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Tavis: Hey, Alanis, nice to see you.

Alanis: Nice to see you.

Tavis: I was just saying before we came on the air here that I grew up in Indiana.

Alanis: You did?

Tavis: Cole Porter is from Indiana. He's one of those Indiana legends, so I grew up listening to and learning the lyrics to Cole Porter music, so I'm hip to Cole Porter. Were you hip to him before you did this project?

Alanis: I was hip to maybe 4 or 5 of his songs. I was pretty ignorant about him, and I think that was part of the point in their wanting to invite contemporary artists into the movie--musicians, anyway--because they wanted to sneakily have the younger whatever--the younger generation to check out Cole because, you know, I myself along with other people didn't really know that much about him. Especially his personal life.

Tavis: How'd you enjoy the experience?

Alanis: It was great.

Tavis: Y'all dressed up in the outfits...

Alanis: All 1920s. It was great.

Tavis: Let me go back to the beginning, at least the beginning of when we came to know Alanis Morrisette as we now know you. 25 million records--how did you keep it in perspective? And I ask that because it's not just the sophomore jinx gets people all the time. It's that somewhere along the way, when you sell that many records, you lose perspective, you get attitude... You know, 1,001 things happen to 1,001 different people, but they can't handle that kind of success, and certainly not out of the gate, but you seem, still, rather well-adjusted.

Alanis: That's very sweet of you. I, uh--I lost my mind, truly. Yeah, I think it's a rite of passage when that kind of thing happens.

Tavis: So, let me jump in right quick. How did you lose your mind? Because everybody is entitled, I expect.

Alanis: Your own version.

Tavis: You're entitled to lose your mind when you sell 25 million records. How did Alanis Morrisette specifically lose her mind?

Alanis: What did that look like? I basically jumped off the radar. I went to India, and I just stepped away, and I got away from whatever lifestyle that I'd created here. I just needed to step away and realize that what had been established during the 'Jagged Little Pill' time wasn't going to be the norm for the rest of my life. I didn't have a handbook, so I didn't know exactly what it would look like. I was a little ignorant, so I thought that it would be that way, you know, and specifically speaking about not being able to leave hotel rooms, and just not being able to go anywhere. And I was such a people watcher, so I couldn't watch people anymore, and that was devastating to me.

Tavis: Now they're watching you, as opposed to you watching them.

Alanis: Yeah. Which was charming for, like, 2 minutes, basically, but then after a while I wanted to watch again.

Tavis: Is that the thing you most miss about your lost anonymity?

Alanis: Yeah. I miss watching people. I still am able to do it now. I was just at the Cannes Film Festival, as you mentioned, and it was just the greatest people watching on the planet in that place. So I still am able to do it, especially now that I've cut all my hair off, but it's changing.

Tavis: How do you think your music has evolved from then until now?

Alanis: I just think subject matter-wise. As I grow up as a person, I think the lyrics have to be affected and, you know, taking a little bit more responsibility. There was a time where I was pointing the finger and blaming other people, which is a very--

Tavis: In your lyrics.

Alanis: Yeah. Well, in my day-to-day life, too. It's a fun thing to do, you know, but I think after a while it got a little old. So taking a little bit more responsibility, and just laughing at life a little bit more.

Tavis: Do you think that there is a particular reason or reasons why you have to perform stuff that you write? I mean, you can do one or two things. There's only one or two ways here. Either you're performing stuff that you do, or your performing other people's stuff. Some people feel like there's a certain purity, there's a certain honesty when they do their own stuff as opposed to writing something else that somebody may have written rather brilliantly, but you didn't do it. I get the sense, though, that you feel a personal connection--that you have to be involved in the stuff that you do.

Alanis: Yeah, I do. There's something--there's really not a huge difference between what it is that I'm writing about in my songs, and what it is that I'm experiencing in my daily life. So there is a transparency that, you know--if I'm singing these songs, I have to be very vulnerable and very out there. I think, you know, it requires a little bit of courage on my part--

Tavis: I was about to say that. It requires and, depending on how you look at it, stupidity. You're stuck on stupid--to put all your business out there in your lyrics. But apparently you don't feel hesitant about ever doing it. You ever written something you said, 'You know what? Maybe I don't want to tell that. That's a little bit too much or the audience to know'?

Alanis: Yeah. I mean, every other song I'm thinking, 'God, this is crazy to share this.' But I really realize that my life purpose is to put myself out there as much as I can so that people can define themselves in accordance, whether it be by hating it or loving it or being repulsed by it or inspired by it. You know, that's what I'm here to do.

Tavis: That's a fascinating comment. I've never heard an artist say that. You think, then, that people help define themselves by juxtaposing their beliefs, their station in life, to what yours is?

