Page 7 - Pop History: Kesha Pt. I

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

We're animals this week as we kick off our series on Kesha.Want even more Page 7? Support us on Patreon! Patreon.com/Page7PodcastKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I mean, it's like I want to start by singing praying, but I know that I shouldn't. Because you know what? Tick-tok on the clock and up on the down. Tick-tok. Whoa. Home because we're drunk. We're drunk in the morning and we're fucked up at night. Yes, sweet.

I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums. Boom, boom. Oh, what a shame that you came here with someone. So while you're here in my arms, let's make the most of the night, because we're gonna die young. Too late, guys. I'm gonna die young. You didn't. I'm sorry to tell you.

Yeah. We made it past the age of dying young, unfortunately. No, I'm very happy to still be here. Doing an episode on Keisha, y'all, I'm such a big fan of Keisha. Oh yeah, it's Kesha, right? It is Kesha. I say Keisha, you're going to have to deal with it, and Keisha's going to have to deal with it. Oh, God.

Everyone's ears is going to bleed. She's had enough trouble. Why do I say Keisha and not Keisha? I don't know. And people go, it's Kesha. And I'm like, it's Keisha. I can't say it. I don't know why.

But I will say, die young, probably my first favorite Keshah song. I guess I'll say it right. You got to do it. Probably my first Keisha song, first favorite. And one of my favorite memories I have for my wedding is during the dance part of the reception, I had Die Young on the playlist and just kind of spontaneously everyone decided that was the song all the little kids were going to hit the dance floor

and dance along to. And it was one of the funniest most morbid, hilarious moments of my wedding and any wedding I've been to, I was just dying laughing because all these little kids are just like, we're going to die. These little toddlers and stuff. It was so fucking funny. But yes, it's been so much fun to,

listen through her discography again. I think it's just like a nice tight burst of fun as fuck dance and pop music. I was, you know, it was really fun to listen to. I've been running again in my neighborhood. It was really fun listening to her music while like doing exercise as well. And we are who we are came on. And like I had that awesome moment that music can give you where you get like tingles all over your body. Like I picked up my pace. I was like going down like a decline. I just fucking started banging it out and just like just had this like big inspo moment with her music. And I've had so many of those with her because die young as well. I've had moments where I was listening to that song and just got like tingles all over and

just felt like a weird sense of like overconfidence and power that her music just gives me. I just love her bad girl. Like I want that I love that bad girl energy. Well, I was wondering. I saw you jogging. I was wondering why you were covered in glitter. Yeah. Well, I'm going, I'm having, I'm going through a face.

You know what I mean? I'm going through a phase right now. I do think that her music is perfect for our transition, not only from into spring, but into the world of vaccinated people, things opening again and listening to her music, I'm just like, I'm going to eat the dance. Oh, man. It's going to, we're going to get sick. Totally.

You're going to get sick. And her music, too, is such perfect pregame music. It just gets you so hype to, like, get hammered at the club or, like, whatever, see all your friends. Man, I don't know if you guys were into her around when she was coming out. I wasn't really. Me neither. I was, that was when I had just gotten into Los Angeles for the first time.

Oh, perfect. So when I was watching her videos this week, I did get a bit of an eye twitch because it was just like reliving. Yes. Exactly. Her videos were what my life was at the time. Little upsetting. But, you know, fun. I got through it.

It was good. Just waking up, hung over in a room full of hot people. Well, yeah. Her touring band were some of the people that were always in our circles. I was like, hey, I was getting wasted with Keshra's band, but I didn't listen to her at the time. Yeah, and me neither. And, you know, it's definitely something, in fact, that I would even say maybe have been a turnoff back when she was, those first couple albums were coming out, Animal and Cannibal, the EP. Well, because how she was really being pushed was she is just,

a party girl and and if you're not with it then get fucked and it was a very divisive her fan base is divisive it is very much like you either love her or you fucking get the fuck out of my voice definitely like a fandom before it was like as toxic as it is now but she definitely had like her the animals but it was also yeah it was like this whole aesthetic of like added to pop of this of like trashy white girl essentially which is why I love it Yeah, which is why I love it now. And also, like, perfect because, you know, I'm sure we'll talk about when she did her promier on The Simple Life,

like that, like, like, yeah, like slightly rich, slightly trashy blonde was really big at that time. And with the snotty wraps and you can go get fucked in the back of the, yeah. I'm a sexy mean girl, but I can also rap, sort of. But not really. And then that's sort of like obnoxious in its own way. And I think back in the day, I found that to be a bit of, a turn off and now I find it to be like actually really endearing and I just sort of like love

the energy of it. Oh sure. It's cute. And also, sorry, I also I just wanted to say I didn't, I think maybe I didn't jive with her back then because you don't even know how beautiful her voice is. Yes. Because everything was auto-tuned in every one of her songs for like five years. And nothing really was like, None of it was until praying until that album, nothing was really a true showcase of her vocal. And she's so, I mean, her voice is stunning. I cried. I cried listening.

And I think that that is exactly what her people wanted her to be seen as. And that is something that we will get into. However, up top, I do want to make mention that everything that goes on between her and Dr. Luke and the things that would require a trigger warning are not going to be discussed in this episode. That will be discussed in next episode when we get in the next episode when we get into the trial of Kesha and Dr. Luke when we are joined by our friends over at exceedingly persuasive and we're going to talk the trial gossip. But just so you know.

I'm very interested to get into that. And they've got a lot of opinions apparently. They have lots of opinions about it. And I'm very curious about that because as an outsider, as someone that I have always enjoyed Kesha's music, looking into her arc is amazing. Yeah. Now I am an animal, I will say. I really, I love it.

You're an animal before you did this research, Jackie. Oh, I'm ready, baby. Get out the glitter. I'm ready to go because she has worked for fucking everything that she has ever gotten. Yeah. And she's not even really a rich girl. No, no. She just comes off like that in the album.

Yes, but they made her that. Yes. They made her into that. And I think that actually would surprise me the most is everything that I would imagine. I had heard that she and her mother had a very tight relationship, but in everything that I had heard about her childhood, I thought that that was very paradoxical. But then in looking into her childhood,

it makes a lot of sense. And as opposed to a lot of people that I feel that have that crazy drive that come from a very toxic lifestyle, it was definitely, I'm sure she's had to talk about it in therapy a couple of times, for sure. But she, it was definitely, she was raised in a very loving way, regardless of how it was seen on the outside. And we'll go on to see that she and her mother still collaborate. And they write music together and they perform together.

In fact, I was watching Pebebe and Kesha perform in 2017, and she will still join her on stage and sing with her. And I'm sobbing as I'm watching them sing the song that she wrote for Dolly Parton together. And it's beautiful. That's cool. Oh, also I will say we do have one trigger warning. Eating disorders, y'all. Yes. Yeah.

We will get into that. I don't know why I make it sound like it's fun. It does. It's kind of fun. I think it's because it's that fun, snotty girl energy that we got right now. We're totally going to talk about Malibia later. Woo!

Yeah. I'm governed and snout. But before we get to that point, yeah, I just love her and I'm excited to get into it. And I've always wanted to know her life story. I saw her recently. I watched her on Whitney Cummings podcast, and she was just so, she just, I was like, there's a just, you know, as much as she was wearing a necklace of, that was made out of a bunch of teeth that her fans sent her.

Hell yeah. At the same time, I was like, this is just like a very normal seeming person I would love to hang out with. Yes. So she's just surprisingly down to earth. I guess it's fine. Yeah, yeah. Shockingly down to earth. But let's get into it.

Let's get into the life and times of Kesha. Yeah. Good job. Kesha. Singer, songwriter, rapper. That's right, I'm calling her a rapper. And actress that achieved two number one albums in the U.S. with 2010's Animal and 2017's Rainbow.

Her career was halted in the mid-2010s due to a legal dispute with her former producer. And again, we will get into that next week. But let's start in Los Angeles, California, in 1987. It's a good year. That's your I was born. Oh, my God. She has a very different life than mine. Wow.

She's your age. She's also younger than me. I just thought it felt like she was older than me. There you go. Just didn't do enough. Didn't live up to my potential. I apologize to my senior yearbook. In high school, I apologize.

