that I wanted to be put out of my misery. And then, I get this presence. It's like a light, a bluish-grayish light… The message was, 'You need to learn something out of writing my story.'"
