Tori Amos announces new politically themed memoir, Resistance

Tori Amos wants you to join her Resistance.

EW can exclusively reveal the singer-songwriter will release a book titled Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage. The memoir meets political call to action is what publisher Atria Books describes as a guide “for engaging with our current political moment and handling it with intelligence, grace, and integrity.” EW can also reveal the cover below.

Amos uses some of the most politically resonant songs of her 15-studio album spanning career to break down how she has used art to confront and combat political distress to offer readers a blueprint for change in our unique political moment.

The Grammy nominated Amos has never shied away from political themes in her work, tackling everything from sexual assault in “Me and a Gun” on her album Little Earthquakes to feminism in her stage musical The Light Princess. Resistance is the next natural step in her evolution as an artist, beginning with her early years playing piano at hotel bars in Washington D.C. during the Reagan era.

Resistance traces Amos’ life as a songwriter from her hotel piano-playing days through to her days as a struggling artist in Los Angeles and then into the ins and outs of her three decades as a successful, influential musician. The singer breaks down how she created politically resonant work in the midst of patriarchal power structures. She has always used feminism and her fight for the marginalized as her guiding light, and with Resistance she aims to give readers the tools to to the same.

Amos not only tells the story of her career, but teaches readers to engage with our tumultuous times, addressing everyone from supporters of #MeToo and #TimesUp to young people leading the charge for rights and visibility. She blends her most personal and powerful songs, using her writing process and her lyrics, to demonstrate how her readers can try to steer the world back in the right direction.

The multi-platinum artist was inspired to pen this book after the experience of writing her most recent studio album, 2017’s Native Invader. The themes of that album focused on her desire to “out-create the destructiveness that is all around us,” and she sought to use that message as the foundation of this memoir.

Resistance, which is now available for pre-order, hits shelves in May 2020.

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