- I'm all right, everybody,
we're gonna get to my first guest.
And she is ready now, so let's get her in here.
She was one of the most iconic artists of the 90s,
when she was called the,
"Queen of Alt-Rock Angst" by Rolling Stone.
She sold more than 75 million albums worldwide.
Her latest is called, Such Pretty Forks in the Road.
It's out right now, I love it.
Let's say hi to Alanis Morissette, everybody!
- Hi!
- I'm literally such a big fan that they were talking to me
about the design for our backstage for this show.
And I wish that you were really at our show because (laughs)
I would have put you in your room,
because you and Annie Lennox are my first two.
She's one room in you're one room.
There's several different dressing rooms
and I'd have their vinyl of the person on the door
and it's called that room.
And you are one of my of my rooms, because--
- [Alanis] I'm so happy, I'm one of your rooms.
- [Kelly] (laughs) You're one of my rooms.
- What happens in those rooms though?
That's what I wanna know (laughs).
- It's so awesome.
It's a family show, it's not that bad.
- Please make me proud.
- (chuckles) There's not as cool
rock and roll stuff happening,
but anyway I have the, Jagged Little Pill.
But honestly, I know everybody
talks about Jagged Little Pill,
but I feel sometimes you're that writer that,
literally what people are thinking
or having a hard time with or struggling with,
it's like you put it, we can't make the words,
we can't get it out and you do it for us.
Some of us we write songs, we have fans
and da da da, you're on an epic scale.
Is that a lot of pressure when you release a record
and you're so vulnerable at it
and so raw and people are questioning,
oh, who's this about, what's this about?
Or, you know, what are you going through?
And is that, do you ever think
of that pressure or you just put it out?
- I felt a lot of pressure after the tour
for Jagged Little Pill finished
and it was time to write the followup.
And I remember going to a studio in Canada,
with my friend, Tim, when I was under the auspices of
starting to write again and I really didn't want to write,
it was that pressure buckle thing.
- Yeah.
- And I turned to him and I said,
I really don't want to write.
And he said, he was the only person,
'cause everyone else said, but your fans,
or you're gonna let everybody down,
everyone had an answer that was gonna
shame my needing some rest.
But then my friend, Tim, he just turned to me and he said,
well, let's just go get a sandwich.
(Kelly laughing hysterically)
It was the first time that the pressure
had been completely taken off.
We went and watched a movie, I think, grab some food.
And then when I came back, I wrote, of course,
the law is such that I wrote the first song for
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.
- Oh my God, which is another great album!
- (giggles) Thank you.
- That was so great. - Thank you.
The pressure, the pressure, you know?
I'm assuming you can relate?
Like every grocery store, when's the next record coming up?
When's the next record coming up?
- It's art, so you kinda have to wait
until you're inspired, right?
- Right, the receptivity has to,
it's almost like I show up, this is the filter.
So it siphons through my intellect.
But the main part is me being receptive and more yin.
And most of my life, I'm such an alpha.
And I'm in go, kind of lean forward mode.
When it comes to writing,
I have to sit back and just receive.
But then make sure I get it on tape.
It takes however, lifetime of living it and then for us,
or for me, it takes 10 minutes to write it or 15 minutes.
But whole lifetime of living it.
- Her new album is called Such Pretty Forks in the Road.
Great title!
This new album is very personal, you say, right?
You get into depression, hard emotions, hard conversations.
Did you have second thoughts about releasing that?
I know that you've always been a very open writer,
especially in this time
when everybody's kind of going through it,
did you have second thoughts about releasing it?
- No, actually I used to be terrified.
And the night before any release.
And then once it's out, time and time again,
it just became so normal to share
autobiographically and in a raw way.
Now I'm a lot less afraid,
and a lot of people have intimated that it takes so much
courage to write the way that I write.
But for me it takes courage to talk with people directly
and resolve conflict and bring up something tough
or stand up for myself or, whereas in a song,
I'm writing that alone in a room,
no one's watching me, no one cares.
I used to think I could get away with
just writing about it and then running away
and not having to deal with human beings (laughs).
But apparently that doesn't work.
- It's hard though, it's hard!
Especially when you have a lifetime of I'm imagining,
you're saying, in person it's a different thing.
That's probably took a while to become the bold person
and in person, not just in song, right?
- Right, people would hear the songs
and they'd imagine they were gonna meet someone
at the radio station or wherever it was.
And I would walk in and whatever I was being that day,
I might've been meek or quiet or more contemplative.
And I think their perception was that I was gonna come in
and just like rip everything down
and spray paint the walls and just (yells).
These days (chuckles), depends when you catch me at home.
(Kelly giggling)
I think my main goal over the last many years
has been to take the clarity and the empowered communication
that it takes to write a song and actually apply it
while sitting across from someone,
where the fight, flight, freeze kicks in,
when we're in conflict,
but it's not kicking in when we're writing.
When we're writing, there's this lucidity
and this flow and it feels like--
- And there's an openness
'cause you're alone in your own moment.
And sometimes I feel like artists,
we're always surrounded by people
and sometimes we do that and we choose that
and sometimes it just happens.
And so sometimes it's you're only solace,
it's your only place to go.