Alanis: Exactly. How would someone know whether they're conservative or Republican or liberal or whatever? How do we define ourselves unless we have something to look at and, you know, judge, or develop who we are in accordance to it? It's how we serve each other all the time, whether we're aware of it or not, in my opinion.

Tavis: I've been dying to ask you this. The song you're going to perform a little bit later, 'Everything,' there is a--my mother watches, so I can't say the word. There's a particular word in this song that you wrote and you have performed any number of times, and it's on the CD. You've taken, in certain performances, to switching that word out. You don't use that particular word. On radio airplay, they wouldn't play it anyway. But I'm trying to get you to juxtapose for me how it is that you write a word, because you want to be open, you want to be honest, you want to be earnest with the listener. You want them to gauge what they think of themselves against your work, and yet you feel a certain pressure every now and then, or whatever reason, to change that lyric. And you've been very outspoken about the FCC and other things, but I'm just trying to hear from you why you feel comfortable doing that.

Alanis: Yeah, I got really clear about what it is that I'm doing here, and I think a few things happened with my having changed the word for certain radio stations to be able to play it, one of which is that this conversation is a conversation that's been engaged, you know, over the last 3 months at least because of my having done it. And had I not done it, I wouldn't have been able to have this conversation. So that's one great thing. And the other is that it's really clear to me that it's my life purpose to share these songs, and I wouldn't want to not share it because of me standing my ground on behalf of one little word that ultimately is on the record itself anyway. So, I choose my battles, I think, very discerningly, and this was not a battle that was worth it for me because I wanted to have this conversation that we're having right now.

Tavis: My grandfather always says, 'Tavis, pick your fights. There are some fights--' How'd he put it? 'There are some fights that ain't worth fightin', even if you win, and there are other fights you have to fight, even if you lose.'

Alanis: You know, that is so brilliantly spoken.

Tavis: My granddad. What can I tell you? It ain't mine. My granddad taught me that.

Alanis: Great wisdom.

Tavis: Since we're talking about the FCC and lyrics and the life--I know this is an old story, but it's the first time I've had a chance to ask you about it. Take me back to the Juno Awards, which are the big music awards in Canada, for those who don't know, and this outfit that you wore after the Janet Jackson-- So, I don't want to tell the story. You tell the story.

Alanis: OK. Well, I wore a naked suit, and I walked out onstage and basically started to imply that Canada was a little more lenient in the censorship department, and the assistant director comes over the speaker phone and says... You know, I took my robe off, and I had this naked suit, and he said, 'You can't show your nipples or your pubic hair,' so I just ripped them off. And that was just a tip of the hat on my part how ridiculous censorship can be at times. You know, repressing sexuality, repressing certain words that, you know, I think, for the most part, people use in their day-to-day vocabulary...of all ages, personally speaking.

Tavis: Explain some more for me. Tell me what you think the danger is in having an entity like the FCC censor what it is we hear, we read, we see. What's the danger in that long-term?

Alanis: Well, what I see it as, is what comes first, the chicken or the egg. So I see the FCC responding to an already repressive society. Myself is included in that, obviously. A repressive society of sexuality and that whole life force, and how scary that can be to some people. So the outcome of repressing it is hard-core censorship, pornography, all of these things, because it's such a beautiful life force, you know?

But what I use as an example is: If I were to be told tomorrow that I could never wear a red t-shirt again, that's all I would be obsessively thinking about. It would be what I talk about and think about. But if I could wear a red t-shirt anytime, if people could be comfortable with their bodies at anytime, and their sexuality at anytime, I don't know how much of a hot, taboo subject it would be. It would just be a normal thing. As normal as any other day-to-day thing that we just take for granted. So, I don't know, I just think the more we put focus on it, whether it's a word in a song or otherwise, the more it's gonna, you know...

Tavis: Let me play devil's advocate, 'cause I just want to put this in front of you.

Alanis: Bring it. I love it.

Tavis: 'Bring it.' I like that. Thanks for letting me bring it. What about the notion, though, that some people have or certainly believe, that it ain't creative. Prince was on this show not long ago, and Prince made the point that it ain't creative if everybody's doing it, if everybody's saying it. And that's not to condone--he was not condoning at all. I don't want to misquote Prince. He wasn't condoning the FCC censoring anything. God knows he pushed the envelope off the table.

Alanis: God bless him for that.

Tavis: He didn't just push it, he pushed it off the table. But what about the notion that when everybody's doing it and everybody's saying it, it ain't creative, it's not fun, and that it really doesn't bring out the most creative part of an artist's repertoire if it's about cussing and saying bad words, and everybody's saying the same thing. The consumer is not being well served.

Alanis: Well, I think--

Tavis: Never mind the FCC.

