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.”
t o r i p h o r i a
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