Alanis Morissette Aims To Be a Lifeline for Young Female Artists

For W’s annual The Originals portfolio, we asked stars of film, fashion, art, music, and more to share their insights on staying true to themselves. See this year’s full class of creatives here.

On your recent Triple Moon Tour, you played songs from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, the 1998 follow-up to your breakout album, Jagged Little Pill, which launched you into stardom. What is it like to perform music that you wrote almost 30 years ago?

The good news about the songs I wrote when I was in my late teens or early 20s is that there was a value system there that I still connect with. There’s a continuity throughout all these decades of essential self, even though circumstances and chapters are all so different. Now there’s a little bit more empathy, a little bit more relational grace going on, a little more perspective, or a little more perimenopause, less fucks to give. That helps.

And I’m sure that after having children, nothing scares you.

Nothing. There’s nothing that compares to the pain of three home births. I had a whole water birth thing ready for my third, and he came so quickly that we didn’t even have time to fill up the tub.

I’ve heard that for musicians on tour, the opening acts don’t really hang out with the headliners. For some reason, I have a hard time imagining that it’s like that for you and Joan Jett, who toured with you on Triple Moon.

Oh, yeah. She is my superheroine. I had a sense that she was awesome, but when I met her, it was just an immediate, Oh, shit. We’re going to be fine. She’s basically seen it all, and not only is she still alive, but she’s still empowered and doesn’t fuck around. But she also has a side that maybe people don’t know that’s super maternal and empathic, and would never tolerate anything that didn’t feel good for people she loves. She’s who I wished I’d met in my 20s. Where was Joan when I needed her?

What do you mean?

In the ’90s, there was no sisterhood, kumbaya thing going on. It was quite the opposite, actually. The pervasive messaging was very much: You pick a lane, and you stay in it. And if you step out of your lane, it’s career suicide, which is total bullshit. Whereas now, there are all these allowances for us to be multitudinous.

I was on these festival bills with 342 men, and I was the only woman. The male bands would move around where they were on the evening’s poster, because who cares? It’s Alanis. She can play before me. And then I’d show up and I would put my foot down, and they’d be super gaslighty, like, “Oh, she’s a diva.” In moments like that, I was just like, God, where is the fucking powerful divine feminine? I would literally go to the BRIT Awards or wherever I was, and I’d look around like, can you be my sister? Can you be my mentor? I was just looking for Joan. So now, when I’m in a position where it’s flipped and maybe a young artist will have my phone number, I make sure that I respond like a motherfucker. I want to be available for those who may need me in the way that I needed Joan 30 years before I met her.

I’m imagining you texting Olivia Rodrigo, or someone like that.

Yeah, exactly. I completely understand what it’s like to be inside the white-hot heat of fame and notoriety. And I think about Chappell Roan right now. I think about these women who are just in it. I’m here. Even if they wanted to text me at four in the morning and go, “What the fuck about—” fill in the blank, I’d be like, “Yeah, that is bullshit!”

What are you listening to right now?

I love Chappell. Her whole journey, I’m signed up for. And I love Olivia. I’m obsessed with singer-songwriters. I was listening to Jeff Buckley yesterday. Any person who plays with androgyny on the whole continuum of feminine, masculine, emotional, mercurial. I love hearing people share their story through music, or through movement, or through a photograph. I’m an artist’s artist. I live for people expressing themselves.

I do think of you as an artist’s artist. I think about Jimmy Fallon doing a skit on SNL where he was riffing on your song “Thank U,” and you loved it.

If I’m cracking up, you got me. And self-deprecating humor is my favorite. If it’s super mean-spirited, then all bets are off. But if it’s just funny, I’m in.

Who was the first person who made you realize you could break the rules?

I think my mom. If she knows that no one’s getting hurt, she’ll do anything, regardless of whether you’re “allowed to” or not. She definitely had the ’70s imperative of giving everything at the cost of yourself for credo, but also had this undercurrent of, well, fuck that. I’m doing it. So that’s in my bones.

Where in the world and doing what activity are you the happiest?

Anytime I am traveling. Every photo you see of me in Asia, I have the biggest grin. My greatest joy is when I’m in nature and in a nomadic community. That’s why I love touring so much. It’s a cultural deep dive that broadens the soul. I actually, at one point, wanted to buy a hotel, because I was like, I can set up one of the floors as my home, and then everyone else can come stay with me.

There’s still time to do this.

I know. It’s not too late!

Hair by Nancy Rodriguez; Makeup by Rachel Goodwin for Merit at A-Frame Agency; Photo Assistants: Scott Turner, Mehmet “Bootsy” Harput; Fashion Assistant: Jessica Rohr.