Amos was the third child of Rev. Dr. Edison and Mary Ellen Amos, born at the Old Catawba Hospital in Newton, North Carolina, during a trip from their home in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.). Her parents were of Cherokee, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. When Amos was 2, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and at nine started to add lyrics to her pieces.

In 1968, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music. At age five, she was the youngest person ever to attend the school. At age 11, her scholarship was discontinued and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music. Two years later, she began studying at Montgomery College and began playing at piano bars, chaperoned by her father, who was sending tapes of songs she had written to record companies.

She first came to local notice by winning a county Teen Talent contest in 1977, singing a song called "More Than Just a Friend". By the time she reached high school, she was well known in the Washington, D.C. area. During her years at Richard Montgomery High School, she was elected Homecoming Queen, Most Likely to Succeed, Most Talented, and Best All-Around. She also became involved with Black Masquers, the school's drama group. As a high school senior, Amos co-wrote "Baltimore" with her brother Mike Amos for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. The song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7" single pressed locally for family and friends during 1980 with another Amos-penned composition as a b-side, "Walking With You". At around this time she adopted the name "Tori" after a friend told her that she looked more like a Tori than a "Myra Ellen".

Even before Amos was eighteen, she had been compared to Kate Bush in regard to singing style and other musical tendencies. However, at that time, Amos didn't even know who Bush was. Later on she would buy her first Kate Bush album and discover her music.

At age 21, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career after several years performing on the piano bar circuit of the East Coast. While there she managed to get several acting jobs, including a Kellogg's Just Right cereal commercial (for which role she beat out a then-unknown Sarah Jessica Parker). In 1985, after playing in a bar one night, she gave a ride home to a regular customer at the establishment who sexually assaulted her, an experience that would later be revisited in her song "Me and a Gun". She also met Steve Caton, who would later play guitars on her albums through 1999's To Venus and Back.

That same year, Amos formed a music group, Y Kant Tori Read, coming up with the name as a reference to her days at the Peabody conservatory, where she was able to play songs on her piano simply after hearing them once, but was never able to get the hang of reading and playing from sheet music. Besides Amos, the group was composed of the aforementioned Caton, drummer Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and keyboardist Jim Tauber (for a short time). A year later, Atlantic Records gave Amos a six-record contract. In 1987 she appeared in the courtroom soap opera Trial by Jury as Carrie Hadler, a woman accused of killing her married lover with sex. (Clips would later be shown in the VH1 program "Before They Were Stars".) In July 1988, the band's debut album Y Kant Tori Read was released and was widely panned by critics and snubbed by mainstream audiences, leaving Amos dejected and humiliated. After the flop, Amos began working with other artists (including Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo, Sandra Bernhard, and Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist. She also recorded a song called "Distant Storm" for the film China O'Brien; in the credits, the song is attributed to a band called "Tess Makes Good" with "additional vocals by Ellen Amos."

Although Amos often voices embarrassment concerning Y Kant Tori Read, she has performed various songs from the album live in concert. The album is now out of print.

Despite the disappointing reaction to Y Kant Tori Read, Amos still had to comply with her six-record contract with Atlantic Records, who in 1989 wanted a new record by March 1990. When she presented them with her initial recordings, they were rejected on the grounds that the "girl and a piano thing" was not going to sell records in an early-'90s market of grunge, rock, rap, and dance music. Extensively reworked and expanded with the help of Steve Caton, Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor, Carlo Nuccio, and Dan Nebenzal, the record ended up full of raw, emotive songs recounting her religious upbringing, sexual awakening, struggle to establish her identity, and her sexual assault. The Atlantic executives changed their minds upon hearing the edited version, with the plan to promote her as an heir to Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro, or alternatively as a female version of Elton John. Expecting the traditionally more open-minded UK market to warm to Amos and to create a "buzz" with which to return to the US, Atlantic relocated Amos to England in early 1991 to play small clubs in preparation for the launch of the new album, which was released under the title Little Earthquakes.

During this period, Amos befriended author Neil Gaiman, who became a fan after she referenced him in the song "Tear In Your Hand" and also in print interviews. The character Delirium from Gaiman's The Sandman series (or even her sister Death) is allegedly based on Amos; Gaiman has stated that "they steal shamelessly from each other" (the character was actually created before the two met). Gaiman would go on to become a long-time friend and collaborator. His 2006 tribute album from Ferret Records has an Amos lyric for its title (Where's Neil When You Need Him?) and contains the Amos track "Sister Named Desire". Amos also wrote the introduction to the trade paperback collection of Gaiman's Death: The High Cost of Living.

