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New Musical Express (UK)
May 1998

On The Couch : Tori Amos

Interview by April Long

What song describes you best?
"Family Affair by Sly and The Family Stone. It's the way my friends and I are when we're together."

What is heaven?
"Flat water in the early morning, driving my husband on my little boat."

What is hell?
"Rough water when I can't go out on my little boat. Driving my husband up the wall instead."

What is your earliest memory?
"My grandfather had a big old black 1952 Buick. I'd stand up in the back seatwearing my little hat and we'd go for a ride every day."

What's your greatest fear?
"Bad cappuccino."

Who is your all-time hero?
"Margaret Little. She was my great-great grandmother. She survived the Trail of Tears and the Civil War, and married a plantation owner where she was a surrogate slave."

What's the most trouble you've been in?
"I almost drowned during my synchronized swimming lesson this morning. Oh, and in 1991 we were pulled over by the German police on suspicion of drug smuggling. I didn't have any on me, but my friend did. They strip-searched us and everything. But I told them I knew Phil Collins, even though I didn't, and they let us off."

Who was the first love of your life?
"Jesus. But I got over when I first saw a picture of Robert Plant."

What's your greatest talent?
"Pretending to be kooky for the British."

Upon whom would you most like to exact revenge, how and why?
"On someone who has treated my sister really horribly. And I'm doing it now, with no fingerprints."

What's your most treasured possession?
"This is boring, but it's one of my pianos."

What have you most regretted doing while drunk?
"Talking to my manager and suggesting 200 shows."

What can you cook?
"Everything."

What's the best piece of advice you've received?
"It was from my tour manager, who told me never to drink cheap white wine."

If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
"I would hang out in the Oval Office. I want to know if Clinton's actually Beavis."

What are your final three wishes?
"That my friends keep safe. That everybody in the world could have a bottle of Krug champagne. And that the whole planet could have time out for a whole week, when nobody has to work or worry about food or anything."

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