TORI AMOS
Myra Ellen Amos was born in North Carolina in 1963, the daughter of a Methodist minister and a homemaker. Amos' musical talent was evident from the beginning; she began playing piano at two-and-a-half, at four she was singing and performing in the church choir and by five she received an invitation to study piano at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Unwilling to follow the regimented "path" of classical piano study at Peabody, Amos was expelled from the conservatory at age 11. It was at this time that Amos discovered freeform rock music. She began writing her own songs and performing in local clubs and, by the time she was in her late teens, Amos (now calling herself Tori) moved to Los Angeles to follow her pop-star muse. Atlantic Records took notice and signed the then 24-year-old singer in 1987. She released an eponymous album with her hard-rock band, Y Kan't Tori Read, the following year. The album, however, was a commercial and critical disappointment and its failure sent Amos back to the musical drawing board. In 1992 she rebounded with her debut solo album, Little Earthquakes. The acclaimed CD contained 12 haunting, ultra-personal tracks; including the cut "Me and a Gun," on which Amos recounts the details of her own rape. In 1994 Amos released her second full-length, Under the Pink. In early 1998 Amos contributed a couple tracks to the Great Expectations soundtrack, returning later in the spring with her fourth full-length album, Songs From the Choirgi
TORI AMOS
