August 22, 1963
Old Catawba Hospital
Newton, North Carolina
Family Tug-of-War
Her father is a Methodist minister. He studied pre-med with plans for
becoming a physician.
On the father's side,
her grandparents, James and Addie Allen Amos, were both ordained ministers
with their lines coming from France and Scotland.
Her grandmother believed in "virgin's forever."
Her mother loves Nat King Cole and comes from a line of Cherokee Indian.
She has a gift for accurate premonitions
and dream interpretations which is a Cherokee ancestory gift.
She has a brother Mike and a sister Marie.
Tori learned about nature, dreams, and alternative medicine from her mother.
Her grandfather, Poppa, taught her Cherokee legends and beliefs.
With perfect pitch and voice, he sang to Tori since she was born.
Tori thought the world of Poppa. He taught Tori how to look at the world
differently. He told Tori to not "think like those people who have invaded
this [the US] continent".
"I always thought of them (her parents) as the 'bad' and 'good' sides.
It's like the concept of the mango -- dry and juicy." (SPIN 8/94:50)
As you can see, there is a big difference in the belief of both sides
of the family. It is no wonder that there is a great struggle heard
throughout Tori's music.
Ticking the Ivories
Tori started playing the piano at the age of two and a half
in Baltimore, Maryland.
After her older brother and sister finished practicing their piano lesson,
Tori would play the piano. Eventually she played classical pieces, and
could play any song she could pick up by ear.
At her young age, she took on some animated conversations, which accounts
for some of the facinating interviews that we read.
Music Rebellion (1968-1972)
She auditioned at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of Music and received
full scholarship and was the youngest amitted to the institution.
During her stay, she fell in love with the music of the Beatles,
Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix along with Mozart Beethoven, and Bartók.
Tori found that she was being taught a systematic way of learning music which
just just did not work. Tori had to bribe her brother and sister to play
the pieces, intended for sightreading, so that she could play it by ear.
To Maryland (1972-1973)
Moved to Silver Spring, Maryland. Her father was a pastor of a new church,
the Good Shepherd United Methodist.
Here Tori was constantly being judged on her music, but that did not stop
her from getting many trophies and honors.
Death's door (1973-1974)
Many other things happened during these years, but the most prominent was
the death of Poppa, January 1973. She played and sang his favorite hymns
at the funeral in North Carolina. Her mother says that, " she never
got over his death. He was the only person she ever completely respected.
She would go to his grave 3 times a week and sing to him until she was 13."
Then in December, Tori's grandmother died. Five months later they moved back
to North Carolina where an uncle died.
Tori also found out that her scholarship for the Peabody was not renewed and
since they were poor, she could not continue.
Bars and Staffs (1974-1984)
At age of twelve, Tori wrote a song called "More Than Just a Friend"
for a boy she had a crush on. The boy threatened to beat her up if she
played it in front of a school assembly. But after the event, he said that
it was better than he thought and she was not beaten up.
Her father tried motivating her to reaudition to the Peabody Institute.
TRYING to not letting the past rejection get to her, she prepared. But,
the Tori we know just had the devil within her. As a result, she played a
rendition of "I've Been Cheated". Needlesstosay, she was not
readmitted.
At this point, Tori's father became a strong support for getting Tori back
on her feet by getting a job playing the piano. During the summer of '77,
Tori got a job at Mr. Henry's (a gay bar). Then in August, she worked at
Mr. Smith's in the Tiffany lounge (provided that one of the parents were
present because of the law was not a high necessity for the owner).
Again, in June of 1978, they moved to another church. Tori became active
in many ways. She did severval school productions, directed children's choir
at her father's church, wedding gigs, government functions, and benefits at
the church.
Baltimore (1974-1984)
Tori cut her first single, cowritten with her brother Mike. The song was
written in honor of the city's baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles. The
single was releasing with the labeling of her initials, MEA.
The Real Me (1974-1984)
One night, one of Tori's friends, Linda McBride, came to hear her
play. Anyway, her boyfriend came and said, "Tori. Your name's Tori."
and Tori said that he was right and from that moment on, Ellen adopted the
name Tori.
