Alanis Morissette Plots Return to Rock After "Weeds" Stint, Book

Long before Alanis Morissette joined the cast of Weeds this season, she was a huge fan. "I used to obsessively watch it in the back of my tour bus," she says. "I eventually arranged a meeting with [series creator] Jenji Kohan and said that if I could be a source of empathy or warmth towards the Nancy Botwin [played by Mary-Louise Parker], in the female form, I'd be up for it."

Kohan found her a fitting role, casting her as Dr. Audra Kitson, Botwin's obstetrician. (A new episode airs tonight, and the series wraps its fifth season in three weeks.) Morissette tells Rolling Stone she relishes the freedom that Showtime grants the show. "Censorlesness is exciting," she says. "We deal with abortion and the legalization or criminalization of cannabis. It's such a beautiful show for being a pointer toward some of the bigger conversations." Will she return next season? "I'm open to it," she says. "Where the season ended leaves it very open, so I'd be honored."

In the meantime, Morissette is midway through writing a book. "It's a non-linear book," she says. "It's about all the themes I obsess and pontificate over. All this sort of body-dysmorphia-spirit humor, travelogues, photographs, articles I've written in magazines with a lot of touching on health and detoxing and re-toxing and the importance of integrating it all." Morissette is also working on new music. "I have an idea for two records," she says. "Usually two journals make a record and I have about 10 full right now. As soon as the book is finished I'll dive into one of the two."

Morissette's new role on Weeds brings her career full circle, since she got her start on the 1980s Canadian children's TV show You Can't Do That On Television. Just last month the show's star Les Lye — who portrayed countless characters including Blip and Barf — passed away. "He was a genius," she says. "He was very kind to me and I never say him be anything but kind to anyone he interacted with. I didn't know him on a wildly personal level, but he always felt very paternal to me. He was the Joni Mitchell of TV shows."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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