After touring throughout 1992 in support of Little Earthquakes (Europe, North America, Australia, & Israel), Amos traveled to New Mexico with personal and professional partner Eric Rosse in 1993 to write and largely record her second solo record, Under the Pink.

The inspiration for the previous album had been the events in Amos' own life, but for her second album she drew inspiration elsewhere — from the work of Georgia O'Keeffe and Salvador Dalí, the literature of Alice Walker, and the Russian princess Anastasia Romanov. Musically, Amos drew from the style of classical composers she had studied during her childhood, and put more focus on her solo piano rather than band instrumentation. The musical complexity drawn from her classical background is particularly evident in such tracks as "Icicle" and the sweeping, nine-and-a-half minute, "Yes, Anastasia". Amos used a prepared upright piano for "Bells for Her" on the album; the song was also played on a prepared piano for the second half of her tour in support of Under the Pink.

In June 1994, Amos co-founded RAINN, The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, a toll-free help line in the US connecting callers with their local rape crisis center. In 1995, Amos contributed to the Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium with the song "Down by the Seaside", a duet with Robert Plant.

he idea for Amos' third solo album first originated in August 1994 during a break from the tour to promote the Under the Pink album. Amos had split from Eric Rosse both personally and professionally after a seven-year relationship, and she took a trip to Hawaii where she studied the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele, the "empowering female force" behind Boys for Pele.

The album was recorded in an Irish church, in County Wicklow, Ireland in 1995 as well as an old Georgian house, also in Ireland. After two albums of piano-driven pop rock music, Amos took advantage of the church recording setting to create an album ripe with baroque influences, lending it a darker sound and style. She added harpsichord, harmonium, and clavichord to her keyboard repertoire, and also included such anomalies as a gospel choir, bagpipes, church bells, and drum programming.

Boys for Pele was released in January 1996. Substantially longer than the first two albums at around 70 minutes, it garnered mixed reviews; some critics praised its intensity and uniqueness while others bemoaned its comparative impenetrability. It was perhaps the first in a style of which Amos seems to work, as the (comparative) musical and lyrical straightforwardness of Little Earthquakes gave way to an interest in opaque lyrics (often centered in religion and mythology) and a darker, more complex sound. The erratic lyrical content of its songs seemed indecipherable to some fans, and the instrumentation kept it away from mainstream audiences. Nevertheless, Boys for Pele is Amos' most successful transatlantic chart release, reaching UK #2 and US #2 upon its release at the height of her fame (and as with her first four solo albums, it has been certified platinum for sales of more than a million US copies).

Also in 1996, Amos began her own vanity label called Igloo, internal to Atlantic Records. Her first signing (which she executively produced) was the band Pet, headed by lead singer Lisa Papineau. Their self-titled debut album included the song "Lil' Boots," which was also featured on the soundtrack for The Crow: City of Angels. Record sales were meager and the subsidiary label was quickly folded.

Amos performed a highly publicized television concert called "The Concert for RAINN" in early 1997. This coincided with "National RAINN Day", and during the concert all cable and network television stations aired Amos's public service announcement about the organization. During this concert Amos performed her song "Muhammad My Friend" with her friend Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool. The concert also introduced a year long campaign in collaboration with Calvin Klein eye wear. Proceeds were collected for RAINN. She also co-wrote/performed a song called "It Might Hurt a Bit" with singer Michael Stipe of the band R.E.M.. It was intended for the soundtrack to the film Don Juan DeMarco, but was not used and has never been released.

During the tour to promote Boys for Pele, Amos and her sound engineer Mark Hawley began a relationship and Amos later discovered she was pregnant. She planned to take 1997 away from the limelight and the recording studio in order to look after her unborn child, however, Amos miscarried two days before Christmas 1996 at three months, plunging her into new emotional depths. During her recovery period at her second home in Florida, Amos unexpectedly began writing new songs.

After writing in "the tropics" of Florida (where she suffered a second miscarriage in May 1997, this time earlier in the pregnancy), Amos returned to Cornwall, England, where she settled with Hawley in 1997. They converted the barn of their new home into a state-of-the-art recording studio, Martian Engineering Studios, and Amos spent the latter part of 1997 recording her new songs there. After three albums of largely acoustic piano-based music, Amos embraced some styles of dance music after the remix of "Professional Widow" became a worldwide hit, and also decided to feature arrangements which expanded considerably on her core piano sound, including elements of electronica and jazz.

