Tori Amos - Interviews Archive

Star 98.7 FM, Los Angeles (US, radio)
August 19, 2002

Tori Amos interview

Ryan: We're just talking about male grooming.

Tori Amos: I've seen it, guys in our business, I've seen, you know, in the sal [salon] and doing things. And, you know, you kind of look at them and say,"Hey it makes me feel better." I think it's great.

Ryan: ...Tori, you're happily married. Is your husband into the uh, being a well-coiffed man?

Tori: Not at all.

Ryan: And you like it that way?

Ryan: He's furry.

Tori: Well... no, he's not furry. I usually don't talk about him because it's sort of... he's... I'm having an affair with my husband.

Ryan: You're having an affair with your husband?

Tori: Yeah.

Ryan: He's the guy you're having the affair with?

Tori: Yeah, we do that.

Ryan: Don't confuse me right out of the gate.

Tori: But we do that, so... it's sort of like a young love thing with us, we, he's still my boyfriend even though he's my husband. And he's very British so there's certain things thathe um, for instance, roll-up cigarettes, Vitamin B at night. That would be vitamin vodka.

Ryan: ...So, do you actually call him your boyfriend?

Tori: I call him Husband.

Ryan: See, they always say to keep the romance alive you should never stop dating your spouse.

Ryan: Do you still play the game with him, like if he calls you do you wait two days to call him back?

Tori: Well, it's tricky cause I'm the boss. Meaning I'm, I'm...

Ryan: We know.

Tori: No, I don't mean like that. I don't wear the pants. He wears the pants, I wear skirts. However, I'm the producer on this project and he's the sound engineer, so, you know.

Ryan: You really are the boss.

Tori: Yeah, I really am. I don't mean it like...

Ryan: We know that you are a woman and you are in charge of the world.

Tori: No.

Ryan: He's very um, and Johnny can vouch for this, he's one of these, he's a boy. He's a lad. He's a Brit. He's a boy.

Ryan: He still needs to be trained?

Tori: Well, he's... he's cantankerous, he's irritating, but he's mine.

Ryan: But you love him for all of those reasons.

Tori: I love him. And he's shabby, sometimes. I mean, this is the thing - like, if were to go out somewhere, um, he had this thing on the tour last time that he wore shorts even in Austria at below zero weather. And people would walk by saying things in all sorts of languages. And he would just, it would be the boots, you know, the Doc Martens, the socks, the shorts.

Ryan: Mmm, boy, that's a look.

Tori: Yeah, it's a look, with he t-shirt that says "Hippy Smell" on it, something like that. But he was a punk. What was the band he was in? It's a horrible name.

Ryan: Flock of Seagulls?

Tori: No, Withyy Witlow.

Ryan: ...In talking about all this, I think that I would be, cause, as a guy you want to be involved with an intelligent woman like yourself.

Tori: That's very kind...

Ryan: Somebody that has perspective, someone that's beautiful and talented. Did I run them all?

Tori: Has her "you know what" together. Whole package.

Ryan: But, I gotta be honest with you, getting into an argument with you would be tricky because I bet you don't let much slide. You'd probably win, with me.

Tori: Well he's, my husband's very witty. Bot that you're not, but he has that British... You know, he is one of these people... Johnny, what do you say? Ryan, you're a darling, but he puts me to shame and he usually wins.

Ryan: He does? He outsmarts you? Or outwits me.

Tori: No, he outwits me.

Ryan: Wow.

Ryan: It's challenging, I like that.

Tori: It's very challenging. And I think because of that, part of it is... I, we're opposites in a way, and that's maybe the whole... he keeps his identity by not doing certain things that maybe I would maybe want him to do, but he won't do those things. But he will do some things.

Ryan: Many of which we can't talk about today.

Tori: No, but...

Ryan: [laughing] See the look on her face!

Tori: Oh, dear... Yikes.

Ryan: That wasn't on the air, was it?... Tori's here with new music, by the way. And you recorded Scarlet's Walk at a studio where you've been before.

Tori: Yeah, we own it.

Ryan: You're the majority owner?

