Phil Hamzik and Joshiieee tell me that the October 2004 issue of Blender Magazine includes a small photo of Tori and a question concerning Professional Widow.

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The small Tori photo appears next to a larger photo of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and their child Frances Bean. The Tori question appears in the reader question portion of Blender Magazine. The question is:

Is the Tori Amos song "Professional Widow" really about Courtney Love? Please say it is. (from Carla Larson, via email)

Ok, then: It is. The lyrics of the 1996 song -- which achieved an illustrious afterlife thanks to DJ Armand Van Helden's famed remix -- appear to concern a publicity-crazed woman who preys on her famous husband, keeping him sweet with heroin ("China white/Brown may be sweeter/She will supply") as her own power increases. So what makes you think it's about Love?

Diplomatic Tori has never categorically admitted Love is the inspiration for the unflattering number, but in '98 she said, "Let's put it this way -- Courtney and I have never spoken. We've never spken about it, and we've never spoken, and I think it's best kept that way. We have mutual friends. I don't want to put them in a bad position." So, one more time: Yes, it is about Courtney Love.