Following Amos and Hawley's marriage on February 22, 1998, Atlantic released Amos' fourth solo album, From the Choirgirl Hotel, in May 1998. Many of the songs on the album (e.g. "Playboy Mommy" and "Spark") dealt with her two recent miscarriages. Reviews were mostly favourable and praising of Amos' continued artistic originality (it was voted among the best albums of the year by Q magazine), and the album was generally well-received by Amos fans. Amos herself lists the album as her favorite.

After the successful band tour ended, Amos decided to make her next project a double album comprising live material recorded on the tour as well as b-sides, bolstered by two to three new unreleased compositions. Inspired by fan demand for remastered b-sides from her extensive back-catalogue Tori started re-recording classics like "Here, in my Head" and "Honey" but found herself improvising new lyrics and eventually entirely new songs. Thus, the project mutated into a two-disc set comprising live songs from the tour and a new studio disc (plans to release a live video/DVD of the tour were also abandoned) that was released in September 1999 under the title To Venus and Back.

The album was supported by a short tour in 1999, the "Five and a Half Weeks Tour", which Amos co-headlined with Alanis Morissette around a month prior to the release of the double album. Many referred to Amos as the "opening act" for Morissette because she always performed first; however, this was due only to the logistics of setting up a grand piano for performance. An Amos-only stint, the "To Dallas and Back" tour, also took place, but promotional plans were cut when Amos suffered her third miscarriage, again at three months, on November 11, 1999. In her 2005 book Piece by Piece, Amos revealed that Atlantic allowed her only two days before pushing her back into a promotional schedule, one reason that caused her eventual split from the record label in 2002.

After releasing two albums and embarking on two tours in rapid succession, Amos took a break from both touring and recording in 2000 to devote to another pregnancy. After suffering a total of three miscarriages, Amos became a mother, giving birth to her daughter, Natashya, in September of 2000. Inspired by the songs she heard on the radio while looking after her daughter at her second home in Florida, Amos hatched the idea to produce a covers album, recording songs written by men about women and turning them around to suit the female perspective. In her 2005 book Piece by Piece, Amos revealed that a stimulus for the album was to end her contract with Atlantic Records without giving them new original songs; Amos felt that since 1998, the label had not been properly promoting her and had trapped her in a contract that required her to deliver three more albums and a hits collection. After the double album To Venus and Back, the covers album would satisfy her contractual obligations with Atlantic before a hits package release.

The unique album garnered substantial press attention, as did the packaging featuring Amos in various poses adopting the styles of the different female characters she portrays in each song. Each photograph, featuring make-up by Kevyn Aucoin, was accompanied by text from Neil Gaiman and formed a successful advertising campaign.

Amos performed her cover of Tom Waits' "Time" on Late Show with David Letterman on 9/18/2001, only one week after the events of 9/11, a time when many artists were leaving New York or unwilling to perform in such a public venue. She also did a public signing at Virgin Megastores in Union Square (New York City) in New York that same week.

With her contract Atlantic fulfilled after a 15-year stint, Amos signed to another major label, Sony/Epic in early 2002. In October, Amos released Scarlet's Walk, her first album under the new label. Described as a "sonic novel", the 18-track album proved to be a landmark for a variety of reasons. Stylistically, Amos put drums and bass guitar at the forefront, using her piano playing as an accent rather than a highlight. Thematically, the album explored Amos' alter ego, Scarlet, and her cross-country trip in early 2001. Through the songs, Amos explores the history of America, American people, Native American history, pornography, masochism, homophobia and misogyny, but the political nature of the album is often tempered by the classic production and songwriting style, recalling the likes of Fleetwood Mac.

After scoring her biggest commercial success in five years with her Epic debut, Scarlet's Walk, Amos still owed Atlantic a retrospective hits package. After given the option to be involved in the project, Amos elected to take a central role in the production of the collection. In November 2003 Tales of a Librarian was released, which Amos described as a "sonic autobiography", a title derived from her dislike of the term "greatest hits". Amos revisited the mixing of many of her own favorite songs from her career, focusing on those she thought were not fully realized in their original recordings and those that she felt explained her life story. Recording under the premise that a librarian is a "chronicler", Amos pieced together the album, adding two new songs and two re-recorded b-sides. The songs were arranged in accordance with the Dewey Decimal System, extending the librarian theme of the album.

Under her new contract with Epic Records, Amos appeared in the film Mona Lisa Smile as a big-band singer and contributed two songs, "You Belong to Me" and "Murder, He Says", to the film's soundtrack. Stylistically, both songs reflect music and vocal arrangements from the big-band era.