I mean, as we'll get into, that amount of success at that age comes at a price. That is true, actually. So there you go. I'm actually, I was calculated. I did this on purpose being where I'm at. Keshah Rose Seabert is her birth name.

Her mother is singer-songwriter who co-wrote the single Old Flames can't hold a candle to you, which we just spoke towards as being made popular by Dolly Parton in 1980. She was born with a tail. And she said about this, it was a tiny tail, about a quarter of an inch,

then they chopped it off and stole my tail. That was when I was little. I'm really sad about that story. And it is kind of almost like a metaphor for her whole career a little bit. Interesting. Wow. It was probably for the best.

I feel like isn't that just like an addition onto your spine that could eventually create issues? It's an extension of your, I think, your coxics bone and it would be, like, it'd be in the way when you would like sat. Well, everybody knows that my coxics bone is huge. Her mother struggled to support Keshya

and Keshah's older brother as a single mother and had to rely on food stamps and welfare to get by at times. Ketha said, one of my first memories was of my mother saying, if you want something at Target, you have to take it. It was a kitty cat stuffed animal. I don't remember if I took it or not. I was about three or four.

at the time, but I was happy. And I think it is adorable that Peeby was very supportive of her daughter's dreams. Like down to the point that Peeby was bringing her as an infant on stage with her when she would perform. And at the age of two is when Keshah started saying that she wanted to be a singer and her mother completely supported all of her dreams. And like I said, they were writing music together, but they started writing music together when Keshire was like 12.

Yeah. And she said, even like, if we were in a fight about my room not being clean. All of a sudden, we would leave the bullshit at the door, and we would get in a room with a piano and a guitar, and write the most sincere, beautiful music. You really can't front when you're right with your mom. That's so cool.

Can you, I think it's the opposite relationship I have with my mother. I'm saying a little bit. Yeah, I definitely not write songs with mama. It is beautiful, but I imagine it was a rough way. I mean, the idea of if you want it, you got to take it. Uh-huh, uh-huh. But as a mother, I could see that being a perfect crime. You get your kid, your three or four year old to steal things.

And then if they're caught, you're like, oh, she doesn't understand. It's cute. This is also why when everyone is at the TSA line screaming because they have to take their kid out of the stroller that's screaming because they have to go through the stroller. It's because of the drugs that people hide in the strollers. And then so that's why. So really, thanks. And I now have to put my coke up my ass. What is this conversation become?

Another really interesting point of Ketch's childhood, I would say, is definitely the lack of her biological father being in her life. And her mother, through that, instilled in her a concept of being self-sufficient. It is crazy, though, because it seems that if I'm picking up what they're putting down, Pee-B wanted a child. And just. And wanted a Pisces. So, Kesh was very open with the fact she said, Peeb decided to have a child. she wanted a Pisces, so she enlisted the help of friends to accomplish the goal. It was more or less planned, and I have so much respect for her.

She's amazing, both masculine and feminine, and taught me everything I know. I want to make sure that people know I have so much respect for single mothers and women who go out and have children like that and just do it on their own. I could do it myself one day. So then all of this stuff with her dad, which I read so many disputed things of a dude that she lived with that was like, he's like, I'm her father. And so she lived with him and she's like, I don't think that this is my dad. My favorite thing about it is that the reason why she thought that, uh, uh, or knew that it wasn't

his dad was because he played video games all day, which I take as a personal insult, she said, you know those video game chairs like the guy has and 40 year old virgin? You have two of them. He had, I know I do. He had one of those. I was like, there was no way that half of my DNA is made up of a guy who has a video game chair and plays it all the time. I take it as a personal offense. You should. You absolutely should. And this is coming from a woman that claims that her IQ is genius level. Thank you very much.

Didn't they like, isn't there provably she almost got a perfect on her SATs? She did. I saw that fact. I do also kind of love. Apparently she was in the IB program, which was the program Henry. Yeah, yeah. IBs, again, that's like the super smart. And it does make sense. Which I always kind of wondered because TikTok is spelled incorrectly. Talk T-O-K theory of knowledge is a class that you take in IB, which the teacher that taught us, it was all about conspiracy theories and things like that. So some do believe that it was a nod to her class that she took an ID. Interesting. And then the app took that spelling.

And then the app just took it. The app took it. I forget, did she try to sue for that or anything? I doubt it. It just seems a bit obvious. that it came from that pop song. I imagine it would only help her in sales, right? I guess she doesn't need to help.

I got her TikTok, man, and that's everywhere. Kesh has said about her mother, she taught me that you don't need anybody else to validate anything. She wanted a child, she had me, she didn't want a man to tell her when and what to do. I think that's badass. She's a strong woman, a total hippie.

I've never heard of anybody getting Jizzed in specifically nine months before the... Have a Pisci. Astrology sign. And I know that Ketha's... Dick energy right there is. Spirituality does definitely,

she definitely enjoys astrology as a foundation for spirituality. Oh yeah. She says she's obsessed with religion because she got her first kiss at a Nashville megachurch and attended a Catholic high school where the cool kids love Jesus

and listen to switch foot. Homophobia and false piety eventually alienated Kesha from Christianity and she's since settled on a non-denominational cocktail of meditation, mindfulness, and astrology. She's a proud double pice sees uses pattern, not co-star, and says,

Ram Dass's Be Here Now changed her life. This is something that will come back again too, because largely what she bases a lot of her strength in writing, eventually coming out and writing the music she wants to write, is a lot due to meditation, which makes a lot of fucking sense as someone that has been getting more into meditation during the quarantine. I think that it really does help prioritize things. in your mind. Sure. 100%.

You mentioned Nashville just a little while ago. In 1991, Peeb moves to Nashville after getting a publishing deal for her songwriting. She would bring Kesha to the recording studios and had Kesha singing from an early age in those spaces after noticing her natural talent. So she's getting used to not just songwriting

with her mom, but working in a recording studio with her mom at such an early age to just make her such a young pro. She definitely felt like an outcasted high school. a weirdo that would show up in homemade purple velvet pants and purple dyed hair. She was a band kid, a band nerd after my own heart. She played trumpet and later saxophone in the marching band. I love seeing there's some videos of her from high school,

and I would have been friends with her 100%. She just looked like, and I'm not sure of her drug usage, but I will say she looked like she would have rolled with us pretty easily. So her career starts essentially here in her teens while she's in high school. She records some demos. So she's also in a band at this time with her brother, Lagan. And with Pee-B... I think that's how you say it.

It's L-A-G-A-N. I think that's how you say it. Lagan. Lagan, maybe? Let's say Lagan. Lagen. I'm a layman. I'm going to go with Lagan.

Okay, Lagan. With P-B, she also writes the song, Stephen, which you might recognize off of her first album Animal. And it's a really fun song. I really enjoy this one. She writes this at the age of 16. It has this country music influence and it's about a boy that just won't call her. Kesh has said, I wrote it about this guy that I've been stalking since I was like 15, but he's a total loser.

So I don't want to glorify him in any way, which is such a high school opinion about, such like an 18-year-old's opinion about the person they had a crush on two years before that. Yeah, totally. So funny. So she decides to leave high school early. She moves back to Los Angeles to pursue her music career. This is crazy, though, because at this point in time, So she drops out of high school, even though she was accepted into Barnard for music and dropped out of high school.

This is where Dr. Luke does come in because he is the one that influenced her to move to L.A. at this time period. But what was she doing? She was living in her grandfather's Lincoln Continental. She's like, I lived in it for like weeks. I parked it at the beach because I didn't have an apartment. It was really roomy, spacious, comfortable. I can't complain. And she's amazing.

She talks about how she was like... He can see the positive of almost anything. And if there is something that I'm really taking from Kesha, is that she has been given a lot of shit. And she is so positive. And she struggles with her positivity. And that shows. And I'm so endeared to her.

I love it. And I love that she's also one of those people that I can't even claim to be, where she's like, I was poor as fuck. I had a great time in life then. And I'm rich now and I'm having a good time in life now. And like, honestly, sometimes I miss elements. of those days, you know what I mean? Whereas with me, I'm like, ew, a cacca car.

