The Rosie O'Donnell Show (US, TV)
December 22, 1998
Tori Amos interview and live performance
"Northern Lad" / interview
interview transcript
Rosie: Back with Tori Amos, whose new CD is so wonderful, and congratulations on getting married.
Tori: Thank you.
Rosie: You're welcome! Tori got married! You know, I remember you telling me that you didn't think you'd ever get married.
Tori: Never.
Rosie: No.
Tori: No, never.
Rosie: Surprise!
Tori: Big surprise.
Rosie: Yeah.
Tori: I dropped my teacup! He asked me and I thought we were just gonna have tea. He's British, so you know they do that sort of thing.
Rosie: Yes.
Tori: And we were sitting there, having it, and he asked me, said, "I want to know..." Oh, he doesn't want me to talk, but he said, "I want to know what you're gonna be like going down to the garden when you're eighty."
Rosie: What a sweet thing to say!
Tori: Yeah.
Rosie: And is that right when you dropped it, right there?
Tori: I dropped it, yeah.
Rosie: And did you think, well, would you like to be there seeing it, or are you just wondering, you know?
Tori: Heh.
Rosie: Did that cross your mind? 'Cause I'm so insecure, I'd be like, well, maybe he doesn't mean with me.
Tori: Yeah.
Rosie: Maybe he's just wondering in general how people age, you know?
Tori: Yeah, he... well, then he said, "I want you to, I want you to be my wife." And I thought, "Wife. Wow." Then I dropped it.
Rosie: Now are you able to say that when you refer to him, "My husband"? Does that come naturally for you or?
Tori: Husband!
Rosie: Yeah, does it?
Tori: I call him Husband. "Hi, it's me, Tori."
Rosie: Did you get to go on a honeymoon?
Tori: Wasn't really a honeymoon, 'cause we kept getting interrupted, so...
Rosie: By work stuff?
Tori: By work.
Rosie: Yeah.
Tori: Because the record was just about, we were just finishing it and everybody started calling because they needed approvals and stuff.
Rosie: Right.
Tori: And at a certain point it was just about, "Oh, my God." We were really intruded on.
Rosie: Yeah.
Rosie: So you're gonna get some time, I hope, to take another one sometime soon.
Tori: Yeah, he says that, like every day we'd get a day off, he'd say, "Mmm, cashing in on the no honeymoon." So, that's it.
Rosie: [laughs] Well, that's kind of sweet. Now, I read that you were kicked out of school at eleven.
Tori: Yeah.
Rosie: Still hurt your feelings a little bit?
Tori: Yeah.
Rosie: I was kicked out of school at seventeen and I'm still not over it.
Tori: Well, they've asked me to come back and do a songwriter's weekend.
Rosie: They asked me to do the same thing! For the acting department.
Tori: Mmm.
Rosie: I said, "No!" What did you say?
Tori: I said, "No."
Rosie: Give me a high-five on that!
Rosie: But you were just a baby, eleven years old.
Tori: Yeah, I was pretty young but I thought my life was over.
Rosie: Yeah.
Tori: It was big stuff. I had been there since I was five. I was supposed to be a concert pianis, but that didn't obviously happen.
Rosie:Right.
Tori: It was never going to happen, though. I mean, I could have told them that at five-and-a-half
Rosie: Yeah, you knew.
Tori: Oh, I knew. It's like, "Oh, those guys are dead. Why do I want to play that crap?"
Rosie: [laughs] Yeah.
Tori: Do you know what I mean?
Rosie: I want new stuff.
Tori: I wanted to be a composer.
Rosie: Right.
Tori: Don't we all. But I did. And, I don't know, you know. I'll still...
Rosie: And then you started playing bars right, soon after that, right?
Tori: Well, what happened was, they said, "What are you gonna do?" I was eleven and I said, "I don't know. Give me a couple of days to figure it out."
Rosie: [laughs]
Tori: And so, I think a few days later I just said, "Dad, I need to go pro now."
Rosie: Yeah.
Tori: So he, um, by the time I was a teen, he would go with me, chaperone me when I was playing clubs in D.C. when I was thirteen. And I played 'em. The shocking, the scary thing is that I played 'em for eleven years.
Rosie: Really?
Tori: Yeah, I kept getting fired.
Rosie: For what reason? Demanding too much Kool-Aid in your dressing room?
Tori: No, I think it was, I just think that the Marriot, as much as they make that really good macaroni and cheese...
Rosie: yeah.
Tori: But other than that -- my set list and their set lists and my leather skirts -- it just didn't...
Rosie: Didn't go.
Tori: And this was the '80s, you know, hair needed to be up to here.
Rosie: Really big. Mine was huge then.
Tori: Was it?
Rosie: Yeah.
Tori: Mine was, too. It had to touch the ceiling. Aquanet can, you know.
Rosie: And you know what I used to do? I used to take the blow dryer, put the blow dryer here and then spray the spray.
Tori: Oh, yeah.
Rosie: As the blow dryer was going.
Tori: Oh, yeah.
Rosie: So that you would just have one big Farrah Fawcett wing.
Tori: It's, it's weight.
Rosie: Like the Flying Nun. I could've taken off from the 4th grade.
Tori: It was too great
Rosie: It was sad and scary. Well, I am so happy that you're happily married. And I love the new CD as I do the three that preceded it, and as I was telling Tori, I quote the lyrics to my shrink 'cause it helps me express myself. Could we just have a moment and hold my hand, please? [Tori holds Rosie's hand] I'm okay. Go buy the CD, would ya, it's available now. And have a great Christmas.
Tori: Thanks. You, too.
Rosie: Say "hi" to your parents.
Tori: I will.
Rosie: Alright.
screen shots
t o r i p h o r i a tori amos digital archive yessaid.com
