Tori appeared on radio station Alice 97.3 in San Francisco, CA on Tuesday, August 20, 2002 in the afternoon at 1:00PM PT. She was interviewed by DJ Sterling James and was also the guest DJ and spun some of her favorite songs for about an hour.

Tori played:

Lauren Hill "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You"
Stereo MCs "Connected"
Police "Roxanne"
Prince "Purple Rain"
St. Germain "Rose Rouge"
Tori Amos "God"
Tori Amos "A Sorta Fairytale"

Look below for descriptions of what Tori said and a partial transcript of her interview courtesy of Ursula Kirkland. Tori made some interesting comments about her upcoming concert tour. She said her tour would most likely start in November, tentatively on the east coast and be on the west coast come December. (Can she tour the entire U.S. in one month?) Earlier we thought the tour would start out west, but that seems unlikely now. The tour will just be her, Jon Evans and Matt Chamberlain. I find it amazing that Tori may not have a guitar player on this tour!

You can now see photos of Tori from this interview at the Alice web site! I have included one of the photos below!

Partial Transcript

Here is a partial transcript of the interview (about half) from Ursula Kirkland:

(Lauren Hill "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You")

Tori: [introduces herself something to the effect of "That was Lauren Hill and this is Tori Amos on Alice 97.3"]

Sterling James ("SJ"): This is your radio station now, sister!

Tori: Oh boy.

SJ: Mmm hmm. Do with it whatever you will.

Tori: Well, we're going to be playing some songs that I love personally and umm I don't know.I've never done this before so you gotta help me through.

SJ: Well I do this for a living, so take my hand my dear.

SJ: First of all may I just welcome you. It's truly a pleasure to have you here.

Tori: Truthfully I love being in San Francisco.

SJ: Why?

Tori: Oh I love it. I just love it. I'd love to live here but I don't know why it just never happened to me.it hasn't happened to me yet but I'd love to live here. It's just the greatest.

SJ: You would certainly be welcomed with open arms. You have a huge, huge, huge fan base here in the Bay Area and San Francisco.

Tori: Well here you all get good coffee, which is very important to me.

SJ: Yes, good coffee.

SJ: Good restaurants

Tori: Good bookstores

SJ: Good dance clubs, good record stores, good performing venues that you can come and play anytime.

Tori: Liberal community. Hooray!

SJ: Hooray and happy birthday to you. Your birthday is Thursday?

Tori: You know I forgot about that until you told me.

SJ: You forgot about your own birthday?

Tori: Yeah, I did.

Tori: But see, I'm planning my daughter's birthday, which is in two weeks.

SJ: Oh, happy birthday baby.

Tori: Yeah she's gonna be two. A costume party.

SJ: Oh my gosh. It's been two years?

Tori: Almost two years yeah.

SJ: Oh my gosh.

Tori: We're almost potty trained.

SJ: Yay! Yay for potty training!

Tori: She's so great, yeah.

SJ: What is her name?

Tori: Natashya

SJ: Natashya. And she's home?

Tori: She's home with her daddy.

SJ: Mmm hmm.and you've got new album coming out: another baby.

Tori: Another baby

SJ: We're gonna hear a little bit of that but right now you're going to introduce the next song. It's the one on the list here.

Tori: Is that the one next down? Ok.

SJ: Now hold on.Let's do this, give you a little music band here: Go Tori, go ahead
it's Alice at 97.3 with Tori Amos.

Tori: This song always works late at night for me. Stereo MCs

(Stereo MCs "Connected")

(giggling)

SJ: Go ahead.

Tori: I get shy.

SJ: You're not shy.

Tori: I do love that. I do love that at night that song really. You know, when you're with somebody beautiful at night like your husband.

SJ: Getting connected.

TA: Mmm. Mmm hmm.

SJ: So who was that miss new DJ on Alice at 97.3?

Tori: Well I know who's coming up. I want to talk about this: I've just seen this naked picture of this man. I didn't know you had a thing for this man?

SJ: This is Tori Amos on Alice at 97.3 taking over the radio station. Now we're going to talk about naked pictures of Sting. Yeah, I have a photograph on my folder here of naked Sting and but but blank naked I mean literally wearing no clothes I mean covered with mud.