I can't la, la, la, live in the that. Yes. And then you watch Nomadland, which is, I'm not going to start talking about it right now, but And then you go, you watch Nomadland. Yeah, you watch Nomad Land, you're just like, ew! No, that's not it. That's the takeaway. That's not the takeaway.

It's a thing called, ooh, madland. Ew. It's a terrible title. So yes, Dr. Luke, I'll just say to briefly talk about him because he's evil and he's bad. Oh, wait. Before we get there. Oh, okay, yeah. This is also the time period, this is also the time period, which I think is very fun, that she notoriously broke into Princess Beverly Hills Mansion. How can I forget? Yeah, with the purple dumpster in the back.

That she is straight up because thirsty for it. This is the thirst that does get you in front of people. Unfortunately, it was in front of the wrong people. but she straight up broke into, she went up to the security guard. She was like trying to break in. The security guard comes over to him. He was like, what are you doing?

She's like, I was breaking in because I wanted to give Prince my demo tape. And the security guard laughed, opened up the gate and was like, you can just leave it if you want. Like, I mean, he's not here. And she's like, okay. So she like goes inside, looks around.

And then the security guard is with her. So she like puts down the thing with a note on it. And later on, she's like, I might issue a formal apology and, like, try and pull him up on stages before he died and make him dance with me. I'd want to say, sorry if you think I'm crazy. I'm not. I'm just ambitious. And I do love, it is a very, it seems a very Kesha move to be like, just straight up, not lying about him. I'm like, I was breaking in so that I could give him my demo tape.

I do think that those moments in life where you are, say, living in a car, you kind of can get a perspective of just being like, well, Fuck it. Yeah. I mean, this is technically, quote unquote, like a rock bottom for some. Whereas for some people,

it's like, well, I didn't even have a car to live in. You know, living in your car is definitely a, you know, as someone that has slept in my car many times

or has definitely woken up in a car many times with the keys under the car, not inside of the car because you could be arrested for a DUI. Everybody knows that Joel

was the first person to ever sleep in their car. You're right. Oh, she is. Oh, your hands are so small, but we're not talking about those small hands right now. I would worry about Jewel in a car. She's very frail. Oh, she is.

We will be, in a couple weeks, too, we will be doing the episode on Jules' car. No, we're not. Just the car. And then the car said, man, she had tiny hands. That car wrote that song, just so you know. So, yes, Luke, Lucas, Sebastian got walled. He got his start on Saturday Night Live in the band as an lead guitarist, 1997. and played on the show for a decade.

He met producer Max Martin, producer on songs like Baby One More Time. We definitely talked about Max Martin, and he was actually DJing a house party. Max Martin took him under his wing, which is so fascinating because, of course, Baby One More Time, and when he talked about how this was this kind of fucked up song

about, like, sexy baby and all that kind of stuff. So interesting pedigree there. Lucas started two music publishing companies during this time. He was behind a number of hits, especially, Sent you Benga. I can't breathe for the first time. That is such a good song. Oh, we are going to do Kelly Clark.

Of course. I stunned her. If anything, just because from Justin to Kelly. It's a movie. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And then, oh, that might have to be a Twitch watch after we're done with Twilight.

Okay. Yes. Also, who knew for Pink and a girlfriend for Avril Levine? So a bit of a hit maker there. Dr. Luke was looking for more artists to produce hits for and got that Kesha. demo. And it had a country ballad she wrote herself and a trip hop track that stood out as she actually did that white girl rap stuff. At the end of it, she said like, I'm a white girl

from theville, Nashville, bitch. Uh-uh. Apparently was what she did. I do love Dr. Luke did say, I thought her voice was distinctive and I fell in love with her personality. She had the same sass and irreverence she has now. So I imagine, again, he just listened to her tape and was like, yeah, You should come here. I could suck out this child's essence and use it. And he certainly did. But I do think that that is something that you do learn young in this industry is that just because someone says, yeah, come out.

I will show you the world that they ain't all allowed. They're not a genie. Yes. And yeah, I will say, though, if I did like this quote, even though it's not necessarily from the best source, but about standing out as an artist when you're trying to break through. He said, that's when I was like, after hearing that rap at the end, she said, that's when I was like, okay, I like this girl's personality. When you're listening to 100 CDs, that kind of bravado and chutzpah stand out. And that is just to say, even though I don't want to necessarily impress this guy, but I think it is important to think about like, how do I not just do what every, like, how do I, like envision a world where I'm putting a demo tape in with a hundred other demo tapes.

Right. Yeah. And that's the, I think when she was mentioning at some point that she didn't really fit in because she was. she was dyeing her hair and stuff in a world of very conformative people. And that usually is... Especially for pop music at this time period. Yeah, for sure. And that sort of alienation sometimes is what you need to succeed because you're not doing exactly the same thing everybody else is doing. Totally.

It might make you feel like a weirdo at the time, but then that's what you need to suddenly your taste maker. And unfortunately, Dr. Luke is very talented. And he is good at spying young talent and especially young talent that he can mold and do with what he will. And I do, this is not getting into it, but I just thought it was so funny that someone that wouldn't even want to be kept anonymous that has worked with him for a very long time was like, Luke is a terrible person. He's very talented, obviously. He's a guitar player, interested in pop beats. Wait, who said that?

This is a top music manager that has worked with him for a long time. Great. He said, but he's diabolical. no one likes dealing with him. He'll do anything to fuck over everyone. This thing with Kesha is a perfect example. He could have let her out of a deal a year ago. Her career was already on its downside,

but he's such an asshole? He just wouldn't do it. And this is something that he has done to multiple people. But again, this does set it up. He just did like a dojit cat. He's doing like dojic cat stuff. I mean, unfortunately, not to armchair therapist, but he's probably some form of, you know,

borderline or sociopathic in the sense that he can just, he'll just crush. He doesn't have any guilt about what he does, but that makes him successful, you know. It's going to be interesting. This is like a little, almost a little precursor for next week, but I am already like so ready to get into this. I mean, as upsetting as it's going to be, this is going to be a fascinating trial. And it's an interesting thing to get into as a way to, when something that I love that Keshis is time and time again, when people are like, people, everyone wants to be.

Kesha, what do you say? What's your first piece of advice? She's like, get a good lawyer. Make sure, no matter before you sign any contracts, no matter how little money you have, you get a lawyer. This is the hard thing about show business though.

Because you don't have any money. At 21-year-old, someone said get a lawyer. Not only do you not have any money, but like there's this weird transition phase where you go from like, I'll do anything to be able to just do what I love for a living or get famous, whatever the fuck you're trying to do. And then there's this point.

point where you hold back, you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, now you're going to take it into a bad place. And it's like, that desperation gets you in trouble. Yes, because. And that go-getter attitude gets you in trouble. Like in 2008 with Wright Round, which we're about to talk about, where essentially is the same kind of thing like a Phil Specter where they just, it's like, it's like a little, I'm sorry, another Disney reference, it's like a little mermaid thing. Yeah. They just take her voice and don't give her any fucking money for it. Because you're thirsty for it.

That was a crazy revelation to me because that's a huge hit. So yes, Kesh is signed to Luke's label Kim Usabi Records at the age of 18. It's owned by Sony Music Entertainment and Luke's publishing company prescription songs. And in 2008, Dr. Luke got up with rapper

Flo Rida. Hey, I don't know much of his work. I mean, that song's a bop. That's a great song, bro. I almost can, I can almost say that this is like a more healthy version of getting your, intro into the music world because at least with this she did you know just the the chorus backups

and then her voice is out there that gets her in a lot of doors and gives her a lot of power she doesn't have to go to a when a rainbow party or something like that she's already owned by dr luke so it doesn't even matter so that shit like that parts the way worse to me if it was just a pure i'm young you maybe not are going to like pay me for this but then i can access these other things. That's way more cool, in my opinion, than signing off all of your rights to everything you do for, like, the next 10 years to some piece of shit. And then you have to re-record all of your albums. Yeah, I understand you're making reference to Taylor Swift right now, but that's fine. We'll get to her later, Natalie. We're not there yet, okay? We're talking about cash out, please. So, yes, she does the chorus hook on You Spin Me Round, like a record originally done by the band Dead or Alive. They used that sample in the 19. 84 song. They need a female singer, so they bring her in. And at that time, she's making do as a

waitress. She is just desperately trying to break in. It just made me think of 20 feet from stardom with Darlene Love because I've got this quote. She said, I would hear my voice everywhere. I'd walk into a movie and it would be playing. I'd walk into a Walgreens. The grocery store was playing at a time when I didn't even have enough money to buy my groceries in like a dollar store. That's got to be insane. And yeah, she actually, and that's why it's kind of funny to think about it now because I don't think anyone realizes this. She added that dollar sign to her name around this time when she was broke

as fuck. As an ironic gesture. She came from no money and even though like she came up in, you know, with her mother being a singer songwriter. Again, a singer songwriter and you have to remember that people that are singer songwriters a lot of times, if you

don't make it, get abused. Because they, their talent is sucked from them off times. Of course there are people that that doesn't happen to, but a lot more times than not, people are used for what they do and don't get paid a lot of money or don't get paid royalties. And it sounds like her mom, you know, her mom got a publishing deal in Nashville, which is great, but, you know, those come and go.

