Katy Perry: 'I didn't have a childhood'

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Katy Perry says she did not have a childhood with her evangelical minister parents, who allowed her to read only the Bible and even banned terms like "deviled eggs".

"I didn't have a childhood," Perry told Vanity Fair in an interview for its June edition. "I come from a very non-accepting family, but I'm very accepting."

"Sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up," she said. "Mine grew up with me. We co-exist. I don't try to change them anymore, and I don't think they try to change me. We agree to disagree. They're excited about [my success]."

Perry, 26, rose to stardom in 2008 with her hit single I Kissed a Girl and by promoting herself as a sex kitten.

Her first stab at a music career was through a gospel music album. But the cover of her latest hit Teenage Dream, features her lying naked on a pink cloud.

The Firework singer — who wants her ashes shot out over the California coast in a firework — said her friends had to sneak her CDs as a child because secular music was banned in her California home.

Phrases like "deviled eggs" and the name of the vacuum cleaner Dirt Devil were also banned, and Perry said she was led to believe that the family planning group Planned Parenthood was only an abortion clinic.

"I was always scared I was going to get bombed when I was there ... I didn't know it was more than that, that it was for women and their needs. I didn't have insurance, so I went there and I learned about birth control," she said.

Faith

Perry married British comedian Russell Brand in a Hindu ceremony in India in October 2010. But she said that while Brand was involved in Hinduism, she was not, and that she had always questioned her family's strict Christian faith.

"I have always been the kid who's asked ‘Why?' In my faith, you're just supposed to have faith. But I was always like ... why?" she said. "At this point, I'm just kind of a drifter. I'm open to possibility."

She said that she hopes that her music remains the focus of fans, rather than her appearance or her personal life.

"I don't care what people say about my relationship; I don't care what people say about my boobs. People are buying my songs; I have a soldout tour. I'm getting incredible feedback from my music," Perry said. "I already know my future evolution, where I'm going to go."

 
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