Alanis Morissette -- Empowered by Openness

June 10, 2005 — -- Her songs captured her frustration, her resentments and her seething, vengeful rage toward the man who did her wrong. Some women get mad. Some women get even. Alanis Morissette seemed to want to do both.

Rolling Stone once dubbed Morissette an "angry white female" on its cover, but she now says a broader moniker would be more apt. "I think it would be 'Everything White Female' -- just, you know, really all these emotions, anger, sadness, confusion, joy, humor, all of it," she told "20/20's" Elizabeth Vargas.

Morissette's 1995 album "Jagged Little Pill" was a potent emotional stew with remarkable commercial appeal. The record sold more than 30 million copies. Its collection of intensely personal autobiographical songs transformed this slight, 5-foot, 4-inch-tall Canadian-born singer into the biggest thing in the music business.

A decade later, Morissette is releasing an acoustic version of "Jagged Little Pill." It is a new interpretation of songs that once redefined how women talked about their relationships with men. She was no Tammy Wynette -- standing by her man. Or even Aretha Franklin -- demanding some well-deserved respect. Alanis was an original -- in her lyrics she's mad as hell and refusing to take it anymore.

At 19, Morissette had created the best-selling record by a solo female artist -- ever. "Jagged Little Pill" won Grammys for Morrisette for best rock song, best female rock vocal performance and album of the year.

Morissette said she had always imagined herself on stage. "I always envisioned myself touring the planet, playing songs, playing live. I had always seen images of that in my head, but the rest was, you know, an interesting fun surprise," she said.

But going from anonymity to global stardom had its challenges. "It was overwhelming because I'd always been an observer of life. And right around 1995, I went from being the observer to being the observed. And that was really jarring for me," she told "20/20's" Elizabeth Vargas.

With her album topping the charts for more than a year, five songs getting heavy radio play and her music videos appearing almost non-stop on MTV, Morissette's extraordinary success left her wondering what the next career step could possibly be.

"At that point the question that was begged really for me was there do you go next? You know. Now what? So, I even at one point entertained the thought that maybe it was my time to die. You know, I had no idea what was to happen next," she said.

"The photos in my head disappeared because I had reached, you know, I'd grabbed the brass ring. So what wound up happening was the journey turned more inward more so than ever before," she told Vargas.

Morissette released two follow-up records which both sold well -- but neither came close to the sales or emotional impact of "Jagged Little Pill." The songs on the new records continued to strip bare her soul -- and, in the case of the video for her song "Thank You," even her body.

But what still resonates most with Morissette's fans was her willingness on that first record to open up -- to write about her sometimes dark, even vulgar inner demons and desires that other singers might be too frightened to reveal.

But Morissette told Vargas she doesn't regret any of the raw lyrics she crafted on "Jagged Little Pill." "I stand by it, because it takes a lot of energy, in my opinion, to figure out what I will share with people and what I won't," she said.

"There's an empowerment that comes from being really visible."

But Morissette wouldn't reveal the man who was the target of the pain-fueled lyrics of "You Oughta Know."

"When I wrote 'You Oughta Know,' I finally just let the flood gates open and, and wrote what I was feeling. I think it was understandably, maybe, interpreted as this revenge-seeking song, you know, and I can see how it would be interpreted as that, however, that was not my intention. My intention was to get it off my chest, and I did feel much better after having written it."

While she continues to keep the man who broke her heart private -- when it comes to the man now making her heart sing, there are no secrets.

She is engaged to comedic actor and fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds.

The couple has yet to set a wedding date, and Morissette admits struggling a bit with the concept of marriage. "The feminist in me has had a lot of issues with the whole concept of being a wife and what does that mean in 2005 versus what it means in the '40s and even in my mom's generation. And it's a huge passage," she said.

And she acknowledges that her past "Angry White Female" label must be a bit daunting for Reynolds. "He's probably nervous listening to any of my songs before he met me," she said.

Could their relationship end up as fodder for another album? "I'm still respectful of his privacy as such, but I'll write about anything," she said.

And that includes political issues she feels strongly about. On the new acoustic version of "Jagged Little Pill," Morissette altered the lyrics to her hit song "Ironic" as a show of support to the gay community. The original verse was about meeting the man of her dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife. In the new version, the man of her dreams now has a beautiful husband.

"I have so many friends that are homosexual and I just really you know adore these people period. Any time I can support the gay community in whatever way I can I want to show up big," she added.

Morissette is well aware of changes in the industry over the past decade -- including the impact of the Internet, file-sharing and iPods. But she is committed to making music -- whether it means selling three albums or 30 million. She says she'll be content no matter how many copies she sells.

"Whoever is supposed to hear it -- whoever is supposed to evolve along with me -- will," Morissette said.