I don't think she had very steady work. So again, yeah, not coming from a ton of money. It's gig work, which all of us are very august and do. It's not forever, and you don't know how long you're going to have money for. She also appeared in Katie Perry's I kissed a girl video. I did watch that as a week, and I spotted her. Oh, yeah. This is this really fun, I feel like, phase in pop music where it was all these like shitty, like bad girls.

Like Lily Allen in Britain, you've got Katie Perry and you've got Kesha in a second here. And they're all essentially just like, fuck guys. We get drunk. We don't give a shit. We use men. Like men have been using us for the past several decades. I got up on that ideology at this time period for a bit of time. I mean, at the time it was really relevant.

Now I think the song would come across is like a little bit as we're addressing all of these different things. It's aggressive. Aggressive in a way, yeah, but during this time period, there was, it was so bro heavy and it makes sense that she would be like, they can't even talk like this. I'll fucking talk about punching you in the dick. Right, right, right, right. Kiss with a fist even from Florence in the Machine. You had, oh, who was another one I had just thought of?

But yeah, it was a lot of like, we're girls, we're going to kiss other girls. We're going to talk about guys like their objects for once. Yeah. And, yeah, all that kind of stuff. Because I remember one of Lily Allen songs is about, like, a guy who, like, couldn't get it up. And so she's like, fuck off. Or like his dick was too small or something like that. She was really rough.

She made me feel bad, her songs. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Hold on. Well, that's okay. I got a pump and we're good. But, yeah, they, she also did background vocals for the song Lace and Leather performed by Britney Spears. And a guy named it David Sondon. her, talking about Kasha, of course, going back to her, signed on to be her manager, DAS Communications, Inc, and managed to almost get her over at Warner Brothers.

She ends up dropping DAS around this time. Dr. Luke pulls her into that recording session, and then she goes on to, you know, not get credited, but, as she said, quote, you've got to pay some dues. And even with that, that she could be like, fuck all that shit. And she's not. She's like, I had to pay dues. I mean, I was broke. but, you know, I kept going, and it's just that positive attitude that makes me love her. Yeah, and I love this quote from her about essentially her approach to pop, especially at this time.

What I'm bringing to the pop table is that I'm not pretentious. I'm fighting this war against all that because pop music, in my opinion, should be fun. One of the most important things in the world is having the ability to turn someone's mood from mediocre to excellent in three minutes. It's like a fucking magic trick. And I love that. And it's so true. And that is exactly what some of her songs can. even do for me can just like bring my mood out in such a great way. And I think that that's why maybe

people really connect kids at that age connected to her because they felt she was genuine. It didn't feel like a rich girl was coming in and just like talking down to them. She was like, yeah, I'm also a trash person. Yeah. Which I think it's great. Yeah. So, so, at least the dues were paid. And she did, it did open the door right round did to her signing a multi-album deal with RCA records. She liked the A&R executive over at RCA. She went with them because the A.R. exec was a lady named Ronnie Hancock, and she said that Ronnie doesn't ever try to censor me, and I like being surrounded by strong, intelligent women. And so they soon record the song, blah, blah, blah. And that's when she started doing the whole talk rapping in a blonde-esque sort of

way. That one is very specifically a lot of like punching dicks. Yes. Slapping. Oh, yes. And I do think it's fun because now she's starting to work on Animal. And with Animal, she scored three top 10 singles, all of which she co-wrote. And the current one at the time of this interview, Your Love is My Drug, she had written with her mother. Yes.

Which is awesome that she's writing these hits with her mom. She said she helped complete my thoughts. She's an incredible songwriter. Her and I are best friends. I'm just really honest with her, as I am with the entirety of the world at this point. And what she's doing, she says, is all in good fun. My intention is to make people happy and give them a momentary escape from reality.

And I feel that that is a fun perspective of making party music. Yeah, yeah. And that is what she, but that is what her intention was that even though as time went on, she wanted to say more with her music, at this point, she was like, I'm, I want to have fun. I wanted to let, like, women know that it's cool and okay for them to have fun. and like embrace a party lifestyle. I really feel like I would have liked her music more at the time if they just would have let her use her actual voice a little bit.

But she wanted to. I know. And that's the worst part. She really wanted to. Around this time she also writes the song, See that Dick, I'm gonna punch it, which ended up going number five.

She loved that one. Of course, that was about how she punched a dick on the street one day. And the man was like, why did you do this to me? It's assault. That's assault. I'm gonna call the cops.

And I said, but where's a pepper? She was just like, ha, ha, ha, just like through glitter in his face and ran away. She was a bit of a Batman villain for a little while. They called her the glitter queen. And she would just show up, blind people with glitter, punch them in the dick. Can I be the glitter queen? Please.

So, yeah, she's got. And also, this is the other thing about her that now we're going to hit on that really runs through her whole career. She's a prolific writer. She's not just writing this stuff in the studio. she had six years worth of material she'd been working on. She brought in 200 songs that she had written. And yeah, she made it at a point to write songs over the years that reflected her own experience. Ketha said, I just write about what I live, literally.

I think there's a great pop song in anything and everything, any situation. Well, and I think what really adds to her songwriting and why she is as prolific as she is, is that she is a true lover of all music. Sure. And I think that that is something that some artists are missing where it's not that she's just into pop. She's way into country. She's way into rap.

She's like obsessed with the Velvet Underground and blues and punk. She said her favorite album is Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan. And like you're about to say that this album is an homage to license to ill by the Beastie Boys. Which makes sense. It's big party, but it's also tongue in cheek. Like nothing serious. That's what she said about. She's like that record, it's so fun and youthful, but it's dangerous at the same time.

and just makes you want to get crazy and like the funnest way possible. It's a little bit like, yeah, like we're gonna die young. Yeah, or like find Batman, get him. Yeah, get him. That's a great one. That's the fucking bastard. That's the dick I want to punch the most in all the world.

The most punchable dick, of course, was about Batman, beautiful love song almost. If you look at it a certain way. Also, this is around the time she writes. What might actually be her, I think it is her number one song like on Spotify and stuff with TikTok, and it's undeniably, like, one of the funest pop songs ever written. It's definitely an earworm.

Also, listen to Kesha. There is a lot of Kesha's music that I didn't even know was Kesha. I'm just like, oh, I don't know if I'm that familiar with all. And as I'm listening to every album, I'm like, know that one, know that one, no that one. Damn, they are these earworms that especially, I don't know what to say especially, but in New York where, like, everywhere you go, there's always music playing somewhere, and that it is almost like a soundtrack of a movie. Yeah.

I feel like I heard her music everywhere for, you. years. And I think it was probably also on a lot of TV shows and stuff in the background of like high school parties. But about TikTok, she said, I thought it kind of sucked, but everyone else liked it. I don't love it personally. It's the beaches effect. It's the wind beneath my wings effect. Yeah, whatever, Natalie, you're dead to me. I have a question actually about that. It's stuck in your head, though. In that music video, when she wakes up in that tub and she walks down in the family's there, is that supposed to be her family? No, I think that she woke up in someone else's tub. How did she get into this Family's home.

