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Alanis Morissette is only 33, but last Friday, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame and honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, during a ceremony at the Canadian Radio Music Awards in Toronto."My challenge is to stand and receive," Morissette said quietly after a standing ovation accompanied her walk to the stage. "Just gratitude really," she said into the mic. "Gratitude for ... I'm going to get choked up. I can talk through crying; it's not the first time," she joked.
Morissette was introduced by John Alexander, the man who signed her at 14 to a record and publishing deal with MCA Canada, and by Glen Ballard, the producer and co-writer of the 33 million-selling 'Jagged Little Pill,' which catapulted Morissette from a Canadian teen pop sensation to a cutting edge, no-words-barred international phenomenon.
Ballard recalled meeting a then 19-year-old Morissette in 1994. "She arrived in Los Angeles just after a major earthquake and the timing was perfect to shake things up in music," he said. "What this extraordinary person brought to the table, in addition to her obvious gifts, was in my view the most important component -- artistic courage. The validation she wanted started with herself. She wanted to create music that reflected who she was, what she felt and what she dreamed. She let me know early on that if we achieved that, she would be satisfied."
Morissette, who is currently on tour with Matchbox Twenty, in preparation for her forthcoming May-due album, 'Flavors Of Entanglement,' had a fortuitous day off and was able to attend the induction.
"The whole journey has been one of natural upholding as a human being and to chronologize it through song," Morissette said. "I'm grateful to the writing process. I'm grateful to have the ability to channel this life stream though me in a way that I don't have anything to do with, really. I just show up. That's really what happens and that what happened with Glen and I. I just showed up and was ready."
She capped her acceptance speech with some thoughts on the word "achievement," which she was thinking about on her flight to Toronto. "To me, the greatest success is being able, as an artist, to capture what is going on at the moment," she said. "It's not a precious process for me. You just show up and be human. So, thank you so much for supporting me in being a human -- being in the public eye. I love you and here's to many more years of it."