Tori Amos on overcoming sexism in the music biz: ‘I had to become the gladiator’
LOS ANGELES — When Tori Amos thinks of Los Angeles, she first recalls the distinctly manmade scent of Aqua Net hairspray.
“I’m ashamed to say it, but in those days, I had a can of Aqua Net in my handbag at all times,” says the singer-songwriter, 58. “I’d make my hair as high as I could and be ready to go.”
Hailing from a Southern Methodist family in Maryland, Amos moved to L.A. in 1984, when hair metal dominated the charts and the members of Mötley Crüe were the kings of the Sunset Strip.
She was only 5 when she began a course of study in classical piano at the Peabody Institute; yet by age 11, Amos, already corrupted by Led Zeppelin, was asked to leave the program over her reluctance to read sheet music. Her 1988 major-label debut, a work of synth-pop pastiche released sarcastically under the name “Y Kant Tori Read,” was met with scorching rejection by the press; a writer for Billboard described the record as “bimbo music.”
“In L.A., the worst disease you could get was failure,” Amos says over the phone from
