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Name Your Adventure (US, TV)
October 15, 1994

Meeting Tori Amos



Hosted by Mario Lopez

['Pretty Good Year' runs in the background.]

Tori is wearing the purple shirt from the 'Cornflake Girl' photo shoot, with light blue jeans and a white sweater tied around her waist.

Mario: Good deal! Good deal, do you have any questions for her?

Allison: Well, yeah, the, the sound checks. Um, what's the purpose for that?

Tori: I have no idea what it's going to sound like when I'm on stage. And it's all about balances of the piano, how much piano I have ... I think I'm Metallica, actually, so I have very loud monitors to get the balance right ... so that when I'm singing, I'm totally supported. And the important thing is if your monitors aren't good, you lose your voice.

Mario: Oh, see, I didn't know that!

Allison: Awesome.

Mario: So, you think maybe we could go over to the piano room?

Tori: Absolutely.

Mario: Okay. Let's go! [Scene cut.] ... since you were a little thing? Or, how, um --

Tori: [kid voice] A very wee thing!

Mario: Really?

Tori: [kid voice] Where my little feet, I, uh, it was like this [draws up her arms and legs really close to her like a baby].

Mario: Is, is it always something you wanted to do, or could your mom and parents kinda just push you into there, or...?

Tori: No.

Mario: This was a passion.

Tori: My mother wanted me to clean my room, and all I wanted to do was play piano.

[Strains of 'Winter' begin.]

Tori: Um, I played - I was playing about eight or nine hours a day when I was a little tot. All the time, that's all I did.

Mario: Same thing with Allison, she, you also had that passion, I know you've been doing since you were a little girl, and why don't you, why don't you sing a little something for Tori?

Tori: Sing something!

[ALLISON begins to sing 'Winter', Tori playing the tune. Tori has a big beautific grin on her face and her eyes closed as she plays the melody. On 'new boots on', a cut to Allison while her singing continues in the background.]

Allison: What I'm feeling when I sat down to play with Tori Amos, it's like, "Pinch me, am I asleep?" It was ... it was so awesome, I mean, at first, I began to wonder, "Will I be good enough for her?" and then as I started singing her song, she just kinda smiled at me, and I thought, "It doesn't matter if I sound like her, I have my own style," I mean, even though it's her song. And it just really calmed me down, and, and I felt a lot better, and it was so awesome I'll never forget it.

Allison: " ...my dear." [Tori 'mmm's appreciatively.]

Tori: Whooooa ha-ha!

Mario: Wow, that was great!

[TORI and ALLISON hug.]

Mario: I think I got little chills!

Allison: So do I!

Tori: Wow.

Mario: That was really cool, Allison! [to TORI] Now I noticed your lyrics seem so meaningful. How important are they to you as far as getting certain messages across to your fans and to the younger people of our generation, if you will?

Tori: I write about things that I hide from myself and to this place that doesn't get dealt with much. And in a certain point, um, you know, you have to write about it, or it just stays locked up inside. So writing about it, my songs becomes my teachers.

Mario: Tori, what, what about the - I heard about this RAINN, like it's - it's some sort of project, um, dealing with certain...?

Tori: Um, I got so many letters, from mostly young women, who hadn't dealt with their personal experience, whether it was incest or whether it was rape, and, I can't really tell you how many letters we got - it was, it's sad to tell you how many, so we got this 800 number, and they can call without anybody tracing the call, so if they want their privacy, nobody knows and they have somebody to talk to. It might be the first step, but it's, it's a ... a big step!

[Cut to ALLISON reminiscing.]

Allison: Tori and RAINN, that's just wonderful. That she can give girls who've gone through what she went through a chance to come forward. I mean, you can tell that when she was talking about her lyrics and where she gets her inspiration from, that was all definitely from the heart.

Tori: What a beautiful time we're going to have. Stage Manager: Showtime, Tori, gotta go!

Tori: Okay.

Mario: Yeah. Okay, let 'em go, have a great show!

Tori: Okay, everybody. [She chuckles.] You're coming to the show?

Allison: Yes!

Tori: Okay.

[Cut to concert scene.]

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Tori Amos.

[She plays "Bells for Her" ...on "time," they flip back to the interview, while "Bells" stays in the background.]

Allison: One of the biggest things that I want to know is how do you get discovered?

Tori: Well, there are like loads of things involved in that. I mean, yeah, you gotta have a little bit of luck. The more times, though, that you put yourself out there. There are so many times that I wanted to quit and wanted to stop. I can't tell you. I was told for seven and a half years that this 'girl and her piano' thing was never going to happen. Never. Never gonna happen. What do they know, those people?

[Cut back to "Bells for Her": "can't stop what's coming, can't stop what is on its way." Cut back to ALLISON.]

Allison: She really inspired me to always speak my mind. She did it, she never gave up, even though people told her, "You're not going to make it. This is just a dream, it's never going to come true", and she stuck with it. I think if I can stick with it, then, maybe I'll have a chance at it, too, 'cause there's no way I'm ever giving up.

[Cut back to "Bells for Her" conclusion.]

Allison: That concert was awesome. It was so awesome I'll never forget it.

[Cut to backstage scene. TORI autographs that night's setlist for the concert and hands it to ALLISON.]

Allison: Thank you.

Mario: Thank you, again, Tori, goodbye!

Tori: I'll be coming to your concert. I'll be there.

Mario: Good deal. We'll look you up!

Tori: Okay, guys.

Mario: Bye!

Tori: Bye-bye.

Allison: Bye-bye.


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