Musically inspired by the tight band sound she afforded during her year-long trek with Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans on the successful Scarlet's Walk album and tour, Amos' next album project explored the tightness of this band sound. Recorded in the summer of 2004 at her home studio in Cornwall, Amos was conceptually influenced by the ancient art of beekeeping, which she considered a source of female inspiration and empowerment. Through extensive study, Amos also wove in the stories of the Gnostic gospels and the removal of women from a position of power within the Christian church to create an album based largely on religion and politics. Many fans and critics, however, have argued that the concept is unclear and confusing. Following the death of her brother in November 2004, Amos wrote the closing track, "Toast", for last minute inclusion on the album, also adding the line "take this message to Michael" to the backing vocals on the title track. The album was released in February 2005 as The Beekeeper and it debuted at US #5, placing Amos in an elite group of women to have secured five or more US Top 10 album debuts.

Amos received unsettling news in 2003 when Epic Records President Polly Anthony resigned. Anthony had been one of the main reasons Amos signed with the label. As a result, Amos formed the Bridge Entertainment Group, a company devoted to helping musicians in various ways during a time when the music industry is changing. 2004 also saw the merger of major labels Epic/Sony Music Entertainment and BMG Entertainment. Amos hinted that those in charge at the label during the creation of The Beekeeper were interested "only in making money". Amos' general disenchantment with the commercial side of the music industry was showcased when she did not bother performing the first single from the album in many cities during the accompanying tour; it is usually expected by record companies of a modern musician that they perform their singles or hits regularly.

In conjunction with the album, Amos released an autobiography co-authored by rock music journalist Ann Powers entitled Piece by Piece in February 2005. It delves deeply into Amos’s interest with mythology and religion and explores her songwriting process as well as telling the story of her progression into fame.

Amos announced in late 2005 that she would be issuing a series of live "official bootlegs", all recorded during her "Original Sinsuality" tour. A website was established at toriamosbootlegs.com where hard copies of the releases were made exclusively available. The packaging was minimal and featured bird/insect/snake artwork following the theme of The Beekeeper, which had featured elaborate packaging placing the various songs into different metaphorical gardens. The bootlegs were sold for $13.98 each and featured full concerts from her 2005 tour; the bootleg albums were widely acclaimed by both critics and fans and showcased Amos' continued unique performance style. Soon after the hard copies were released online retailers began offering the entire albums for paid download, and in December 2005 all six two-disc sets were issued as a 12-disc box set, The Original Bootlegs.

During 2005, Amos negotiated a contract with the Warner Bros. reissue imprint Rhino to release reissues and compilations. The first release of the deal was the two-disc DVD set Fade To Red: The Video Collection in February 2006, which contained most of Amos' solo music videos as well as behind-the-scenes footage and commentary. The contract continued in September 2006 with the release of the five-disc box set A Piano: The Collection, celebrating Amos' 15-year solo career. The set includes various album songs, singles, remixes, alternate mixes, demos and a string of unreleased songs from album sessions. The collection is packaged to resemble a piano keyboard with extensive liner notes (including Amos' commentary) and a hard-back book. While the contents of the box set are extensive, many b-sides and rarities do not appear in this collection.

In several interviews while promoting A Piano, Amos revealed details about her ninth studio album. The thematic nature of and the concepts behind the next album were revealed in an interview early in 2007, with Amos stating she was "jumping ship" from her previous work and that A Piano was the summation of her previous work and the end of an era. The album, recorded with new microphones, pianos, and a Yamaha CS80 synth keyboard, was released under the title American Doll Posse on May 1, 2007 in the US. The "Posse", a group of girls who are used as a theme of alter-egos in the album, consists of Amos in five guises: Santa, Isabel, Pip, Clyde, and Tori. American Doll Posse was Amos' sixth album that debuted in the Top 10, at #5 in the United States, despite having lower sales than The Beekeeper.

On October 16, 2007, Amos announced the release of the Legs & Boots series, digital downloads of several concerts on the North American leg of her American Doll Posse tour. Complete shows are available in MP3 format for $9.99 and CD-quality FLAC files for $14.99.

On December 7, 2007, filming began for a planned American Doll Posse Tour DVD. It is expected to be a compilation of segments from different shows as well as interviews, based on the nature of the tour.

While promoting American Doll Posse in 2007, Amos revealed that she had been commissioned by the Royal National Theatre to write the music for Samuel Adamson's musical adaptation of the George MacDonald story The Light Princess. Amos has said that the musical is expected to debut around the autumn of 2009.

--Wikipedia