Alanis: Right. I think if there's a rebellion going on, I think there's gonna be an onslaught of people--like I said about the red t-shirt. If you're not allowed to wear red, everyone's going to be wearing red out of a rebellious kind of stance. I don't know, I love self-expression. I love personal self-expression, so when someone says they hate something or they love something or they swear like truck drivers or they would never swear, and they read the Bible every day, I just think it's such a personal, individual-by-individual personal expression and, I don't know--I celebrate it. I celebrate everyone's opinion, even if I really disagree with it, and I do disagree with things all the time.

Tavis: Take me back to--I said at the beginning, earlier--the beginning of your music career. I want to go back farther than that, if I might.

Alanis: Sure.

Tavis: I'm curious as to how you discovered that music was your mission, that it was your passion. I'm struck by a phrase you used a moment ago expressing that sentiment. I've talked to a lot of folk over the years who are talented. It's one thing to recognize and to realize that you've been blessed with a gift, a talent to share with other people. It's another thing to see that as your life's work, as your life's mission. And you're very clear about making that distinction. Tell me why you make that distinction--how you knew that what you are doing is in fact what you were placed here to do.

Alanis: Hmm...great question. Thank you. Absolutely.

Well, it's not much of an intellectual thing for me. It's what I feel in my stomach. So there is no better aligned feeling in my stomach, for lack of a better term, than when I'm singing something that I know is serving on some level, even if it is simply serving someone else to define themselves in accordance. Even if someone hears my song and hates it, and hates what I stand for, I feel, on some level, that's a version of my being of service to that person because how would they knew who they were if they didn't hate my song? And the same is true for when someone loves my song, or feels inspired by it. So, I think serving by using a gift that I've been given, and enjoying what it is that I'm doing--so showing people that we can actually enjoy what our life service is. You know, there are so many different forms of service for me, whether it's music or film or entertainment or writing or speaking like we're speaking right now. I mean, these are all ways for people to watch and define.

Tavis: I'm starting to get the sense, and I could be wrong about this, that you're enjoying this film thing, this acting thing, like there's more to come from Alanis Morrisette on the acting front. Am I right about that?

Alanis: Absolutely. I love it.

Tavis: What do you like about it as compared to whatever high you get from doing your music?

Alanis: Well, dancing is something that I've always felt is a secret that I've had in my back pocket, so pulling that out is great. I love pulling out secrets, whether it's gardening or whatever it is that I'm secretly in love with.

Tavis: Alanis Morrisette--gardener?

Alanis: The gardener!

Tavis: Wow. You got a green thumb?

Alanis: I have an aspiring green thumb, but I love flowers. Anyway... So, whatever these forms of expression are. But dancing is huge, and film is--there's just, you know, so many other layers that can be shared. With a song, bless it, it's 4 minutes, and there's this intangible beauty to music. But film takes it to a whole other level visually and otherwise. And it requires me to step up even more. With a song onstage I can really surrender, and there's an effortlessness to it for me, but film acting and that kind of art form is fantastically scary to me, so...

Tavis: Speaking of scary, before we started our conversation, I asked you what the hard part was for you today and what the easy part was--the conversation or the performance that we're gonna see here in a moment. You said the performance is the easy part, it's the conversation that's the hard part. You seem to be doing pretty well.

Alanis: Thank you.

Tavis: You're not having that difficult a time. What do you most like, to that point? What do you most like about the performance when you're up on the stage? 'Cause your audience loves you and reveres you and respects you and, I think, just feels a connection to you in a real visceral sort of way. What do you most enjoy--I know what they get out if it. I see what they get out of it. What do you get out of the tour thing--being onstage? What do you most like about that?

Alanis: I love the surrender. There's something about being onstage with that energy in the room and that surrender that is huge. Because in my day-to-day life, I have to be really engaged a lot, and I have to be aware of my boundaries and communicate, and it takes a lot of energy. But onstage I can just surrender to it and, you know, I can't mess up. It's just me. It's the lyrics that I wrote, and music that I wrote or co-wrote.

Tavis: When you say you can't mess up, does that mean to suggest that when you're onstage, you never feel like you had a bad performance?

Alanis: Uh-uh.

Tavis: You never feel that way?

Alanis: No.

Tavis: No matter what you do, you walk offstage thinking that was great?

Alanis: Yeah. That was its own little entity. What's for dinner?

Tavis: Wow.

Alanis: Definitely.

Tavis: That's foreign to me. If I'm on the road traveling, and I'm making a presentation or giving a speech, there are some nights I know, Tavis, you were on. You know, knocked it out the park--Barry Bonds, McCovey Cove, in the water! And there are other nights I'm like, 'You whiffed that!' But you never feel that way?

