Alanis Morissette Changes Lyrics Of New Single
(LAUNCH, 03/15/2004 6:00 PM)

When Alanis Morissette was putting the finishing touches on her new album, So-Called Chaos, due out on May 18, she decided to change the lyrics to her single "Everything," for fear that radio stations and television networks wouldn't play it because it could be considered offensive. Instead of singing "I can be an a--hole of the grandest kind," Alanis changed the words to "I can be a nightmare of the grandest kind." The singer told Billboard.com,"It got to the point, post-nipplegate Janet Jackson, where they were basically saying that they wouldn't play the song. People not hearing the song, based on my shooting myself in the foot by taking a stance of 'my artistic integrity will not be f--ked with' wasn't worth it. And I understand some parents not wanting their seven-year-old or daughter hearing the word 'a--hole,' even though they probably use it already."

Alanis wasn't so sure that she wanted to use the word "nightmare." She said, "One of my worst fears would be for an old boyfriend of mine to consider me a 'nightmare.' I just feel like men use that word so much more than women do. Men say, 'Oh God, she's a nightmare!' I just want to shake them and say, 'What specifically are you talking about--that she required that you tap into your emotional self?' So it was good to use that word in the spirit of busting my own resistance to it."

Alanis just shot a video for the single in Los Angeles.

So-Called Chaos was produced by Sheryl Crow and Pink collaborator John Shanks. She recorded it in a Santa Monica studio owned by singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. Other tracks on the disc are called "Eight Easy Steps," "The Grudge" and "Knees of My Bees."