Dave Coulier has opened up about the moment he realised he was the subject of Alanis Morissette’s song ‘You Oughta Know’, which remains one of the singer-songwriter’s biggest hits.
- READ MORE: Alanis Morissette – ‘Such Pretty Forks In The Road’ review: a cutting return after eight years away
Morissette dated the Full House star between 1992 and 1994, breaking up around the time that Morissette was writing her third studio album, ‘Jagged Little Pill’. ‘You Oughta Know’ was released as the album’s first single in July of 1995 (around a month after the album itself came out), and has gone on to become iconic as a breakup anthem.
Coulier first acknowledged similarities between the song’s content and his relationship to Morissette in 1997, but has shifted his perspective on whether or not it’s actually about him several times over the years. Now, in a new interview with SiriusXM presenters Jim Norton and Sam Roberts, the actor has once again acknowledged that he may be the subject of the acrimonious song.
Discussing the first time he heard ‘You Oughta Know’, Coulier said: “I’m driving in Detroit and I’ve got my radio on, and I hear the hook for ‘You Oughta Know’ come on the radio. I’m like, ‘Wow this is a really cool hook.’ And then I start hearing the voice and I’m like, ‘Wow, this girl can sing…’ And then I was listening to the lyrics, going, ‘Oh no. Oh, I can’t be this guy!’”
Coulier explained that he subsequently bought a CD copy of ‘Jagged Little Pill’, and upon listening to the album in its entirety, came across “a lot of familiar stuff in there that her and I had talked about”. He referenced the track ‘Right Through You’, saying that one lyric in particular – “Your shake is like a fish” – was a nod to the way he and Morissette would “do this dead-fish handshake”.
“I started listening to it and I thought, ‘Ooh, I think I may have really hurt this woman,’” Coulier continued. He and Morissette would later reconnect, however, and according to the actor, “she couldn’t have been sweeter”.
“I’ll tell you the kind of person she is,” he said. “When my sister Sharon was dying with cancer, Alanis was living in Toronto, my sister was in Detroit. She actually drove to Detroit with her guitar and sat with my sister, playing songs and singing with my sister in my hospital. That’s the kind of human being she is. So I’ve never had anything bad to say about her. She’s lovely.”
Have a look at Coulier’s full discussion about ‘You Oughta Know’ below:
Morissette has never formally acknowledged who ‘You Oughta know’ is about, however in the HBO documentary Jagged, she reportedly said outright that Coulier is not the song’s target.
That film attracted a certain amount of controversy when Morissette spoke out against its release last September. She rescinded her support for the film – which includes an eye-opening interview with the singer-songwriter – after it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, saying it contains “implications and facts that are simply not true”.
Back in April, Morissette shared an operatic redux of ‘You Oughta Know’, performing it with composer Duomo and orchestral troupe Kroma Strings to commemorate its inclusion in season two of Bridgerton. The following month, she joined Olivia Rodrigo to perform the song at a concert of hers in Los Angeles.
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