On your new album, there's a song called Smiling,
and I love it so much!
It's because it's not, I know a lot of people will say,
oh, that's for people in the limelight, it's not.
That's for people in any vocation.
Any part of your life, you can be having that moment
where it's like, I'm going through so much,
but I guess I'll keep smiling
since that's what everyone's expecting.
And I'm supposed to be fine.
- Especially as women too, right?
We're sort of, archetypally, it's almost like a
demand to be that hearth overseeing, nurturing,
just normal for us in our bodies,
but we're also applying ourselves
in this whole yang world too.
So for me it's all your different archetypes
that I love being the teacher, the mom, the artist,
the activist, the outspoken, the channeler,
all these different archetypes and just the hats.
I'm talking to you, you of all people know
the hats of mom and then producer.
Just going through all these different roles
and because of the sensitivity and the empath qualities,
I'm just so much more responsible
for making sure I can take breaks.
Even if it's hiding in a bathroom.
Carrying ear plugs with me, don't tell anybody.
(Alanis chuckling)
- No, no.
- I'm wearing them right now, no, just kidding.
(women laughing)
I'm reading your lips.
- I'm actually not listening to you.
- I can't hear a word you're saying, Kelly.
- (giggles) No, that's so true.
I've had this conversation with someone very close to me
and I'm like, I'm not trying to be rude,
when I pull out the ear buds and the music,
sometimes I'm not even playing anything.
- Right.
- I just want silence, I just want a moment to where I'm not
being talked at, or I don't feel like I'm having to engage.
'Cause I feel like not just our jobs, all jobs,
I feel like we're a society--
- Everybody, a society of on-ness, like the off.
I mean our nervous systems
were not meant to be in cortisol mode 24/7.
And we're actually chronic stress
in the way that we're all experiencing.
- Fight or flight, yeah. - Is traumatic.
- It's constant, I know.
Anyway, I'm such a fan and I did find out,
somebody told me that you had been to one of my shows
and I'm going to tell you if that's true,
I am so glad that no one told me you were there,
because I would have (beep) a Christmas turkey.
(women chuckling)
- When people come to my shows whom I adore, I'm like,
you specifically can't tell me because that's all
I'm gonna think about when I'm on stage (giggles).
- Oh, no one ever told me, not even after.
There's a strict policy on my door, I don't want to know
if anyone in the audience is, I don't care how famous,
I don't want to know.
'Cause it makes me nervous and I don't get nervous.
- When you're singing,
are you thinking of that person the whole time?
- That's what I'm saying!
- I did the musical for Jagged Little Pill
and a bunch of the beautiful, beautiful singers,
performers, portrayers, came to see my shows.
And unfortunately I'd find out
that they were in the audience before I was.
And their (laughs) the most beautiful singers.
- That's so much pressure!
- And I was just like, oh God.
Now I have to watch my pitch and hit all the right notes
and it was horrifying.
I learned my lesson probably the more challenging way,
which is my whole show gets kerfuffled if I know
someone's in the audience who's beautiful art I love.
- How is that though?
You have such a great catalog and you were such,
just a pop culture icon, that they did a whole musical.
Was that crazy?
- It was the first amount of objectivity
I've ever had on the songs, which was cool.
And then also collaboratively.
I've always felt that theater was this nomadic,
communal village thing, that as a solo artist,
it got pretty lonely on the road, just as a solo artist,
doing everything kind of alone.
And I know that bands and the Beatles and everyone
had their own challenges for being a group, I get it.
But being alone was a rough one.
- It's so hard. - Being in a community,
of people in the musical and Diablo Cody pulled all the
characters out of the songs themselves,
so there's this real kind of integration
between the music and the story.
And some people were afraid of some of the content
and I just called them and I said, I got this.
I will back anything up that we bring up that is scary.
And lord knows Diane, policy director, did tons of research
to be respectful in each category of challenge.
They did so much research and I did a little bit myself too.
- But I think it would be upsetting
to see something with your inspiration, your work,
and not see something raw and real and intimate
because it would be so opposite of you.
It seems like at least, musically speaking.
I don't know, I just think that you've achieved a whole
'nother level and they're like,
we want to make all a whole show about (laughs).
- Thank God it wasn't about me.
I'll do a one person play at some point or a musical play.
I have little flashes of it, do you have that?
Where for a long time, I just have images
or pictures of where I was going next.
And then sometimes it's fully blank screen
and I'm like, uh oh.
(Kelly chuckling)
- And then you're at Pretty Forks In The Road.
- And you know how great Americans are at living
in the question mark, we're not that great at it.
We're all being being asked to do it right now, right?
There's some pretty big limbo question marks.
So our bodies and our psyches we're in this,
we're in this frozen, flight place.
Depends like, again, it depends when you catch us.
- It's so much uncertainty,
I know it's a roller coaster for everyone.
It's so awesome to talk to you,
I'm so sorry I talked to your face off.
- I live for it, I live for it, you're so good.
- Aww okay okay. - You're so goodness.
- Aw, well everybody be sure to check out Alanis' new album
Such Pretty Forks in the Road, it's out now.
My favorite's Smiling, but whatever.