Editing Tori Amos (section)

==Early life and education==
Amos is the third child of Mary Ellen (née Copeland) and Edison McKinley Amos.<ref>{{cite news |title=Edison Michael Amos |date=November 26, 2004 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |department=Obituaries |via=[[Legacy.com]] |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=edison-michael-amos&pid=2855639 |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140603234013/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=edison-michael-amos&pid=2855639 |archive-date=June 3, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> She was born on August 22, 1963{{r|Sullivan (2015)}} at the Old Catawba Hospital in [[Newton, North Carolina]], during a trip from their [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] home in Washington, D.C.,<ref name="guard">{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/07/tori-amos-menopause-is-the-hardest-teacher-ive-met-harder-than-fame |title= Tori Amos: 'Menopause Is the Hardest Teacher I've Met. Harder Than Fame' |author-last=Andrews |author-first=Charlotte Richardson |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=September 7, 2012 |access-date=August 24, 2023}}</ref> and was named Myra Ellen Amos.{{r|Smyers (2014)}}

Some of Amos's ancestors were Confederate soldiers.<ref name="guard"/> In her memoir, ''Piece by Piece'', she talks about the experience of these Confederate ancestors, Margaret Little and Grandaddy Calvin Rice, during the [[American Civil War]].

When she was two years old, her family relocated to [[Baltimore]], Maryland, where her father had moved his [[Methodism|Methodist]] ministry from its original base in Washington, D.C. Her older brother and sister took piano lessons, but Tori did not need them. From the time she could reach the piano, she taught herself<ref>{{Cite web |last=DanHonMusic |date=2023-10-14 |title=11 Legendary Self-Taught Pianists Who Redefined Music |url=https://danhon.substack.com/p/11-legendary-self-taught-pianists |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=DanHonMusic}}</ref> to play: when she was two, she could reproduce pieces of music she had only heard once,<ref name="Burbank (2009)">{{cite news |last=Burbank |first=Maggie |title=Tori Amos on Love Affair with the Piano |work=[[Nightline]] |date=December 18, 2009 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Playlist/tori-amos-reinvents-christmas-carols-album/story?id=9372307 |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160826081325/http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Playlist/tori-amos-reinvents-christmas-carols-album/story?id=9372307 |archive-date=August 26, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> and, by the age of three, she was composing her own songs. She has described seeing music as structures of light since early childhood, an experience consistent with [[chromesthesia]]:

{{blockquote|The song appears as light filament once I've cracked it. As long as I've been doing this, which is more than thirty-five years, I've never seen the same light creature in my life. Obviously similar chord progressions follow similar light patterns, but try to imagine the best kaleidoscope ever—after the initial excitement, you start to focus on each element's stunning original detail. For instance, the sound of the words with the sound of the chord progression combined with the rhythm manifests itself in a unique expression of the architecture of color-and-light. ... I started visiting this world when I was three, listening to a piece by [[Béla Bartók]]; I visited a configuration that day that wasn't on this earth. ... It was euphoric.{{sfn|Amos|Powers|2005|p=123}}}}

At five, she became the youngest student ever admitted to the preparatory division of the [[Peabody Institute]].{{sfn|Collins|Speace|1995|p=5}}{{r|Doyle (1998)}} She studied classical piano at Peabody from 1968 to 1974.{{sfn|Collins|Speace|1995|p=5}} In 1974, when she was eleven, her scholarship was discontinued, and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in [[rock music|rock]] and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music.{{sfn|Amos|Powers|2005|p=49–50}}{{r|Burbank (2009)}}<ref name="Tori Amos Played 1st (2012)">{{cite news |author=<!-- No by-line. --> |title=Tori Amos Played 1st Gig at Gay Bar at Age 13 |date=January 14, 2012 |newspaper=[[The Arizona Republic]] |department=Music |agency=Bang Showbiz |url=http://archive.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/2012/01/14/20120114tori-amos-played-first-gig-gay-bar-age-13.html |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160826075738/http://archive.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/2012/01/14/20120114tori-amos-played-first-gig-gay-bar-age-13.html |archive-date=August 26, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1972, the Amos family moved to [[Silver Spring, Maryland]], where her father became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. At thirteen, Amos began playing at [[gay bar]]s and [[piano bar]]s, chaperoned by her father.{{sfn|Amos|Powers|2005|p=49–50}}{{r|Burbank (2009)}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Episode 86: How to Be Tori Amos|url=https://unladylike.co/episodes/086/tori-amos|access-date=2020-06-02|website=Unladylike|language=en-US}}</ref>

Amos won a county teen talent contest in 1977, singing a song called "More Than Just a Friend".{{r|Doyle (1998)}} As a senior at [[Richard Montgomery High School]], she co-wrote "[[Baltimore (Tori Amos song)|Baltimore]]" with her brother, Mike Amos, for a competition involving the [[Baltimore Orioles]]. The song did not win the contest but became her first single, released as a [[7-inch single]] pressed locally for family and friends in 1980 with another Amos-penned composition as a [[B-side]], "Walking With You". Before this, she had performed under her middle name, Ellen, and was considering the stage name "Sammy Jaye<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tori Amos Timeline at yessaid.com |url=https://www.yessaid.com/timeline5.html |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=www.yessaid.com}}</ref>" at the time, but permanently adopted "Tori" after a friend's boyfriend told her she looked like a [[Torrey pine]], a tree native to the West Coast.{{sfn|Rogers|1994|pp=24–25}}<ref>{{Citation |title=Tori Amos MTV Revue | date=April 11, 2016 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM5S7U_k5i8 |access-date=2023-05-05 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Trunk |first=Russell A. |title=Tori Amos: Exclusive 1998 Interview |date=1998 |website=Music Underground Entertainment News |url=https://www.angelfire.com/zine/muen/interviews/toriinterview.html |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141212053308/http://www.angelfire.com/zine/muen/interviews/toriinterview.html |archive-date=December 12, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>