While many celebrities are notoriously private, Pink expresses her whole life in her music, at her shows and on social media.
She said she has received death threats over some messages she shared with her fans, but the singer isn’t letting that stop her from speaking to the masses.
“I guess I see that very specifically,” Pink said. “If I am a mystery to you, how can I expect you to connect with me? And if I’m a person desperate for connection, then why should mystery be of interest to me? I would like to get to know you. I want you to know me.”
The singer’s candor extends to her difficult childhood, including what she describes as her only regret in life.
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“I had a hit on the shoulder”
Pink grew up as a singer in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where she said she was bored and desperate to get away. Her home was full of tension. Pink’s father, Jim Moore, served in Vietnam.
The singer said her arguments with her mother as a teenager were horrific. An argument turned physical and Pink’s mother fell down the stairs, she said. Pink now calls this her only regret in life. She has since reconciled with her mother.
Cecilia Vega and Pink 60 Minutes
“I had a hit on my shoulder. Basically, I grew up in a house where my parents yelled at each other and threw things every day. They hated each other,” Pink said. “And then I took drugs. I sold drugs. And then I was kicked out of the house. I dropped out of high school. I was off track.”
The singer overdosed during a rave on Thanksgiving 1995. She said she almost died.
“And I remember my friend standing over me and punching me in the face. And he said, ‘Get up. You want to sing, don’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ He says, “Get on the microphone.” “So I got up and sang,” Pink said. “And the DJ there took me aside and said, ‘Come back tomorrow, I’ll give you a guest spot. But you must never touch drugs again.’ And I never did, not since then.
Within four weeks she was applying for record deals.
Walk alone
Her first contract was as a lead singer in an R&B girl group. She signed with LaFace Records.
“We were the token white girls on a black label,” Pink said.
She was told to take etiquette classes. Pink said she should learn to wear dresses and use the correct fork. She only made it to class once.
“I think they tried to turn me into something I didn’t want to be,” she said. “Image is everything in this business.”
She decided to use her teenage nickname, Pink, and go alone. Her first album was an R&B double platinum success. The singer then expanded her sound to include rock and pop. She called her next album “Missundaztood”. It was a career-defining hit, selling 15 million copies worldwide.
Since then, she’s had one hit after another, and each tour has been bigger than the last. Pink has sold $350 million in tickets worldwide so far this year.
Pink’s shows are a little different than most. Her 6-year-old son Jameson and 12-year-old daughter Willow often tour with her and ride their scooters on stage during sound checks. There is a tour library where the team exchanges books.
“There used to be whiskey and cigarettes in my dressing room. Then there were ball pits and stuffed animals,” Pink said.
Pink is known for her aerial stunts at her concerts. 60 minutes
It’s not just different behind the scenes – Pink’s shows also feature high-flying stunts.
The 44-year-old singer belts out her hits while spinning and flying 30 meters through the air.
Pink, who suffers from asthma, uses skills from childhood gymnastics classes as well as training sessions with aerialist trainer Dreya Weber to perform her stunts. The intense training means Pink can belt out her songs right side up, head down and even, as she showed on “60 Minutes,” with someone standing on her stomach.
“I’m not just a singer. I’m a gymnast,” Pink said. “I can do all sorts of things. I am physical. This body, these muscles that scare people – this is my power, right? It’s like, I don’t eat well to look good, I eat well to go far, fast and hard.
Pink’s “metaphorical machete”
Your strength is not just physical.
“I realize that the machete that I always had with me, that metaphorical machete that I always had with me that made me a really difficult kid, makes me really good at what I do today,” she said. “And it makes me a survivor.”
The singer feels like she needed that edge to make it as far as she has in the music business.
“I never got a record deal because I was cute. “I got a record deal because I was fiery, had a lot to say and had a voice,” she said. “So I’m relieved that I don’t have to resort to conventional beauty. And that doesn’t have to be my thing. And I don’t have to keep it up as I get older. I don’t have to. I can be all of that.
For Pink, that includes being a woman you don’t want to mess with, she said.
Pink 60 minutes
“I know what certain people think of when they look at me, right down to the fact that I’m muscular, outspoken and have short hair. I may be a guy, definitely a lesbian. That’s kind of what people say. ‘You’re in a box no matter what you look like,'” she said. “And my opinion is that expressing your opinion and not conforming to social norms is scary and dangerous.”
What’s next for Pink?
This defiance has been part of the singer’s appeal to many of her fans over the course of her 25-year career. And now Pink is planning her next chapter. It’s what any self-respecting acrobatic, sequin-loving entertainer would do: a Las Vegas residency.
“I would like to have the best show Vegas has ever seen. And I think I can do that,” she said. “For an artist like me to have a stage that doesn’t have to travel, oh my God, there’s so much you can do.”
After all these years, Pink continues to demand more of herself – physically, emotionally, spiritually and artistically. She wants to keep raising the bar.
“I like going against social norms. When people say a woman needs to slow down, become smaller, take up less space, calm down, no. Absolutely not,” she said. “Why? Who says that? Why can’t we ride until the wheels fall off? That’s what I plan to do.”
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