Tori Amos/Trivia


 * Creator Breakdown - "Me and a Gun" is about her rape, "Toast" was the result of her brother's death, Boys for Pele was the result of a bad breakup, and from the choirgirl hotel was the result of her miscarriage(s).
 * "1000 Oceans" was written after her husband's father died.
 * Creator Couple - The albums that Eric Rosse co-produced are considered Tori's best by critics.
 * Dye Hard - She's actually a brunette, but her dyed red hair is one of her trademarks. Although now she wears an orangey wig (at least in performances).
 * Now she stopped wearing wigs, and her real hair is currently orange-red.
 * It's still a wig, it's just of a much higher quality.
 * Executive Meddling - When she first submitted Little Earthquakes to her record company, they didn't like it and made her record more songs. Then they wanted to remove some songs from her soon-to-be debut. This is one of those cases where the executives unknowingly helped, since the second batch of songs Tori recorded were fan-favorites "Tear In Your Hand" and "Precious Things". They also wanted to replace the piano with guitars, since Grunge was popular at the time. Fortunately, Tori didn't let that happen.
 * They also rejected her first video for "Cornflake Girl" (which ended up being released overseas) and made her film a new video. The US version featured the defining visual of Tori on a merry-go-round, singing the chorus of the song.
 * Fan Community Nicknames - Fans of Tori call themselves Toriphiles and/or Ears With Feet, since Tori herself doesn't like the term "fan". She even made up the "ears with feet" term in 1996.
 * Old Shame - She fronted a synth-pop band called Y Kant Tori Read (also featuring Cult/GNR/Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum) that released a single self-titled record in 1988. The record label stopped promoting it after two months, Tori had fired the entire band except one member by the time the first video was shot, and Tori has acted like it never existed, with good reason.
 * Actually, Tori seems to have reconciled herself with the album, to the extent that she occasionally plays songs from the album live (particularly "Etienne" and "Cool on Your Island"). This may be an example of an artist reconciling with Old Shame. As for the badness of the album, opinions differ widely; some folks think it's abysmal, while others find it kind of charming in a synth-poppy, "80s hard rock meets Kate Bush" kind of way.
 * Oh, let's not forget that cereal commercial she did back in the 80's, when she was young and needed the money.
 * One of Us - She is a huge comic book fan. It's not much of a surprise when you take her relationship with Neil Gaiman and Comic Book Tattoo into account.
 * The Mr. Sulu/Warp speed" lyric in "In the Springtime of His Voodoo" further qualifies her.
 * What Could Have Been - Tori wanted to cover "Fear of a Black Planet" by Public Enemy, "Hoover Factory" by Elvis Costello, "Marlene Deitrich's Favorite Poem" by Peter Murphy, and a harpsichord version of "I'm Sick of You" by Iggy Pop for Strange Little Girls. She didn't cover "Black Planet" and "Hoover Factory" because she couldn't find a way to remake them in time. Tori didn't cover "Favorite Poem" because she felt that Peter Murphy had already taken the point of view she would've taken. Lastly, she didn't cover "Sick of You" because the harpsichord wasn't ready in time, and she didn't feel like doing it when it was. Whether these would've been more interesting covers than the ones on the album is unknown.
 * Tori originally wanted to change her name to Sammy Jay. Thankfully, a friend's boyfriend at the time told her that "she looked like a Tori". The rest is history.
 * "Honey" was originally meant to be on Under the Pink, but Tori replaced it with "The Wrong Band" at the last minute. She has expressed regret for it ever since.
 * What would've happened if Y Kant Tori Read became successful?