As 2004 rolled into 2005, Fiona Apple was spending most of her days in a bathrobe, watching Columbo reruns on television. She had stopped recording her third album, Extraordinary Machine, because of disagreements with Sony Records, and began pondering what she might do without music in her life. But in January she received a call from her manager saying that a group of fans, operating under the name Free Fiona, had begun sending Sony symbolic apples and carrying signs outside the label's Manhattan offices, demanding that Extraordinary Machine be released. Apple, 28, was so inspired that she finished the album, rerecording many of the original tracks with Eminem producer Mike Elizondo, and finally released it in October. Apple, en route to a gig in San Diego, checks in from her bus, four dates into her first tour since a notorious meltdown onstage in New York in 2000.

How apprehensive were you about this solo tour? And how's it going?

For years -- literally -- I've been thinking and worrying going back out on the road again and playing my old songs. So I had a lot of anxiety about that; I don't listen to those songs anymore. So two days before rehearsal, I sat down at the piano, and the songs came back to me pretty quickly. I'm a lot calmer these days about everything. Touring seems easier than it used to be. I think it's because -- and this is going to sound bad -- but I don't care as much. Success isn't going to make or break me.

How many shows did you see this year?

[Laughs] I don't really go to shows. But you know what? I saw my sister [cabaret singer Maude Maggart] do a show, and I saw the Roots on Halloween. I loved both of those.

What is your favorite episode of Columbo?

Oh, I love the one with Ruth Gordon in it [Columbo: Try and Catch Me, 1977]. I love her. She plays an author who wrote murder mysteries. She locks this guy in a safe and then she kills him. That's my favorite.

Did you know you can buy Peter Falk's art on his Web site?

Yeah, yeah, yeah! I went to the Web site; I liked a lot of it. Actually, I was thinking that that would be a great way to meet him. I'd go sit with him, and he'd draw me, then I'd buy it [laughs].

What is that image on your record cover? It's like a budding flower.

Oh! There's a picture on the inside of a purple flower, and on the front is the purple flower before it blooms. I took that picture in my front yard about three years ago. I like how the little buds in it look like little fists. I also like the fact that using that picture meant I didn't have to do a photo shoot.

Have there been unbearable photo shoots this year?

I'm never going to love being at a photo shoot. It's just not gonna happen.

You decided to book a tour with Coldplay for 2006. Do you like that band?

To be completely honest, I haven't really listened to their stuff. I saw them do a Storytellers or something, and I thought they were very . . . nice. I like them. I'm doing it for the experience, to be part of that world for a while.

Have you done anything this year that could have gotten you killed?

If riding on the back of my brother's motorcycle counts. I didn't do anything like bungee jumping or shooting heroin.

An Army of One: Dave Airhart