Tori: Completely. Yeah completely naked yes.

SJ: Well he's he's hot! He's aged well.

Tori: He has aged well.

SJ: Mmm hmm. I think it's the yoga.

Tori: Is it?

SJ: Yeah, what do you know of yoga?

Tori: I don't know anything about it

SJ: Do you dibble do you dabble?

Tori: I've dabbled in people who dabble in it.

SJ: (laugh) Oh!

Tori: It's not what I do. I mean maybe I'm really lazy and I wish I could be into it because I see how people live by doing it, but I just rather just sit in the corner and read a book.

SJ: You know my thing is if I'm not moving and my eyes are closed, I'm asleep.

Tori: Really?

SJ: Yeah, if I'm breathing, eyes closed, I'm, I'm not um.I'm asleep. I'm not trying to stretch or do yoga or find my inner self. I'm, I'm knocked out asleep. That's my world. What's up with your world, Tori Amos?

Tori: Well my world is I guess.um.a hermit world.

SJ: Mmm hmm?

Tori: And I live in the sticks with my baby and my husband and my crew.

SJ: And you love it.

Tori: And we love it yeah. We're like a stationary bus. Our house is like a stationary road bus where the crew comes in and out and uh, it's.It's.I don't know it's busy. It's a revolving door in our house.

SJ: So you want to get out more? I mean when you mention it that way it's like - are you trying to say that you want to change things?

Tori: I think what I'm saying is we've decided that the crew, when they come - We're building a place in the back so that if if they're partying it all night because you know they're Europeans a lot of them, and if - they have a different outlook on partying. They can go like, in ways I never knew a human being could go, and I've got a little two year old and there's just a - there's just a place for that and I think it's in the back, in the back barn.

SJ: Build a little barn in the back for the boys.

Tori: Yeah that's right.

SJ: Alright Tori we're going to play a little Sting and the Police now. Do you want to introduce this one?

Tori: Always loved this - always loved this woman they were singing about. I dreamed about her just because.I've always liked women like this.

SJ: So who is it?

Tori: She's Roxanne.

SJ: It's the Police.

TA: Yeah.

SJ: Tori Amos is on Alice at 97.3

("Roxanne" by the Police)

Tori: So this is one of my favorite artists of all time.umm. Is this the one is this the one, or is he coming?

SJ: You want to play the one? No no no, I've got it ready for you.

Tori: Is he coming?

SJ: Yeah. Tell everybody who you are and who they're listening to.

Tori: I'm Tori Amos and when I saw this movie, um I was in a little movie theatre I think in Rockville MD or Gaithersburg MD and I saw him onscreen and I sat there I couldn't move. I couldn't move for hours and he just.It changed my life on how to be a performer.

SJ: Mmm hmm. And who is he?

Tori: Well he's the one and only. He's Prince.

("Purple Rain" by Prince)

Tori: Hey everybody you're here on Alice I'm Tori Amos and this is Sterling

SJ: What's up Tori?

Tori: This is really different Sterling. I don't know how you do it but it's fun.

SJ: The world of DJing is different than the world of being a musician, songwriter, singer?

Tori: Oh yeah.

SJ: Yeah, in what way?

Tori: Well because we get to practice and practice and practice.

SJ: Whereas we're just adlibbing monsters and hope that we make some kind of sense now and again.

Tori: Well it's one of those things where that in front of a lot of people you get to fall over your tongue. You know, it's tricky.

SJ: What happens when you fall over your tongue when you perform live? Do you ever?

Tori: Well it's a little different because you know the songs inside out. They're your babies. And this is just thinking of stuff in front of loads of people and they know you're having a brain fart.

SJ: I'm sure if you screw up though you can just throw your head back and laugh and your audience would just love you even more for being real.

Tori: Oh yeah, but.You want to do a good job, you know. You want to do a good job.

Toriphiles describe the interview and what Tori played!

From Sarah A. Perry:

Tori came on the air about 1:10pm PST. Sterling the dj cohosted with her, and they started out talking about living in SF and Tori said she would like to live in SF. They talked about Tash's second birthday...it's going to be a costume party in two weeks. Tori also said that Tash is almost potty trained and she is at home with dad right now. Then Tori played her first song by the Stereo MC's "Connected" is the title I believe. Tori said this song 'works for me late at night' when she is with someone beautiful like her husband.

