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About

Genius Annotation

Tori wrote the song about an incident in which she was raped in Los Angeles, California when she was 21 years old.

After performing at a bar, a man asked Tori if he could have a ride home and when she agreed to, the man raped her at knifepoint, but she escaped.

Years later while in London, Tori saw the 1991 film “Thelma and Louise” which stirred her and on her way to a show, she wrote “Me and a Gun” in her head & performed the song in a cappella.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Tori Amos say about "Me and a Gun"?
Genius Answer

I’ll never talk about it at this level again, but let me ask you. Why have I survived that kind of night, when other women didn’t? How am I alive to tell you this tale when he was ready to slice me up? In the song I say it was “Me and a Gun” but it wasn’t a gun. It was a knife he had. And the idea was to take me to his friends and cut me up, and he kept telling me that, for hours. And if he hadn’t needed more drugs I would have been just one more news report, where you see the parents grieving for their daughter. And I was singing hymns, as I say in the song, because he told me to. I sang to stay alive. Yet I survived that torture, which left me urinating all over myself and left me paralyzed for years. That’s what that night was all about, mutilation, more than violence through sex. I really do feel as though I was psychologically mutilated that night and that now I’m trying to put the pieces back together again. Through love, not hatred. And through my music. My strength has been to open again, to life, and my victory is the fact that, despite it all, I kept alive my vulnerability.

[Hot Press – February 23, 1994]

  1. 7.
    Me and a Gun
  2. 9.
    Girl
  3. 10.
    Winter
  4. 13.
    China
  5. 15.
    Mother
  6. 18.
    Honey
  7. 23.
    God
  8. 33.
    Horses
  9. 40.
    Bliss
  10. 41.
    Suede
  11. 45.
    Lust
  12. 54.
    Iieee
  13. 61.
    Spark
  14. 63.
    Cruel
  15. 70.
    Sugar
  16. 74.
    Mary
  17. 84.
    Merman
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