Oh, okay. She just found a nice house and she broke and slept. I will say I could imagine, and it never happened to me, but I'm actually kind of surprised it never did. I imagine sneaking into your home as someone that used to have to sneak into my home a lot, but imagine being so fucked that you sneaked into the wrong home. And I imagine that is what is happening. And she did have a similar experience.

She woke up surrounded by beautiful women. She imagined P. Diddy being in a similar situation. She did also puke in Peresilton's shoes at her house party. And I just a little side note. Let's talk about her in Paris. Yes. Because she was on, technically her first debut was on the Simple Life. And Peebee had signed them up for Paris and Nicole Richie to come to the house.

So on Simple Life, they were like the like normal broke family that they went to go and visit. And this was at the time period of our storyline. This is when she threw up in Paris Hilton's closet. She said I was 17. I thought I was a bathroom. I was dancing too hard and it turned out to be her closet. And then she later turned her experience into an unreleased song titled Paris Hilton's closet. When asked about her and Paris Hilton's relationship, she said, we are not friends.

We've just been connected on one too many places and levels. I don't have anything against Paris. I think she's really nice. We're just very different. She said, we never had a fight. She's just very materialistic. and a label queen that I am not were just very different.

We come from opposite ends of the spectrum. I grew up in the valley, broke, running around barefoot, and moved to Nashville and played music and really poured my heart out. And Paris is a vapid. But I do think she said this, though. But she also said this because Keshah

was saying backup on Paris Hilton's 2006 CD. So 2006 Paris Hilton is very different from 2021. And they were just young and very, I mean, they grew up incredibly different at the time. I bet you now they could probably like, you know, hang out and have fun. They both come forward

with their trauma, you know, I think they'd have a lot better. I actually do think that they could have a conversation about it. Seriously, I would and I would fucking watch that. And this is really when Dr. Luke on this album starts to really control Kesha. She said, I remember specifically him saying, make it more dumb, make it more stupid, make it more simple, just dumb. I was like, okay, boys try to touch my junk gonna get crunk everybody getting drunk or whatever and he was like perfect i mean that says a lot about what he thinks of the audience yeah yes and i mean i'm not gonna get into um some of the other things that he was saying about what he thinks that all women are useful for but um that'll be next episode yeah we'll get into a next episode guess what they're useful for it's not what you would like Are you doctors?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, it is. Yeah, it's getting into the STEM careers. Cool. So, they're useful as podcast hosts and podcast hosts only, okay? Only. Oh, shit. I'm just talking about my own person experience.

You're such a doctor, hold. Yeah, I know. Oh, no. It's Dr. Hold on. I'm sorry I forgot soft car. Ugh, come on. So TikTok wasn't a smash hit right away, but it slowly gains traction worldwide.

It leads up to the release of Animal in January 2010, and it's followed by the singles, blah, blah, blah, your love is my drug, and take it off. And she's actually starting out. I always love these situations. You're like, oh, my God, that would have been an amazing show. Right. She starts off as a supporting act for Rihanna's last girl on Earth tour,

so that would have just been, like, amazing. I do love it too. She refers to Beyonce and Rihanna having big dick energy of all the queens. She said, Rihanna, I went on tour with her, and she would not walk out of her. of her bus without five inch heels on. I was like, fuck, I suck. Can you imagine, though, opening for Rihanna?

I'm not even there. I don't know. That's amazing. So, yeah, and then she ends up, like, really quickly releasing Cannibal. This was dubbed as a companion piece to the EP, and it has, we are who we are, which I think is an even better song. I think it's just, like I said, I had my moment on my jog, which was fun, right? and I started punching my own penis.

As you should. It is like a meat wad down there. It's not even, you can't even, you wouldn't even point it in doing that's a man's penis. Oh, is that a chopped meat? No, that's holding the dick. Yeah, is that a old? I think he already got the kid in there, you know? Is that a shank?

Ew. Braze it. I say braze it, put some liquid on it. Can we stop talking about my penis for five seconds this episode? I just feel like everyone's clambered for it these days. This is after we watched a bad trip last night, which has a lot of penis trauma. We started it.

It's hilarious. It's pretty fun. There you go. Bad trip on Netflix. Not sponsored by it on the show. No, but people we like and are friends with stuff on it. There you go. So there you go.

Ketch has said about Cannibal. The songs in Cannibal were made to inspire people to ignore any hate or judgment and be themselves unapologetically. Like what she would do because this is, I mean, she was always really into glitter. But this is around the time period that she has stated in multiple occasions that before I always went on state, I would pour beer on my body, then roll in a bathtub full of glitter. I don't do that anymore because it irritated my skin.

I imagine it would cause some problems. Yes, yes, yes. Just so messy. Glitters, I look at glitter so differently now. It's like such a nightmare to me. It is. I mean, I love glitter. But now they make good glitter so it doesn't get everywhere.

And I do love that as her interviews go on in time, she used to apparently wear a lot more glitter to interviews and stuff, but she got in trouble so many times that now she just like wears pajamas. She's like, if I dress up, I'm going to get glitter everywhere. I don't want to do that too. Everyone hates it. She can't not be covered in glitter, which, again, makes me love her more.

I also just, I really, really need to see her live. I really, I have a bit of fomo about not seeing her during those, like, pure party girl year live shows. Especially to get sleazy to her. Her explaining, she said, so at this point in time, she's like, I've been on this Iggy pop kick. He's just so inspiring to watch as a performer. I'm trying to do something like that.

Minus the heroin and the stabbing myself. And she's like, my theme for Get Sleazy Tour is to bring the planet on an epic dance party. That's my mentality with this tour. Party as hard as we can and make it as infectious as possible. It's unlike anything anyone else in pop music is doing. I want it to be presented as basement rave-ups, is what she said. To achieve this look, the singer worked with the creative team responsible for daft punk's The look is described as mad max and intergalactic spaceship combined.

I need it. I wish. The only thing is I think probably the concert would be mostly 15 year old girls, which would be really annoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I could get drunk. You get 15 year old girl drunk, though, is what you do. And then you don't care. But don't get a 15 year old drunk. I'm saying you yourself get as drunk as a 15 year old girl.

Yeah, I just want to be in like a sub. I hope there's a cage for the adult somewhere. I puked on my hands. You know, I want to be, like, doing that. I puke to, like, asking someone to help, like, the thing they can't help. Like, go to the bathroom. Yeah. Go to the bathroom.

Like, what are you doing? I puked my hands. Uh, I'd tell you to win. But either way, while she's on the Getsleazy tour, she started writing songs for her second album, which was slated to drop in 2011. I just made a Nell reference. I forget that people don't understand that. Jody Foster was in a movie called Nell.

I made a reference to it. I should probably explain what I do it because I know it so well. Don't worry about it. It's all right. Like, what was Hayte and the fucking win, Holden? What do they even mean, bro? I think most people probably know of your trauma from the moment. Yes.

Oh, Jennifer, I loved you, girl. She ended up taking a little hiatus, though, after the tour. She was hired by the Humane Society to be their first global ambassador and made a documentary for National Geographic, which dealt in animal abuse and helping animals on the verge of going a stag? Huge in animal rights projects. It's crazy. She has been awarded multiple.

Awards, like the Humane Society when they gave her the voice for the animal awards. It's, she has many awards for helping animals. She even, like, all of these, I just like have a list of things. She's part of the cruelty-free campaign. Keshire called on the EU to carry out a ban on the sale of cosmetics tested on animals. An avid diver, Keshah supports national and global movements to ban the trade and sale of shark fins. Keshire called for an end to Canada's annual slaughter of baby sea. and supported HSI's Canadian seafood boycott.

Kesha has seen the hardships of street dogs firsthand and filmed a PSA, bringing awareness to the issue. She uses a lot of her money to fund different animal rights programs. And that is something that she also, like, you have to really look into it because she's open about the fact of like, she never wears real fur. She, it will definitely talk about it. But I love it too that she's not shoving it down everyone's gullet every single. second. Yeah, it's not like her brand I never felt was that. You know what I mean?

