Tori Amos: “I wrote my first song when I was three”
Tori Amos has spoken about her formative musical experiences, her very early start in songwriting and the story behind her stage name in a new interview with Reader’s Digest magazine.
Amos revealed: “No one taught me how to play the piano. It’s just something I was able to do from a young age. Somehow I sat at the keyboard and I was playing it, without knowing why or how. People would act surprised, like, ‘What’s happening?’ but when you’re a child and you can do something, you don’t think, ‘How did that happen?’ I must have been two-and-a-half when I started and I never questioned it. I wrote my first song when I was three. I can’t recall what it was called or what it was about but writing and playing were like breathing to me.”
The US-born singer – whose real name is Myra Ellen Amos – went on to explain to the magazine how a twist of fate resulted in her choosing her stage name, “I was around 17 and it was just before I began sending demos out to record companies. Then a friend of mine brought along some guy she was dating to see me perform and he said, ‘You’re a Tori’. I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Then someone in the bar said that it was either a pine tree or a political party in England and I went, ‘I’m going with the pine tree.’ So I was no longer Myra Amos, I was Tori Amos.”
Amos – who released her sixteenth studio album, Ocean To Ocean, in October 2021 – will tour the UK and Ireland next month.
TORI AMOS UK AND IRELAND 2022 TOUR DATES
Friday 11 March – London, Palladium
Saturday 12 March – London, Palladium
Monday 14 March – Glasgow, O2 Academy Glasgow
Tuesday 15 March – Manchester, O2 Apollo
Thursday 17 March – Cork, Opera House
Friday 18 March – Dublin, Olympia