Credit: Far Out / Alamy / Tom Lynn
October 31st, 2026 · 7:30pm GMT
When Alanis Morissette found herself at one of her lowest ebbs, she needed some divine intervention to pull her out of her rut.
And while most would imagine this in the more figurative sense of reckoning with oneself and figuring out an identity after hitting an artistic blockade, in this case it was actually much more literal. Morissette had been robbed at gunpoint, but a mere 24 hours later was in the presence of none other than the ‘Queen of Pop’ herself.
Madonna may often like to think that she has that heavenly effect on people, which may be an overreach in the majority of instances. But back in 1994, it did feel like she came down from on high to offer the Canadian starlet an elixir in the form of a record deal, and quite literally changed her fortunes from rags to riches in the space of a day.
Morissette had been building pace in her homeland over the course of the early 1990s by releasing her first two albums, Alanis and Now Is The Time, with a few modest hits to speak of. But sooner or later, she knew it was time to flee the nest in order to have a chance of truly fulfilling her dreams, and so jumped ship to Los Angeles in search of her future.
However, what screams ‘welcome to America’ the most? An armed robbery, that’s what. Yes, Morissette was initiated in her new home by being held at gunpoint, critically, while carrying a backpack that contained what would become her most prized possessions, such as the original lyrics for ‘You Oughta Know’ and early cassettes for Jagged Little Pill.
Thankfully for her, and as a testament to what must have been one of the worst robbers of all time, the thief only made off with the petty cash she had on her person and left her lyrics intact. They probably thought that was worthless, but little did they know that merely a day later, those sheets of scribbles they left behind would pave a whole future.
The next day, although probably still shaken, she found herself in the offices of Maverick Records, looking Madonna straight in the face. While it somewhat gives a vibe of a new pupil having to face the headteacher on their first day of school, the singer was resolute that the pop icon was the exact source of inspiration she needed in the moment.
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She later spoke of how Madonna’s “generous” spirit was precisely what spurred her on into taking the leap of faith and signing for the label, as “On some levels, I thought, ‘I kinda want to dive into this and see what happens,’” she said. Yet just like some form of religious intervention, “I didn’t imagine there had to be some preordained or predestined path I had to follow as such”.
Jagged Little Pill was released the following year without much expectation being loaded on it. It was Morissette’s debut effort into a much wider and more unforgiving world than she had ever known before. It represented the chance to sink or swim, but as soon as those first few kicks and splashes started moving her momentum in the right direction, she never looked back. It was almost like being robbed was her sign that things could only get better.