Whereas it's just something she's passionate about. Yes. Yeah. I think far too often they make it their brand and make it like a thing. Yes. It's just, you know. It cheapens it a little bit. A little bit. A little bit. So she's, yes, the album, the next album is Warrior. And the title is about sending a positive message that everyone has a warrior within them. Keisha said, I have a lot of gay and lesbian and transgender fans. And I heard a lot of stories on Twitter and around the world about how they have to struggle with bullying and things like that. There's a gay suicide epidemic. So that was inspired by hearing my fan's stories and wanting to give them back the strength

to be a warrior. It's a strong word. That's the energy of the record, strong, fearless power. I wanted to hopefully inspire my fans with it. And this is around the time, too. So it was after Animal and then with the inclusion of Warrior, that the fan base starts calling themselves the animals. And crazily enough, they are one of the reasons that Kesha had the spirit to

publicly go after Dr. Luke because before hashtag free Britney, there was hashtag free Keshah. So a fan says about it, you can be a victim or you can be a warrior. The animal fan base lives by the way of Keshah. We're a cult of rabid misfits that love to party and have fun. Although we may seem crazy, we're actually really nice. We spread love to everyone on earth as Keshah has taught us to do. No matter what type of person you are, animals are willing to accept you as long as you don't cross. All right.

Let me ask you a legit question. Who wins in a battle? the animals, the little monsters. I knew you're going to say it. Oh, man. And honestly, at the end of the day, it ends up being the YouTube viral video is somebody making it like a thing that is the animals versus Little Monsters versus the Beehive versus the Swifties.

And you put it all like out there like that. But what about the lamely? And the lamely of Mariah Carey. The Battle of the Five Armies. And we'll call it the Battle of the Five Armies. The Lambly would win. I think of the Lamley would win. Let's simplify it to just.

Are we just excluding the Beliebers? Yes. Yes. Yes. We are. They're on Oxy up on the mountain. We definitely need to take BTS Army out because they will crush everyone. BTS Army could take all of those.

Yeah. We're not even dealing with K-pop stance. K-pop's its own nightmare universe of if we're talking about a superhero universe. I think if the animals and the monsters came in battle like in what's it called? Lord of the Rings. No, what's the one with the guy who's canceled? Face off. No.

I just named a random movie. Freedom. You'll know Braithaard. So if they came on each other like in Braveheart, I think when they smashed together, they would just turn into rainbows. Yeah, it would explode. That would be awesome.

Someone wants to go viral. Just take that concept. Yeah, go viral. But either way, going back to Warrior, I didn't know this. She was working with Wayne Coyne a lot from the flaming lips. Oh my God. Are we going to talk about lip-shah?

I love the flaming lips. And I'm, is Lipcia? Yeah, let's talk about Lypsia, because I don't want to start speculating about it before we talk about it. But yes, he heard Kasha was a fan. He reached out to work together. Coyne said, I'm helping with some lyrics here and there.

She's really a great songwriter. She has an easy way with things. I've worked with a lot of people that are very uptight about how they do their music, but she's very fun. So I don't really have any reservations about whether I don't like her music. I like her and she likes us. So fuck it. I'm not too worried about it.

And, yeah, she also collaborated with Ben Folds and Iggy Pop. Well, on April 4th, 2013, the Lips lead singer Wayne Coyd announced that they would be releasing an album together entitled Lipshah with the dollar sign in it in an interview in the interview they discussed working with Kesha and Wayne Coyne said she's a blast on all levels she's funny she's humble she's badass she's everything she's awesome we're actually already working on an album with her it's called Lipsha so in September 2013 coin reconfirmed that the album is still happening it has all been recorded in November 2013 coin tweeted that the album will not be released, much to his dismay. On May 4th, 2014, Coyne tweeted that the album

was going to be released after Cacheau worked out her situation with Dr. Luke. He says, I don't really know the situation, only they do. I hope it works out. I don't know Dr. Luke at all, but when Ceshah and I speak, I know that there's some anxiety about the relationship. I think she would like to have the freedom to do more things in that spirit. Where it's not, again, I don't know their situation, but where it's not producers producing her, she could produce herself. That's probably what she's wanting to happen with her own career. I love Kesha. She's great. And I will

say, I did find Lipsha. There are some tracks of it that was put on SoundCloud and it's weird. And it's fucking awesome. Cool. Because I love that about Wayne Coyne. Like he did that collaboration. I mean, that album is like ridiculous and kind of not great, but he did that collaboration with

Miley Cyrus, which is pretty cool. And that's why he moved from working with Kesha to Miley Cyrus, because He really liked the idea of working with idolized pop queens of the time to get like a different essence from them. And he loved what he was doing with Kesha. So I imagine after the Dr. Luke stuff is done, I imagine they will continue to work on things more. Because apparently the whole album came out of like two days of them just like in the living room like Kesha and the flaming lips just like making music. And that's no hate on fucking Miley by the way.

No, no, no, no. I even really like, I was one of the only people that was like, I kind of love this for what it is when that album, her Fwins or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, that album was pretty interesting to me. But going back to, um, going back to Warrior, she also, like I said, worked with Ben Folds, Iggy Pop, Julian Casablancas. I saw some, we're going to talk about a little mini doc and a little bit about Rainbow. And there's some footage in there of her working with Ben Folds, which is really cool to see.

And they're, they're collaborative work, uh, collaborative work situation. and she does seem like a really fun person to write a song with. Sorry, I don't know if this is the right place to even say this, but I was just earlier thinking about the people who I was in my circle with who were in her touring band absolutely adored her, by the way. Hell yeah. They loved her. They never had anything bad to say about her,

and they were very protective of her. And I think they could even gauge at this time she was feeling attacked. Because I was about to ask, did you know what era she was in kind of went? So it was like the warrior kind of. That would have been around like 2009, 2010. Gotcha, yeah, yeah. I also think it is interesting in this time period where she is being put into such a box that there's like, there's Lipsha. She's also writing songs for other pop stars because she's put into this box.

She's like, okay, but you can't control what I do with other people. So she's already like nosing her way around because at this point in time is when she writes till the world ends for Britney Spears. And she was asked multiple times of how she felt about writing. music for other people, and she absolutely loves it. She says, I've never been more proud of anything in my career. She said, it really solidifies me as a songwriter in the pop music world, which is what I consider myself first and foremost. So it actually is really, really exciting for me when I hear Britney sing it.

Like, when I hear my own songs on the radio, I have to kind of turn it down or change the radio or whatever. When I hear that, I fucking blow the speakers out and I order everybody to dance. That's awesome. Yeah, for Warrior, Iggy Pop's album, The Idiot, was one of the album's biggest musical inspiration. She actually, like I said already, she got Iggy Pop. I forget the name of that song, but it's a fun one. I really like that.

It's about how, like, dirty love or something like that. And it's so fun, and it just sounds like they're having a blast in the recording studio. It's like a little cheesy, but it's just got such a fun. The whole album has a fun rock and roll vibe to it. Ketch has said, I wanted to show how people can have a preconceived notion about somebody that's not necessarily accurate. Nobody has to adhere to any boundaries, especially me. So I wanted to give the finger to anybody who thought I was a one-trick pony.

And she also wanted to bring in the fact that she plays guitar. And she wanted to shred on some guitar for the album, even though she does say something along the lines of like, Dr. Luke, he like really shreds. So he played most of the guitar on the album. I think there's some of my guitar in there. But she did eventually get to do that. And you hear a lot of that rock and roll influence on the album as a whole,

which I think is cool to just say like, yeah, I'm not just party girl pop music. I mean, and also, I don't know how she, how well she plays guitar, but it could have also been him just, like, telling her she sucked and then not allowing her to play guitar. She plays, she plays in her live shows on, like, she plays legit guitar. Yeah, no, he was, he's, yeah, I'm sure he's being a complete piece of shit. He's like, no, I can play guitar. You got to listen to my guitar song. And I bet he did stuff like, today I'm talking to nothing but a British accent.

And everyone goes, we love you, we love you. We love you, Luke. Um, yeah, it's annoying. Also, there's a song about getting sexy with a ghost called Supernatural. I love that. Which is based on a real experience, apparently. And there's a song called Past Life, I believe, that she did do a past life regression that was very important to her. She believed she was JFK, yes.

She does think she was shot in the head in a convertible one pointer past life. Honestly, yes. That's fine. Coinciding with the album release, she put out an illustrated autobiography called My Crazy Beautiful Life. There's also a documentary series called The Same Thing. It ran on MTV for Tuesday. seasons followed her on the Get Sleazy Tour. I need to go back and watch more of it. I didn't realize that she shot all of it was shot by her brother. And it was shot over two weeks.