After that song they talked about yoga and Tori said she isn't much into it. She talked about her house and 'hermit life' of living in what she described as a 'sationary road bus' because the crew is always coming and going. She said they are building a place for the crew in the barn in the back of her house.Then Tori talked about how she and Sterling love Sting and then they played Roxanne. Tori said she 'loved this woman' referring to Roxanne and that she 'dreams about her'.

After Roxanne, Tori said this is her favorite artist of all time and the first time she saw him was in some theatre in Rockville Maryland and whe she saw him she couldnt' move for hours afterwards...she is of course referring to Prince and then they played Purple Rain, the whole long album version.

They come back to Tori and Sterling discussing the difference between live radio and live performances and Tori said that with live radio she is 'tripping over her tongue'. They talked about how the fans call out to her during performances and she has 'a chat' and it's great. Tori said on live radio she has 'brain farts'. LOL! Then they took a phone call from PHIL, he asked if tori was touring soon (duh) and she said yes and that she would be in SF in December. She said the tour would be only her, the piano, jon evans and Matt chamberlain doing som 'rythmic things with the new record'. They went to the next caller and Tori said her favorite number was 7 so they picked up that line and that was Dorina. She wanted to know about tour dates (UGH! can't we be any more creative here???) and tori said that they were working around the 'rockettes and the nutcracker' then she said how the record starts west and is scarlett's walk east. however she said the tour was starting on the east coast but this could all change tomorrow.

Then before a commercial break, tori is talking about the next song she is going to play and this song got her into the piano room and really got her 'moving' with the Bosse.

****commercials****

Tori askes sterling if she has a love cause she is glowing. and they talked about that. tori says that rythm is a big part of her life and she dreams of being a drummer or bass player. she said this really sensual thing about the players touching their skins and i don't remember is all but she made sterling say 'you are making me hot!'.

tash is drawn to drums and takes matts sticks .she said "where is the big drum"???

tori said if she could play another instrument she thinks about that and then takes it to the bosse. she said that the bosse is nine foot one and she is big.

"bosse likes being big, she swallows it"

Rose Rouge by saint jermaine plays. tori says saint jermaine french. what a hot song! it's a jazzy tune with horns and big cymbals...loved it.

they come back to sterling asking tori if we can play her songs and they play god.

they come back and sterling asks tori how long it's been since she's heard that song because she kind of wrapped her hands around her earphones and listed intently for a few moments...and tori said a 'long long long long time'. and that she plays things live all the time but doens't listen to the album cuts much. then they move onto the new stuff and tori describes a sorta fairytale. she says it's about being on the 101 on your way to san francisco. she said 'how can you not fall in love on the 101?'. she says it's about two people who fall inlove on 101 and look at each other and say 'let's go to the desert and crawl inside each other'. they head into new mexico and get involved in the voodoo and you find out that 'you are not my fantasy'. then she said that 'i don't know if you ever fall out of love' and that 'you have more than one soul mate'. sterling introduces the song and tori says 'this is tori amos going under' and she laughs.

they play sorta fairytale. god, i really love that song the more i hear it.

they come back and talked about the lyric 'i could taste heaven perfectly' and sterling starts gushing about how beautiful and lyrical tori is and she kind of gets stuck trying to say how she is feeling...kind like all of us when we finally get to meet tori! :-) then they say how great it was on the air blah blah blah and tori says that last song 'always gives her a giggle' and she said 'come out and see us' when they get into town and the last thing she said was 'see you soon'. then they played radiohead creep. she signed off about 1:57pm.

SHE IS SO FANTASTIC! she sounded really well and excited to talk about the new album. i get the feeling this will be a very special tour...

Sorry for the typos and the lack of punctuation at the end but i'm on my lunch break and was typing on the laptop as tori talked! :-)

From Fourseraphs:

As you know, Tori appeared on Alice today, where she was the guest dj from 1 P.M. to 2 P.M., essentially meaning that she got to pick the tracks for the hour. Tori chose Stereo MCs (I don't know which song), The Police (Roxanne), Prince (Purple Rain), St. Germain (Rose Rouge), and Radiohead (Creep), but between St. Germain and Radiohead, the main dj, Sterling James, chose to play Tori's "God," and also played "A Sorta Fairytale." In addition to the song pick-and-choose, Sterling interviewed Tori on several topics. I can't remember any order, so in no coherent order, this is what I remember of the Q&A:

-Tori would love to live in San Francisco. She and Sterling tossed out reasons why: good coffee, good book stores, good dance clubs, liberal community, etc.

