Tori was one of the guests on the BBC Breakfast TV show in the U.K. on Wednesday morning, November 12, 2003. The Dent now has screen shots from this TV appearance as well as a complete transcript of the interview!

More Details

You can for a limited time watch this interview using the Real Player at news.bbc.co.uk. (Thanks Arjan.) That page also has a little article about Tori.

Screen Shots

Thanks to Emma and Andy for making and sending these screen shots to The Dent

Interview Transcript

Thanks to Emma and Andy for sending me this transcript.

"Breakfast", BBC1, Tori was on from 8.39am for 8 minutes.
Interviewed by hosts Dermot and Natasha.

Dermot - "Tori Amos, she spent years turning personal suffering into a musical art form, offering fans the opportunity to identify with her real life angst. Her new album is called Tales of a librarian, and it's a remastering of her best work."

Natasha - "The album documents her career spanning over a decade and Tori's with us this morning, before we speak to her  let's remind ourselves of her very unique style."  

[plays a minute of "strange little girl" video]  

D - that's what i call a wolf!  

N - yes thats a big wolf isnt it! And here is tori, lovely to see you - with a change of hair colour  [my notes = i think they think her hair is brown usually like the slg video!)  

TORI - hi both of you!  

N- now tell us, cos youve got a very interesting background haven't you because you're part cherokee and you're a daughter of a methodist minister so your upbringing must've been fascinating.  

TORI - ah peace pipe in one hand and a cross in the other, so  it was difficult to juggle sometimes because the belief systems are very different, but my mothers family would tell stories and sit on the porch and it's a very aural  tradition so we would sit every night on the porch and listen to papa my mom's dad talk about the escape from the trail of tears, and that really formed i think my interest in story telling.  

D - it's interesting you saying that because we've just been talking this morning on the programme about developing these communication skills -storytelling skills - in children at our school's,  this was happening for you at home - a real sense of your past then and your place in the universe.  

TORI - well i think because, again you sit around and listen to a wonderful storyteller - my grandafther - who would know everything that was going on in town, what the choir director was doing, who the minister was um 'seeing', and that would all end up in a story where the names changed and everything else, so we knew in the family what was going on. And that was, he was cronicaling time, and our life in a story every night.  

N- and how have they reacted to your career and to the huge success that you've had?  

TORI - i think it was tricky for my dad at first cos im a follower of the magdalene, and i've always been about women's rights within the church and that there has to be an intergration of the mother mary and the mary magdalene within a christian woman for wholeness, and so that met with some consternation at first, but i thought it was really important that the mother mary who has been seperated from her sexuality and the magdalene who has been seperated from her spirituality needed to come together.  

D - so tori when did the singing and the songwriting start, it was a pretty early age wasn't it?  

TORI - my mom says 2 and half, that's what she says, i think that's the first thing i remember is, this big black upright piano was my best friend.  

N - but you landed your 1st gig at 12 didnt you so that mustv'e been something!  

TORI -  yeah i think that my dad, he got me for a deal, i would do the funeral in the morning and the wedding in the afternoon so he'd do a bit of a 2 for 1 special with me.  

D - And you talk about pianos there you've got a favourite piano now haven't you?  

TORI - i have, one of my best friends in the whole world is my piano and she's been all over the world, and she has blankets that wrap her up, they take her legs off and they put her in a big box every night, and they take her out every day, usually we do 6 shows a week when we tour we've just finished 10 months of touring  

N- well i was just talking to you about that a short time ago wasn't i  before we were waiting to speak properly now, 10 months on tour, in the U.S.  this tour wasn't it, that must've been absolutely exhausting, 6 shows a week.  

TORI - it was, we had our Natashya there, our little girl.  

N- youve got a great name foryour daughter there!  

TORI - yeah we do!  

D - one of the best!  

TORI - yes and she would be backstage with us before the show before she went to bed and she'd do ring a ring a roses every night with us before we went on and then she'd say mummy now go rock.  

N - cos she comes with you doesn't she  

TORI - everywhere yeah.  

D - now tell me about where you live now you moved to cornwall you've really settled there.  

TORI - yes my husband is British, and he wanted to live.. it was either south london or cornwall, so i said definately conrwall, and,  

D - oh i dont know south london's got its spirtitual side!  

TORI - i know dermot but its just not my thing, so um we made a compromise, and i love the cornish there, im an outsider and i understand that i understand that i'm not of their tribe, but they've let me in and they treat me with love and it's a magical place it really is.  

N- no it's beautiful as well isnt it, a lovely place for tash to grow up.  

TORI - and we have our own studio there so the musicians fly in from america and it's very difficult for the record company to just breeze through!  

N - now tell us there's a rumour that you're in a new Julia Roberts film is that right.  

TORI - yes that's right, i was kind of summoned to come and play, its a small part, a cameo role of a big band singer, so i do songs that were written in the 40's, early 50's, and i worked with Trevor Horn which was just heaven, it was different for me but i enjoy that style of music.  

D - is it your first movie?  

TORI - um yeah that did anything yeah!  

(all laugh)  

N- you also dedicate a lot of your time to your charity its called rainn isn't it, tell us a little about that.  

TORI - its the rape and incest national network,  it's independently funded -  nothing from the government, and the idea is that you can call wherever you are  in the States and it's, it's like a hotline that will connect you to the closest rape crisis centre near you so that if you need to go in, and honestly if you are having problems say in Kansas you need to know what the laws of that state are, and lawyers can help, sometimes the kids are underage and the perpetrators in the family, and we've had over a million calls so, that's the sad news but the good news is that the service is there.  

D- and before we leave you what's next for you now?  

TORI - well i feel like this best of was kind of, even if tash plays this for her grandchildren and that's the only person that listens to it, i felt like i compiled a sonic autobiography of this woman called tori, that grew up at a time when i think there were a lot of hopes and dreams of a place called America, and now that it's at it's crossroads i sort of wanted to chronicle that for her and her grandchildren, and then next i dont know  

N - your way of telling your story to her, as your grandfather had told to you. Tori Amos what a pleasure to meet you, you're zipping down to cornwall now arent you.  

TORI - very soon yes to see her.  

D- send our love to tash  

N - great name, thank you  

Reports on the show from Toriphiles

From Colin Shaper:

Tori appeared on the Breakfast Show from 8:37 until 8:45.   The video of "Strange Little Girl" was played.   Interview touched on 1.Tori's background (diverse background of her parents). 2. Her hectic touring schedule. 3. Living in Cornwall. 4. Natashya - (note one of interviewers was Natasha Kapinski). 5.  The new album - Tori's "story" for Natashya to play to her children.