I mean, it was shot over two years. And they had so much footage they wanted to make a documentary of it, but they instead sold it to MTV and turned it into a television show. And she said, the documentary is not a product of me wanting to shock the world. It was more I wanted to show all sides. and I wanted to show the true story. Because with the media, the way it is with people, they can just make up stories and they go viral and it's just not true. So I wanted to put out a series that's the truth

and comes from a person who's close to me and only has my best intentions at heart, which is my brother. But also because we're so close, he can catch everything. He caught all the drama, the tears, the high points, the makeout sessions, the family stuff. He caught everything on film.

It's a really special relationship we have. And I think you're going to see that in how much genuine, material people are going to see in this documentary miniseries, which will also show in this time period, which, again, I was not too familiar with Kesha in 2012,

but this is around the time, even though Perez Hilton, two years earlier, had promised to stop cyberbullying celebrities in 2012 is when he released a sex tape of Kesha with a past partner of hers that she had nothing to do with.

She did not know that she was being filmed at the time, and all of that is chronicled in the show. And so imagine all of this is going on, and again, we will get into next time of what is really going on with Dr. Luke and all of that other bullshit. And then to have a fucking sex tape relief. But then there's also all the interviewers at this time period being like, So you really had nothing to do with the leak of the sex tape? How disgusting.

Yeah. How disgusting is that? Who gave Perez Hilton the... The dude that shot it that sold it to him. See... Yeah, that wouldn't help her career. That doesn't make any sense. That wouldn't even help her career at this time.

The dude who did these things. Nobody was considering this a sex crime, but it is. That is a form of a fucking salt because they did not consent to that shit. It is gross. You should not watch sex tapes of people who said they didn't want them out. Now there are revenge porn laws at least. Yeah, now there are. But this was before then.

And so all of this shit is happening and leading up to, so she's like on a high and then what do you do? Everything around you is kind of falling apart. I can't imagine. And everything is in the spotlight. And so she's not as high up as Brittany was in 2007, of course. But even though this is five years later, it's still a fucking issue. And this is 11 years after that.

And it's still an issue. Bye. So in 2014, she ends up checking into rehab for bulimia nervosa. Kesh has said, The music industry has set unrealistic expectations on what a body is supposed to look like, and I started becoming overly critical of my own body because of that. I felt like people were always lurking, trying to take pictures of me with the intent of putting them up online

or printing them in magazines and making me look terrible. I became scared to go in public or even use the Internet. I may have been paranoid, but I also saw. and heard enough hateful things to fuel that paranoia. So it was just two months. She's been two months getting healthy again going to therapy, which was tough at first. She said she barely spoke in her sessions with her therapist at first.

She eventually came out saying, I feel stronger now. She removes the dollar sign from her name as well and said it was her taking back her power. And actually started writing her next album at the center. A friend brought her a toy keyboard. Actually, her boyfriend did. Her boyfriend? It was her boyfriend.

I want to talk about him. Sure. I will say just about the toy keyboard before we get into him. She had to convince them to let her use it for like an hour a day because they're not supposed to have anything, any external objects because for like suicide prevention needs and things like that. And use that time to start writing this amazing next album, you know, Rainbow. And it's kind of miraculous and incredible.

And she says, you know, that it really is what helped her during that time, that little toy keyboard. Yes, and that taking the, which, as someone from the outside of, like, taking the dollar sign out of her name was huge for her. And she said, I let go of my facade about being a girl who didn't care. My facade was to be strong, and I realized it was total bullshit. I took out the dollar sign because I realized that was part of the facade. It was a journey, and I'm happy. That was me in that part of my life.

But then I turned a corner, but I still have a fucking tattoo of it on my hand. I'll have to figure that out. I mean, I think that's just, I think that is growing up. Yes, it is, which, but I like that she spoke to it and explaining, like, I'm not going to put this under the rug. This was a part of my, of my growing up. There's no shame at all. That's part of being a person. Yes, and her partner, Brad Ashenfelter, who is not on social media, he is not a part of her.

Like, he is not out, he doesn't, you know, he's not in the world of entertainment at all. That's great. And everything that I read about, he just seems like the sweet, like, a good partner for her. He seems that he is a stable person that truly adores her, but also is a very accepting of who she is in their open relationship. He's also a hachi-mage. Wow, wow, wow, we don't need to do that.

They were introduced to each other through Keshe's Cyrus. Like a strong, beautiful man. And Kesha would hold her in his arms? Long hair and just, oh, mamma-mia. And Keisha wasn't having it at first when she was introduced by Kesha Stuyves. because he was facial hair-free, and Kesha is a huge facial hair enthusiast. But she said it was pretty much love at first kiss.

She said, then he kissed me, and it was the nicest kiss I ever had. I was like, wow, you're such a pure soul. Holy shit! And I knew from that moment, I got to hold on to you. She has since come, and then he is the one that brought the toy keyboard for her and would sit while she would work on music

and would color while sitting next to her. She said, he's a sweetheart, but he also lets me be me. You know, I'll call him and be like, I had fun tonight. I met a sweet girl, and we had a really good time, because they have an open relationship and she's openly bisexual. And he'll say, cool, babe, love you. It's so nice.

In this song, Kinky on High Road that she wrote for him, it's about how anything is fine, as long as we're honest with each other. That's the understanding we have. A kinky understanding is what it's called. As long as there are no secrets, no lies, no hiding anything, let's just have fun. I have both male and female energies, and so does he. He understands that me being attracted to a woman is nothing to do with my attraction for him.

He knows that I'm just a wild spirit that needs to run free, and that I will always come back to the barn for apples from my boy. She's called him a horse. She just called him a horse, though, a little bit. I'll write him like a stalee. I'll tell you would. Look at a picture, Lord. That was the time, too, when she wrote that hit song from punching dicks to hugging dicks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hug that dick, it'll make you smile. Hug that dick and stay a while it's a dick, hugging day. Oh, is the country ballad, yeah. Yeah, oh, yeah, she's starting to do the turn into country with Rainbow. So Rainbow is what she was writing, the actual song Rainbow is what she was writing on the toy keyboard. There you go. Stroke that shaft and squeeze those balls.

Hug that dig till he goes home. That is the song Rainbow. Okay, so the thing. We're going to skip this week, but I will just make mention of it in October of 2014. So the year she gets out of rehab, she sues producer Dr. Luke for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, emotional abuse, and violation of California business practices over their decade-long working relationship. And that takes her out of commission for a couple of years. And of course, obviously, she's going to be writing songs during this time, but she's not performing. She's not, you know, she's healing, I think, during this time.

and fighting this fucking battle. And as opposed to what Mariah Carey did when she was under the thumb of someone, she's like, fine, you want me to make the fucking albums? I'm going to put out like three albums a fucking year until I'm done. She was writing and working on other things, but didn't want to give him the fucking satisfaction. And so she was waiting for the trial to show that she didn't have to make another album. And we will see that that falls upon death is next episode.

But with this, and what I do love, so what does she do? Instead, she writes a bunch of songs that are like, I'm doing this, but fuck you. I fucking hate you, and I'm going to use this then as therapy. And that is a very beautiful, strong stance to take. Oh, of course. And she does eventually come back. Of course, we'll get to the conclusion of the trial next week. But despite a small performance of her country and classic rock influence band Yeast Infection

that performed in Nashville in December 23rd, Her first real big return to the stage was at Coachella in 2016 to perform a German DJ Zed on his song True Colors. Then she covers Bob Dylan's Adate Me Babe at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards. And she goes on a worldwide concert tour called Kesha and the Creepies Fuck the World Tour. That runs for a year starting in mid-2016. And also, she has 22 new songs under her belt at this point. And she records on her own and she gives, these 22 songs to her label,

one of those songs was Prang. Prang was a collaboration with Ryan Lewis, who first hit it big as McElmore's DJ. Yes, we will be talking about McElmore. Oh, thank God. At this point in the show, I just was like, oh, right, remember McElmore? Oh, yeah, baby.

