Pink covers Billboard Magazine’s latest issue which is only getting play today (despite Billboard often being milquetoast) because of the striking cover and some interesting quotes the 32-year-old gives the magazine.
The singer talks about problems within her marriage and career over the past decade and how, when recently-signed artists approach her, she doesn’t even know what advice to give since the music industry’s mutated so much since she was signed over a decade ago.
On the mixer reactions to her Cover Girl contract: “I always read the responses from the fans. It was 99% positive, but I’ll always have that 1% that’s negative. And my favorite comment was, ‘Too bad they can’t Photoshop the bitch off your face.’ [laughs] That’s actually pretty good.”
On her career faltering within her native U.S. during the mid 2000s: “I never looked at it that way. I was always on the road in the U.K. and Australia, and things were really great over there. Then I got to come home and be left alone. And you know what? It gave me lot of time to create my show and to become a performer. I would go on 22-month tours and work my ass off, and it’s been the biggest blessing of my life that now I am a touring artist. It got me out of the popularity contest that music can be sometimes and gave me time to hone my craft as a stage performer. I’m also grateful, and I got to come back and do the Grammys [in 2010]. That was my ‘A-ha.’”
On the music industry now compared to when she started over a decade ago: “I’ll have 18-, 19-year-old artists who just got signed who’ll come to me asking for advice and I don’t know what to tell people anymore-it’s just so different now. There’s no record company budgets or big pop tours or million-dollar videos. People have to just get creative and figure it out. The music business has changed so much and I credit [weathering] that transition to my manager [Roger Davies] and to hard work. The joke was my first tour opening for ‘N Sync and my 10th tour was opening for Justin [Timberlake]. You have to be humble. I would go and do sold-out arena shows back to back all over Germany, then come and do 800-capacity clubs in Washington, D.C. You don’t ever get done paying your dues.”
On whether her songs reflect real life: “It’s funny. I wrote Family Portrait when I was 21 and my parents divorced when I was 9, so I tend to hold onto things. I’m still exorcising some of those demons. And look, I’m in a relationship that I’ve been in for 10 years and it’s never going to be perfect. Carey always jokes, ‘You’re always just mad enough at me to write a song.’ ‘Yep. Thanks, baby, you’re my muse.’” - via Billboard Magazine.