Y Kant (1989-1989)
On September 10, 1984, Tori moved to Los Angeles. Tori set up a little
studio in a tiny apartment. In order to pay rent and other odds and ends,
Tori found herself in a commercial for Kellog's Just Right cereal.
After Christmas in Maryland, she went back to Los Angeles for a gig she had.
After the performance, a fanatic member
at the performance offered her a ride home and on the way he stopped and
rapped her. As years past, Tori watched Thelma and Louise and a flood
of memories came back. Afterwards, she sat outside of "Mean Fiddler"
in North London during the afternoon and wrote this song just before a gig
she had. As Tori does her tours, she always makes it a point to sing this
a capella song in hopes to reach out to women who share her same tragic
experience. During the years, Tori was able to form R.A.I.N.N. (Rape Abuse
Incest National Network). On May 16th of 1997, R.A.I.N.N. Day was held at
noon. During this day, most television and radio stations made a public
service announcement for R.A.I.N.N. (Various sources)
Atlantic Record took a notice to the the songwriter and her band,
Y Kant Tori Read. There
where too many outside opinions that eventually led to the band to be taken
apart.
Little Earthquakes (1989-1992)
Despite he result of this album, Atlantic decided to give Tori one more
chance. When the president, Doug Morris, listened to a few songs, he
asked, "What is this shit?". Tori was obviously not getting
very positive feedback from the president. She worked on a brand new set
of song.
Evidently, they did not think the music was good enough because Hence
Davitt Sigerson arrived at Tori's doorstep in order to help with the lyrics
and music. After a moment of listening to Tori's
Take to the Sky,
Leather, and a few other pieces, he
told Atlantic that she did not need help and to go along with the album.
After several weeks recording eleven songs, she waited and they rejected
the master tape.
In Eric Rosses home studio, Tori recorded
Girl,
Precious Things,
Tear in Your Hand, and
Little Earthquakes
since Tori's budget was gone.
Again, Tori was interrupted by Doug Morris from Atlantic, but after hearing
Girl, he gave them his blessing and nothing more.
Under the Pink (1993-1994)
-in construction-
Boys for Pele (1995-1996)
-in construction-
from the choirgirl hotel (1997-1998)
The album was recorded in Amos's 300-year-old Cornish barn,
which she converted into a studio with her new husband, the
album's engineer Mark Hawley [Q Magazine 4/1998]. The barn
is located in Cornwald, England, and was recorded during towards
the end of 1997. Tori says that she wrote a lot of it "in
the tropics" [ Mike Why's page].
Q/A
Where do you write your songs?
"I like writing in bathrooms. The acoustics can be great. You can
turn on the water, sing, and nobody can hear you."
(People Weekly; V45:1, p28,c1)
Tid-Bits
Tori believes in reincarnation.
Tori has a little wizard that hides in her piano at night.
"I get inspired by somebody, then I inspire somebody, and on and on, then
somebody comes back and inspires me again."
Tori uses Peroxide 30, with Clairol's Torrid's Torch Crimson to die her hair.
She says, "I do it myself, it cost me $3.70 once very five weeks, and then,
I use another color - Beautiful Red, and the color of Rosewood Brown."
Tori loved 'Haagen Daaz Coffee' ice cream.
In 1993, Tori owned less than 100 shoes.
Basquat was the most influential pianist of Tori. "He was big in the
early '80s, but dead now. Salvador Dali too, maybe more so. I love Dali."
(Upside Down #4)
Tori's Y Kant Tori Read band performed live only once and Tori wore a black cape at the show.
(Upside Down #4)
Tori was in a Kelloggs Corn Flakes TV commercial in 1985. She had long
braided hair and had to cut it for the commercial. She said that she looked
like a "yuppie", but she needed the money. The money helped to make
Little Earthquakes happen.
Tori DOES NOT have a cat named Easter.
Tori left the Madison, Wisconsin concert on 10/4/94 in an ambulance. She
was taken to University Hospital, and treated for chest pains and restricted
breathing. A condition called Costocondritis. Tori is fine now.
(Upside Down #5)
In less than nine months, Under the Pink sold over a million copies
in the United States.(Upside Down #5)