5 Things You May Not Have Known About Tori Amos

Today we celebrate the birthday of Tori Amos, and to do so, we’re offering up a list of five things which you may or may not have known about the piano-playing singer-songwriter. And, yes, you may recall that we offered up five such things a couple of years ago, but you may rest assured that it wasn’t nearly as hard to find five more things as you’d think.

1.    She’s not a natural redhead.

As if that really matters when it comes to her music, right? But given how front and center her red mane has been to her image since she was still fronting Y Kant Tori Read, it’s still at least a little bit surprising to learn that she’s actually a brunette by birth.
    
2.    When she was in high school, she was the homecoming queen.

Based on the interview she did for Seventeen, however, she still seems to be less than thrilled about having that accolade in her history at Richard Montgomery High School. Before admitting it, she said, “Please don’t hate me for this,” and afterwards she explained, “I’ve always said all the nerds voted for me.”

3.    She really was a cornflake girl.

One of the most frequently offered excuses by artists when confronted with ridiculous things they did early in their career is “I was young, I needed the money,” and while we’ve never actually read or seen an interview where Tori talked about doing this commercial for Kellogg’s Just Right cereal, we’d expect her explanation to fall right in line with that standard explanation.

4.    When she asked Trent Reznor to sing on “Past the Mission,” she did so at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles.

If the address doesn’t ring a bell, that’s probably for the best, because it means you’re not very well versed in the Manson family murders. If you are, however, then you’ll recognize that address as the location of the house where Sharon Tate and her unfortunate circle of friends became part of the so-called “Helter Skelter” saga. Knowing its history, Tori later admitted that it gave her a weird feeling being there, one caused “not in the way it looks, but just because you know what it is.”

5.    She was going to be involved in the film Natural Born Killers in some capacity.

In a 1994 interview with Melody Maker, Tori revealed that Stone had heard LITTLE EARTHQUAKES and wanted to use a few songs from the album in the movie, and since she was a Stone fan, she agreed to meet him for dinner. Although she was additionally tempted by the fact that Patti Smith was supposed to be in the film, a plan which failed to materialize, Tori ultimately rejected the request because “there are layers to my songs (and) I didn't know if there were any layers to his film." There is also a recurring claim that Stone wanted Tori to play Mallory, the role which eventually went to Juliette Lewis, but that Stone wanted “Me and a Gun” to be playing whenever Mallory killed someone and, being as Tori wrote the song about her own rape, she reportedly slapped him. We’ve never actually seen an interview where Tori confirms this, however, so we’re chalking it up to urban legend.