The 'You Oughta Know' hitmaker recalls a frightening encounter with an armed robber while she was out and about carrying a backpack full of her music and lyrics.
- Aug 7, 2020
AceShowbiz - Alanis Morissette was held up at gunpoint and nearly lost all the music she had written for her iconic album "Jagged Little Pill" before its release.
The "Ironic" singer discussed the moment in an interview on Britain's "The One Show" on Wednesday (5Aug20), recalling how she was carrying the lyrics and tapes for the record, which was released in 1995, in a backpack when the frightening incident took place. Alanis was on her way to buy running shoes when she was held up by a robber.
"I was writing for the record and I had my backpack full of my lyrics and music and some cassette tapes," she told hosts Alex Jones and Gethin Jones (no relation). "All of a sudden I was going to get running shoes, I drove home to turn around and I was being held up at gunpoint and they wanted all my things."
"I knew I was going to give them anything first of all. Second of all, I had my backpack with the whole of my Jagged Little Pill contents in it. "
Handing over her wallet and her handbag, she was then directed to go lay on the floor.
"So I lay down with my backpack and thought they'll take that on the way out but they didn't. It was so fortuitous and I'm happy to still be here," she concluded the story.
This year marks 25 years since "Jagged Little Pill" was released and it became a huge success, selling 33 million copies. And Alanis, whose new album "Such Pretty Forks in the Road" was released last week, also revealed her smash hit "Ironic" nearly wasn't released.
"I wrote Ironic with Glen Ballard very early in the writing of the record and it was not autobiographical, it was just us trying to be entertain each other and we were being really loose and quick with everything," she explained. "When it came to decide on what was on the record, I didn't want Ironic on the record but those around me whom I trusted really loved the song so it wound up being on the record but it was a close call."
