Tori Amos talks about the 5 1/2 Weeks Tour 1999

5 ½ Weeks Tour
Tori talks about co-headlining with Alanis Morissette

How is this dynamic between you and Alanis Morissette? It's really the first time you've gone out on a co-headlining kinda tour. Correct?
"Yeah, first time... We get on really well. Really, really well. I know - I have really good manners when I meet my contemporaries. But some of them, you just wanna sit down with. Why?? I don't know. And she's one of those people that you just feel like- this is somebody I've known for a long long time and I have no idea where." [WHFS Washington DC - August 25, 1999]

The singer tasted megastardom vicariously this summer, when she toured with Alanis Morissette. "You're like this meteorite," Amos observes of Morissette. "Everybody's singing your music and has an opinion about it. I sort of cruise in the underground. Sometimes you have to search to find what I'm doing." [USA Today - October 1, 1999]

On your tour with Alanis Morissette, do you feel a synergy or has it been more like an intersection of two separate worlds?
"Oh, yeah. It's about the differences. It's two fully rotating spheres, each one on its own, that have decided to hang out together for a few weeks. I say it's like two pirate ships in the cove. Some people came over on hers, others came on mine. But if you came on hers, you hear there was some good wine on mine, so you come over and try it and you might find something you like. That's what we hope is going on, at least." [Wall of Sound (www) - September 1999]

The former solo performer has settled into cozy camaraderie with her own band. That bond, she says, has strengthened the performances. "A lot of it happens because of the conversations after hours on the bus. You cannot contrive that. It's about people hanging out together."

That experience has continued on the month-plus tour with Morissette - Amos' first as a co-headliner. One big difference? "I have to be on time," quips Amos, who goes on first to ensure that her piano stays in tune. "[Morissette] was very gracious about that. They wanted to do a changeover every night, meaning a swap [of billing order], but pianos don't work like that. Once it's in place, it doesn't move."

Although she and Morissette have had "a good cup of tea here and there," Amos says, each is busy within her respective sphere on the road. "It's like two beehives... We're a traveling village of buses and trunks, and it takes a lot of mutual respect... and a great sense of humor." [Los Angeles Times- September 23, 1999]

"I've never done a tour like this before - with somebody. It was actually Morissette's idea. She had come to see me at Jones Beach (on Long Island, New York), and we had a cup of tea and a giggle and got along really well. We share a lot of the same philosophies of putting on a show, which is important."

As far your end of the tour goes, were you eager to be back on the road with a full band?
"Wanting to play with these guys again was really a burning desire. I enjoyed playing with them (on the last tour). That's not to say there weren't rough spots. Because I have to play and sing at the same time, when you play alone, you cheat a lot. You can stretch bars and stuff. But when you're having to hit the marks as a player as well as a singer, you try to drool, find your note, breathe and wiggle, all at the same time. And not lose your lunch. That's a tall order for me."

Your shows are pretty personal affairs. Was it tough adjusting to sharing a stage and losing some of that intimacy
"There are things you can't do with a band that you can do on your own. There's not going to be the same intimacy. That's like saying an orgy is as intimate as a honeymoon. But there is a sensuality that a band can have because there's tension between and among people, as opposed to tension between one person and her instrument." [CNN Online- September 29, 1999]

What was your over all thought on the tour with Alanis?
"Well you have to figure that two separate productions working together is very tricky. All things considered we both handled it with mutual respect and I grew to like her in a big way. Friendship is a very sacred word and I don't throw it around lightly." [Gay.com chat - October 2, 1999]

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