Katy Perry revealed her religious’ parents reaction to her 2008 hit “I Kissed a Girl.”
During her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, released on Wednesday, host Alex Cooper asked what Keith Hudson and Mary Perry thought about the song, with lyrics that include: “I kissed a girl and I liked it / The taste of her cherry Chapstick / I kissed a girl just to try it / I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it / It felt so wrong, it felt so right / Don’t mean I’m in love tonight.”
“I knew you came from a religious background, but then one of your first giant hits is ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ which is a complete departure from what we’re talking about,” Cooper said. “How did this song come to be because I can imagine, like, what did your family think? Tell me everything.”
“My sister told them that it was coming out,” the 39-year-old said, referring to her older sister Angela Hudson. “I was like, ‘You gotta deliver the message.'”
The 13-time Grammy Award nominee explained during the podcast that her parents practice a strict version of Christianity. Growing up, she attended church on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings as well as Wednesdays. She also wasn’t allowed to trick or treat on Halloween because it’s “the devil’s holiday” and wasn’t allowed to eat Lucky Charms cereal because “luck is derivative from Lucifer.”
Perry moved to Los Angeles when she was 17 and said she saw a “whole different perspective.”
“I met different people and I’m like, ‘Oh, you’re not a bad person. I grew up thinking you were this way. I was taught this way.’ So I saw more humanity. And then even traveling around the world once I had my success, I was like, ‘Woah, these cultures believe in this, and this is how they work.'”
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The former American Idol judge said she started experimenting with her sexuality at 17 after not having “as many rules and restrictions.”
“I had those experiences and then I sang about them,” she said with a shrug.
Perry noted she was 23 years old when “I Kissed a Girl” was released. “I was a young adult, you know? But it was tough. It was tough for them,” she said speaking about her parents. “When any child takes a departure, when any child doesn’t become the doctor, lawyer, you know? It’s tough.”
The pop star is a mom to daughter Daisy Dove with her fiancé Orlando Bloom, and the latter is also a dad to Flynn Bloom, whom he shares with his ex-wife, model Miranda Kerr.
“I’m gonna have my tough moments too I’m sure,” Perry said about parenthood, joking that her daughter sings her song “Peacock,” which is a “double entendre about d****.”
“My karma has now served me,” she said.
Newsweek reached out to Perry via email for additional comment.
In April, Keith Hudson and Mary Perry attended the 35th Annual Colleagues Spring Luncheon and Oscar de la Renta Fashion Show, where Perry was honored with the Colleagues Champion of Children Award for her work with the Firework Foundation, an organization that empowers children from underserved communities.
“They gave me my compass in a lot of ways,” Perry said of her parents on Call Her Daddy. “They really gave me a lot of integrity. They taught me how to treat people.”