-Tori talked about Natashya and how things were going back home. She described her home as a "stationary tour bus," with road crew members coming in and out and partying inhumanly. Because of Natashya, she's decided to build an extension outside the house meant solely for the crew, so they can party in peace away from the main house.

-A fan called in asking about Tori and Tori's touring the country starting west and heading east, but Tori corrected her, saying that's the direction of the ALBUM, and most likely, for the tour, she will start east in November and head west, seeing as how she plans to hit San Francisco in December. Then again, she said "this could all change tomorrow." This throws a kink into earlier speculations of her tour! Also, Tori mentioned playing with Jon Evans and Matt Chamberlain, and spoke about "the three of us." She said NOTHING of a guitarist. I can't wait to see what this means!

-Tori commented that Sterling was absolutely glowing and asked if she was in love. Sterling then said she and her rhythm section boyfriend just bought a house. Tori and Sterling then began to talk about rhythms and how Tori thinks of the piano as a percussive instrument. Tori also mentioned a cute tidbit about Natashya loving the drums and moving her body to the rhythm, and when Chamberlain was there, she took the sticks, and asked, "Where's the BIG drum?"

-Before playing "A Sorta Fairytale," Tori and Sterling talked about its background. Tori said it was about driving on the 101 from LA to San Francisco, and falling in love with the person you're with.

-Tori also made comments on some of the songs before introducing them. Before introducing the Police, she noticed Sterling had a picture of a naked, muddy Sting, and they speculated that Yoga was the reason why he aged so beautifully. Before introducing Prince, she talked about seeing his movie years ago, and how she "couldn't move for hours" in her seat when she saw him, and he changed her as a performer. Before introducing St. Germain, she said she played him a lot in the studio while recording Scarlet's Walk, because it drew her to the Bose. Lastly, before she left, she introduced Radiohead's "Creep" as a song that always makes her "giggle."

From Ursula Kirkland:

They talked about Tash's birthday coming up, drummers, A Sorta Fairytale, and someone called in asking when the tour was going to start, and Tori said they're still finalizing and that she even doesn't know all the details. A caller (Doreena) tried to verify that it was going to start on the West Coast, but Tori said that no, though the album started West to East, the tour would start on the East Coast. She said she'd see us (meaning the Bay Area) in December. She also mentioned that it was tough booking the venues with trying to work around Christmas (the Nutcracker and the Rockettes already have the good venues).

From Liddy:

She played Lauren Hill, Stereo MCs, Prince (Purple Rain), (song title): Rose Rouge, and Radiohead (creep).  she said the tour starts in November, possibly on the East coast, and that she'll be back in SF in December.

From Danielle Vacchio:

Tori Played these songs she said they were all her favorites!

Stereo Mc's "make sure your connected the writings on the wall" song.......she said she likes this one late at night with her hubby!!!!!!!!!!

The Police "Roxanne"

Prince "Purple Rain"

From Woj:

there's a setlist and photos from tori's alice appearance available now at <url: http://www.radioalice.com/ >. during the appearance, tori said that the current plan was to start the tour in november, tentatively on the east coast and be on the west coast come december. the tour will just be her, john evans and matt chamberlain.

From redstamen:

first song is can't take my eyes off of you covered by lauren hill --

sterling james is the interviewer/dj. she was a great match for tori.

tori begins by saying she loves SF..she would love to live here...good coffee, bookstores, a nice liberal community

sterling wishes her a happy birthday, and tori says she forgot she was having a bday, because she's been planning her daughter's birthday party. introduces stereo mc's "connected" and says it "works late at night."

tori talks about a gorgeous naked picture of sting that the dj has, and about yoga. the dj asks her if she's dabbled in yoga, and tori says "no, but i've dabbled in people who've dabbled in yoga." talks about being a hermit and a mother and having crazy europeans partying in the barn.

