When Alanis Morissette burst onto the scene in the summer of 1995, KSCA fm 101.9 had been on the air in Los Angeles for about a year. I was one of the lucky few to be in the room for a showcase at a small club in West LA whose name I can’t remember, though I can still picture the scene quite clearly. She was in the larger, upstairs room, filled with mostly industry people.
I was mesmerized as she strutted across the stage, flinging her hair wildly while sing-screaming about going down on her ex in a theater and other equally in-your-face lyrics. I had heard the first single, “You Oughta Know” only once before being treated to her live performance, but those two listens were enough for me to know that I was seeing something special.
I went home, dialed up to connect my computer to AOL where I logged on to the old “Velvet Rope” chat room, and posted something about seeing the next big thing that evening in Alanis Morissette. I went into work the next day and raved about her performance on the air, though I think “Hand in My Pocket” and “You Learn” were more the flavor of KSCA than “You Oughta Know,” but we played them all.
Of course, the album Jagged Little Pill and Alanis’ career blew up. I tried and tried to get her into the fm 101.9 Music Hall for an interview and performance. They remembered how I came out publicly very early, and they wanted to thank me for that support. In the end, I was really lucky to get a nice long sit down interview with her – no performance- when she was sitting on top of the world. In fact, the album hit #1 on the Billboard album chart just three weeks after our interview!
So, on September 18, 1995, Alanis Morissette joined me on the air for an in-depth conversation about her groundbreaking album that next month, in November of 2019, will open as a new Broadway musical.
So, I figured this was a good time to share our interview from 24 years ago…
I interviewed Alanis a few years later, when I was at 92.5 The River WXRV/Boston when she was no longer at the top of the charts, but was promoting a new album, So Called Chaos. We both had shorter hair then!
This time, she brought her guitar and harmonica and performed for us. And we invited a few lucky listeners to be in the studio for the live broadcast.
