News: New York Post Interview (May 17, 2009)

I’m fascinated by people’s definitions of sin. Sometimes I think the greatest sin is intolerance of other people’s choices. There isn’t the compassion and openness you think there would be in a spiritual belief system.

This short interview appeared in the May 17th edition of the New York Post. After talking at length about the song “Maybe California,” they move onto the album and her upbringing.

Thanks to franco franus for the link!

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UNDER THE INFLUENCE
TORI AMOS SINGS OF SUICIDAL STRANGERS

By LARRY GETLEN
Posted: 1:32 am
May 17, 2009

IT’S no surprise that Tori Amos would title her new CD, out Tuesday, “Abnormally Attracted to Sin.” While not one to shock solely for shock’s sake, Amos has always been emotionally provocative in her willingness to bare her soul, from 1991’s “Me and a Gun,” which recounted her real-life rape, to songs on 1998’s “From the Choirgirl Hotel” that dealt with her miscarriages. Amos called The Post from London to discuss the new CD.

You offered a free download of “Maybe California” as a “Mother’s Day gift.” What’s the tie-in?

The song came out of the story of a mom who thought that if she took herself out of the picture, then maybe it could all move on. She was willing to make that sacrifice. It touched me in a very deep way. It’s not the only time I heard these kinds of crazy thoughts — that if I take myself out of the equation, they’ll have to give him a job because he’ll be the only parent left, and it’ll all be OK. But it won’t be, because you’ll be gone.

So this was a mother who had contemplated killing herself, and told you about how she changed her mind?

She was contemplating it — in the midst of it.

Someone you know personally?

People come up to me. I don’t know them. They tell me their stories.

Did you keep in touch?

I never saw her again.

Why did you choose “Abnormally Attracted to Sin” as the album title?

I’m fascinated by people’s definitions of sin. Sometimes I think the greatest sin is intolerance of other people’s choices. There isn’t the compassion and openness you think there would be in a spiritual belief system. I was aware, as a minister’s daughter, what the title would evoke, and that sometimes women are torn between their spiritual side and their sexual side.

Were your parents super-strict?

My dad was. But that was a time when some fathers were very controlling because they were coming out of World War II, and the idea of the Church was that a woman gives her soul to God and her body to her husband. I’ve never agreed with that nonsense. I’ve been encouraging my daughter about sovereignty — the idea that she is her own person, and has her own choices to make.