then she introduces "roxanne" by the police, saying she likes "her." (Roxanne the character, i think)

introduces prince's "purple rain" saying that she's never been the same after seeing him in the movie.

she takes a call from a fan, who asks about when tickets will be on sale. she doesn't know, but said they'll be starting the tour in november, with a december show in sf. it'll be the piano, matt and jon only! just the three of them doing some rhythm stuff.

then dorena from the forums called in and asked about the tour.

tori says it'll be starting on the east coast, but that it could change tomorrow. apologizes for not knowing for sure.

intro's st. germain's "rose rouge" by saying it's very rhythmic and is something that brings her to the bosey.

dj sterling insists on playing some tori, and so she introduces "god" and calls it "gritty" and made this sexy growl sound. she is obviously a tori fan :)

after the song, sterling comments on how intently tori was listening to "god" and tori reveals that it'd been a long time since she'd heard god.

then tori talks about ASF, about the drive from la to sf on the 101, how it's the kind of drive that you fall in love with the person you're with, then something happens and you go to the desert spontaneously,and get into voodoo, and then "he" looks at you and realizes that you're not his fantasy. sterling asks if she's talking about falling out of love. tori kinda laughs, and says she thinks she's getting in deep. then she admits that she thinks you may have more than one soulmate, and that's why it's a "sorta" fairytale.

ASF starts playing.

then they start wrapping up and tori intro's a song that always "gives her a giggle:" "Creep" by Radiohead

it was a really great, laidback, fun interview/play session.

From Jeremy Womack:

I've never wrote or posted before, but am a huge fan of the DENT. I went down to Alice studio's in San Francisco today around 11am. I was expecting a huge mass of people, there were only 3 (plus me). It was going to be a day I will never forget for as long as I live. The people I ran into were Stacy, Elizabeth, and her boyfriend(I forget his name). We all got to meet and talk with Tori(who looked amazingly beautiful). I took several pics of Tori alone and with us. She was so giving. I also just checked the RADIOALICE.com website & they have posted pics from inside the studio today (which are beautiful).

From Kim Westervelt:

Sterling wished Tori a happy birthday, Tori said she had forgotten about that, was too busy planning Tash's bday party, a costume party, and that Tash was at home with her daddy. She introduced Stereo MCs Connected, saying that it works for her late at night.

I missed the Sting conversation because of the buffering in and out...

Right before Tori played "Purple Rain" by Prince she said that this was one of her favs of all time, and that years ago she saw this movie at a small theater in maryland and she saw him up on the screen and couldnt move for hours.

Then they talked about Tori's audience and how she gets feedback at concerts...call things out to her and she responds..etc..

Someone named Bill called in and welcomed Tori to the "Alice Family." He asked about when the tour tickets will be available. She mentioned that she was not well informed, (she basically just shows up she said) and that the tour starts in Nov, she will be in Cali in December. She apologized, she said "I dont know anything." Tori mentioned that Jon and Matt will be with her, doing rhythm things.

They took another call, it was Dorena from the forumz, she asked about tour dates, Tori said that she would be starting on the east coast, they are working around the x-mas schedule. She said she really didnt know, things could change tomorrow. She apologized, called herself crap, the DJ goes, "no no tori, you are not crap!" Tori says something like geez, I am apologizing to like 70,000 people right now. Tori mentioned that the next song (St. Germain?) she was listening to while doing SW, said that SW is very rhythmic

She talked about Tash, how she loves the drums..hangs out with Matt and says.."what's that?" (to the big drum). Tash wants the big drum, likes playing drums and Tori loves it (she said she's in heaven that Tash likes the drums). Tori is in love with rhythm...Scarlets Walk is all about the rhythm. She said that with the Bosey, its about rhythm but also about tone. Plays St. Germain song..

I missed the conversation surrounding playing "God"

Tori talked about ASF (intro to playing it), repeated the whole thing about the drive up the 101, then talked about falling in love, she believes that we have more than one soulmate.

After ASF, the dj said "you are so very..i dont want to say lyrical cause that's so...well you are thoughtful and beautiful (Tori calls herself "delusional") and i love having you here."

Then they were wrapping things up, Tori introduces Radiohead's Creep, saying that it "gives me a giggle."

I hope this helps...this is what i got....wrote down notes while i was listening.