Alanis: Well, I mean, there are some nights where maybe the monitors were different than other nights, and you know... But they're all their own little thing. I'm not precious about it. That's probably what it is. I'm not precious about it because, you know, at the end of the day 10 years from now, 100 years from now, it's not really gonna matter whether my show in Ohio felt like I was nailing it or not.

Tavis: Maybe I should take that attitude on. I don't know. I'll think about that. This new CD, 'So-Called Chaos'... Tell me about the title, first of all, and then I want to talk about how this differs from your previous work.

Alanis: 'So-Called Chaos,' two main things come up with me for that one. That I've been perceived as being singularly angry and chaotic, so it's just sort of my--

Tavis: Not Alanis Morrisette.

Alanis: It's definitely one part of me. I'll always be angry. I think my anger fuels my activism, and it fuels so many things.

Tavis: Good. I'm not alone as the angry black man. I've got an angry white woman, so that's good.

Alanis: You'll never be alone in that. But I think we all have anger. Whether we're allowed to admit it to ourselves or not is a whole other thing. And the other reason why I called it 'So-Called Chaos' is because in the bridge of the song that it's named after, I talk about what the world would look like without government. You know, us being self-regulating and self-governing, and taking care of ourselves and each other, and that being kind of the utopian vision that I have. And a lot of people laugh and say that won't happen for a few million years. But I aspire. You have to start somewhere.

Tavis: So take it a little further for me. What might the world--imagine with me, for those who've not heard the song--what might the world, in your view, look like without government--with us self-governing?

Alanis: It would be us taking care of ourselves, and us sort of referencing our own inner...you know, our inner voices, whether we call it God or source or whatever. We'd be so aware of the fact that we're inextricably linked, that we're all individual pieces of the same fabric, and whatever I'm doing to you, I'm ultimately doing to myself, and vice versa. We'd sort of realize that we can accept and love all parts of ourselves, including the hateful part and the loving part and the stupid part and the smart part. I just feel like we live in a society that tells us we can be generous, not greedy. We can be kind, not cruel. We can be, you know--and so I feel like if we loved all those parts, it'd be less of a struggle with each other. We'd be, you know, a little bit more accepting. I mean, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We could talk about this for hours.

Tavis: We could, but we've got 30 seconds left. So in those 30 seconds, tell me what people are gonna hear on this CD when they pick up this one, if they've not picked it up already. I'm sure they will after they hear you perform everything in just a second. But what's on this CD?

Alanis: A little bit of infatuation, a lot of self-deprecating humor. That's my favorite kind of humor. And sarcasm. You know, just taking a lot of the difficult experiences in my life, and pulling out the gifts from them. And, again, the not being precious part. Mm-hmm.

Tavis: You happy?

Alanis: So happy. Yeah.

Tavis: You look happy, and you sound happy.

Alanis: Thanks.

Tavis: I'm happy that you're here.

Alanis: I'm happy that you're here.

Tavis: I'm happy we had a chance to have some conversation. You've got to come back and do this again.

Alanis: I would love to.

Tavis: Especially that whole thing about what the world would look like without government.

Alanis: Yeah, we'll continue. To be continued.

Tavis: Promise you'll come back sometime.

Alanis: Absolutely.

Tavis: To be continued, part 2, the sequel, with Alanis Morrisette, about what the world would look like without government. The Republicans would love to hear that.

When we come back in just a second, Alanis Morrisette is gonna be joined by some of her bandmates, and they're gonna give us a special and unique acoustic performance of this new hit single 'Everything,' on the new CD 'So-Called Chaos.' We're back in just a second.

To close out the show tonight, here is Alanis Morrisette accompanied by Jason Orme and David Levita performing 'Everything.'

Alanis: I can be an ass of the holiest kind,

I can withhold like it's going out of style,

I can be the moodiest baby

And you've never met anyone as negative as I am sometimes,

I am the wisest woman you've ever met,

I am the kindest soul with whom you've connected,

I have the bravest heart that you've ever seen

And you've never met anyone as positive as I am sometimes,

You see everything, you see every part,

You see all my light and you love my dark,

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed,

Ythere's not anything to which you can't relate and you're still here,

I blame everyone else, not my own partaking,

My passive aggressiveness can be devastating,

I'm terrified and mistrusting

And you've never met anyone who's as closed down as I am sometimes,

You see everything you see every part,

You see all my light, and you love my dark,

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed,

There's not anything to which you can't relate and you're still here,

But I resist, persists, and speaks louder than I know,

But I resist, you love, no matter how low or high I go,

I'm the funniest woman that you've ever known,

I am the dullest woman that you've ever known,

I'm the most gorgeous woman that you've ever known

And you've never met anyone as everything as I am sometimes,

You see everything, you see every part,

You see all my light and you love my dark,

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed,

There's not anything to which you can't relate and you're still here

And you're still here, ahh, ohh, hey, ohh,

And you're still here