Tori: No, no, no, it's not the majority deal.

Ryan: Amos Studios.

Tori: No, it's Martian Studios. And the good thing about it is, if you are in an argument um, with your record label, if that were ever to happen to you...

Ryan: Hypothetically speaking, Tori Amos now on the record...

Tori: Just say, just say... Peter Gabriel gave me this advice years ago. He said, look...

Ryan: Man is always calling me with advice.

Tori: He said, "own your own studio because if you fall out with them guess who they have to call to get the tapes?

Ryan: They gotta call you.

Tori: They gotta call the studio owners.

Ryan: That Peter Gabriel, very smart. Now if that were to ever happen in your case, you're covered.

Tori: If, yeah, you're covered. Imagine that.

Ryan: That's brilliant. Good thinking on Peter Gabriel's part... Let's play a song and we'll come back and talk about this, too.

Tori: ok

Ryan: A Sorta Fairytale, this is Tori Amos, check it out...

[plays the radio edit of A Sorta Fairytale]

Tori Amos, live from the Lounge.

Tori: Wow, you can segue.

Ryan: Oh, stop it.

Tori: It's fascinating stuff, I mean, we were just talking about something else...

Ryan: Are you impressed by that?

Tori: Uh, I'm fascinated.

Ryan: Fascinated, not impressed, but fascinated.

Ryan: Cause we come out of a pretty song and you go into the whole, you know, coffee and relieving yourself and...

Ryan: Well then let's get back to the pretty song. A Sorta Fairytale. Uh, driving along the Ventura. Would that be the freeway?

Tori: Yeah. Did it many times. Lived here almost eight years.

Ryan: It's the 101, right, so talk about this song... well, you go ahead.

Tori: Well, this is the second song on the album. The album is called Sarlet's Walk, and it's a road trip. It's about a woman travelling slowly West to East. Um, and it's based on real people and real events. And it starts in LA, really the valley, where my character, Scarlet, comes to see her friend who's a fading porn star.

Ryan: Ok, so hold on, hold on... so you said it's real people, real places, but you have a character...

Tori: Based on, based on.

M: Based on. So the character, Scarlet, and is living someone else's experiences.

Tori: Scarlet is me in this. That's who, we, we wear the same shoe size. That's handy.

Ryan: Ok, so it works. And so the journey starts in southern California.

Tori: Yeah, in the valley, and I go see my friend the porn star.

Ryan: Why are you going to see the porn star?

Tori: Because she called me.

Ryan: She called. Why'd she call?

Tori: She's having a tough time.

Ryan: She is? Well, she's in porn.

Tori: She has to, well, she has to go to the Porno Awards. She's giving one.

Ryan: In Vegas.

Tori: In Vegas, which we Ryan: Which is a stop.

Tori: Which is where we go. We take that trip and the whole thing about it is, is she's presenting, she's not getting one. And it's just...

Ryan: She's very upset about that. That happened to me at the Teen Choice Awards.

Tori: But, don't you think... See, I've known women over the years that, at the time they came to La, um, they were dancers, they had dreams, and said, "Hey, just a little bit here, just a little bit there." And then, before they know it, they're involved, it's good money, and sometimes it's straight to video. I'm talking about porn, yeah.

Ryan: It's not many people's dream to be a porn star. Many women, I would think.

Tori: No, but it's, but it's what they get from it. They can, they maybe have a kid, they can, they can help pay for it...

Ryan: They make good money.

Tori: Yeah, but it's for many reasons why some of them do it. And it just, I've always had a place in my heart for these women. I have a lot of time for them.

Ryan: So they're not, they're not naughty people. They're not people that are sex-crazed lunatics. These are people that came out with a separate goal, separate missions, separate dreams and fell into it.

Tori: I think you would be surprised. There's, some of their stories are really intriguing. And some of these woman have been very good acquaintances of mine and I have a real soft place. They, and they were a good friend to me.

Ryan: The cd is called Scarlet's Walk from Tori Amos. I know you've got to run, but we will see you again... December, when you come back through.

Tori: Ok.

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