In a new interview, Justin Timberlake has revealed his love for Tori Amos’ 1992 debut Little Earthquakes. For a new “Songwriter Roundtable,” The Hollywood Reporter brought together Amos, Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Pharrell, and Sting for a conversation. At one point, the interviewer asked Amos, “Were there moments when people were trying to guide you to be something different than who you felt authentically you were?” She answered swiftly, “Little Earthquakes was rejected when I turned it in.” It was at that point that Timberlake told her, “That album changed my life, man. So f—ing good.” Read the full interview here.
Tori Amos elaborated that the label “wanted to take all the pianos off and replace them with guitars.” All Timberlake could muster in response was “What?” She added that the label executive “was trying to look for something that had already happened. Tracy Chapman had already happened [so he was chasing that].” Amos said she threatened to leave her label (Atlantic Records) and go to Geffen, but Doug Morris (Atlantic’s co-CEO at the time) insisted on keeping her at the label, and offered to get someone new to produce her album. (Davitt Sigerson produced the rejected demos.)
Amos–who ultimately went to London to record more songs for Little Earthquakes with co-producer Eric Rosse–recalled asking, “Why not?” when Morris questioned if she’d self-produce the LP. After Atlantic accepted her album with the new tracks, Amos said Morris owned up and told her, “Tori, once I got it, I got it, you gotta give it up to me.” She told him, “That’s fair enough.”