But you know what, whatever? I mean, I think I'm not a, I'm not a, what does he call his fans? I'm not a Macie boy? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. A McIloor? I'm not a Big Mac. Maclehor?

Come on. I'm not a mackle whore. I'm not a mackle whore, which of course, yeah, it's probably, I'm not a mackle sex worker, is what you have to call it now. Thank you. But yes, either way, um, Ryan Lewis, this important figure for her upswing in her career, Lewis had a rough version of the song. He was looking for a female singer to perform it. It was actually his wife who suggested Kesha. Keshah finished it in just two days. I think it was like a shell of a song. She put in all those really meaningful lyrics and things, I believe. And she does, she, she, she finishes it with Ryan Lewis. It'd be. It was Ryan Lewis, right? Yeah, she finished with Ryan Lewis. It becomes a big statement about the obstacles she had to ever come. Keshis said, I have channeled my feelings of severe hopelessness and depression. I've overcome obstacles, and I have found strength of myself, even when it felt out of reach. I found what I had thought was an unobtainable place of peace.

This song is about coming to feel empathy for someone else, even if they hurt you or scare you. It's a song about learning to be proud of the person you are, even during low moments when you feel alone. It's also about hoping everyone, even someone who hurt you, can heal. Well, and that's something that she's very open about, which that line when I pray for you at night, because she's very open about the fact she's like, I do pray for Dr. Luke. I, in her own way, because she is a very spiritual person, she prays for him to find some kind of solace, to realize his mistakes. She prays for him to heal. and that is again a very strong, scary stance to take.

And oh, God, watching the praying performance is truly beautiful. And what is something that now, in listening back to the album Rainbow, and realizing that this is the first time she ever got positive reviews of her singing. And as much as they were hits, like her other albums were hits, She said, the first couple of years it was really hard because everyone said that I couldn't sing. I would put music out. Oh, she can't sing. I thought, that's actually one of the things I can do.

She said, Rainbow was the first time I'd put it out there in all ways, but especially vocally. I was the executive producer, so I got to be in charge of exactly what my vocals sounded like. They were not auto-tuned or digitally messed with and chopped up. I wanted to make sure that I showed off my voice. I got to do that, and my soul was satisfied. but she even does say, I know I'm not Mariah Carey kind of vocals, but I can sing. Oh my God, it's beautiful vocals. I fucking teared up when I was just watching her life performance.

Incredible. Also the rainbow itself, the name of the album is a symbol of hope. She said it's no coincidence that it's also the symbol for the LGBT community. I've always just found hope in the bright colors. And I wanted to bring that more into my everyday life. Now my house is covered in rainbows and my life and my body. I have like 10 rainbow tattoos. I go to the tattoo artist and it's like,

A rainbow something? That's actually what they have. They are not, I don't, it doesn't seem that she and her partner are officially married, but what they did do was go to get tattoos together. They got skulls with rainbows coming out of the mouth of the skulls together. The song, Woman was actually inspired by turd fucker Trumps, grab them by the pussy comments. God, she said, I was screaming in my car about being a motherfucking woman out the window,

pumping gas, screaming. A mud-of-fucking woman! I think people were like, she's fucking crazy, but I was trying not to forget the melody. It is a song that I, it is one of my go-to songs of when I am feeling rough about myself, I will listen to it and just scream. That's awesome. How cool would it have been to see Kesha pumping gas just like writing a song? Oh my God. I'm a fucking woman.

You're just like, check please. She also, to bring it back around to this, did a fantastic cover of Dolly Parton's Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You that her mother wrote, correct? And Dolly Parton actually does guest vocals on the record, which is incredibly, incredibly sweet. She also got to work on this album with Brian Wilson

and PetSounds was a huge, was a huge inspiration to her, specifically PetSounds. She said PetSounds was what influenced the sound style of rainbow and that also actually makes a lot of sense. I love that. She said though about the recording process, it wasn't easy. She said, I dragged my body into my car and I had my saint of an assistant drive me or I drive myself the days I felled up to it for about an hour and a half in traffic to a tiny

little studio and I would pour my fucking guts out. And I would lay on the ground and look at the sky and just weep or laugh or whatever it was, whatever the feeling of the day was. And that is how I made it through the past four years. and with the sport of my fans. God, she loves her animals, and it makes me very, she's a very present pop star with her fans. She goes out of her way to connect.

There was someone, there was a young person that was running a fan club of hers that had multiple cancerous tumors taken out, and she called her four times the day of the surgery that it was coming out. She tries desperately to connect with as many people as possible. She's got necklace of their teeth. Oh my God, necklace of the teeth.

But also, speaking of that, she also wears her placenta in a necklace. She said that she believes that it is a possibility of her gaining second sight, like being psychic. She said, I would be wearing it whether or not I was in the public eye. I'm just honest about the things I believe in. And then that's where she said, for instance, I went yesterday to a past life regressionist and he told me that in my past life I was assassinated. I'm pretty sure that I was J.F.C. Sure.

I was a assassin. But wait. So how do you preserve? placenta for 30 years. You can put in some juice. I'm sure there's preservation. You know what I mean? You did the, you know, in the science class, you had to cut the frog up.

Yeah. Put it in a freezer. Oh, okay. So, science. Kesha also said, this record quite literally saved my life. And man, did I cry watching the January 2018 grammar performance. Kasha takes the stage alongside

Cindy Lopper, Camilla Cabello, Julia Michaels, and Andre Day. and Bebe Rexa, all of whom were dressed in white, in the white, in the like suffrage, in the like suffragette pantsuit and everything, and performed a powerful rendition of praying. After which, they all embrace each other. It's so good. It was also the, you know, the Me Too movement is like taking the whole nation by storm at

the time. It was like just this iconic moment. Yes. And it's impossible to not get somewhat emotional watching it. Oh, yeah. She said about it, I think it was a huge milestone in my career. and it was something I dreamt of doing since I was a little kid. Obviously, it was very different from how I dreamt of doing it.

I never imagined singing a song like praying. But that's what needed to happen at that moment in my life. And I'm happy I lived through it. Every time I think about it, I get goosebumps. I have goosebumps right now. It's an experience that is so surreal. I'd be curious of other people feel the same. But for me, at least, it still feels surreal.

It still feels like, thank God I survived, and I didn't just black out. And that is something that she is, I think that. it seemed that she was scared, obviously, of coming out for many different reasons. But part of one of those reasons was that she says, I don't feel as if I'm beholden to be a tragedy just because I've gone through something that was tragic. That's my name. I'm in the middle of saying important things. I'm sorry, I apologize.

She said, that's really important for people to know. You do not have to be defined by something that was done to you. Go ahead, Holden. again, Holden. I believe all women. That is sexist. What do you mean? How do I say it right?

I like it. You can't say any of the right. I would like to mention there is a little mini documentary called Rainbow the film. I was able to find it. I forget where I found it, but it was on like V-Voers. I don't know what the fuck,

but it's online. And there's some really interesting, it's kind of one of those like, it's almost like part music video almost. It has like some of the songs. But there's some really cool footage in there of her right before going on stage on the Grammys, working with her vocal coach and with the backing singers.

And you just see how much emotional turmoil this song put on her. How big of a deal that performance was for her. I mean, and it's really cool to see how important a vocal coach can be, not just for your technical stuff, but also to like emotionally and spiritually get you through a performance. Like the way this guy works, because you have to connect the voice to that. emotion and working with her.

It was really awesome to watch this relationship that she had with this guy in putting on this performance. Really, really cool. But yeah, that's Rainbow. But we've got one more album to get through before we can close out this episode. And that's the bangor-ass High Road, which I fucking love this album, dude. I love this line. She just said, I got my balls back.

I wanted a vehicle for happiness for myself and for the world. Yeah. And this, and it is, it's interesting to listen to Rainbow and then go right into High Road. Yeah. Because she does openly say, High Road and Rainbow are the yin and yang of my healing. The whole purpose of this record was reclaiming joy and it being okay for me to reclaim it, having been through all the things I've been through, as anyone has gone through hard things in their life. You can be happy again.

You deserve to be happy again. And you don't need to feel guilty about being happy again. At first, I felt really odd about it. Am I allowed to sing about going out, having fun, and getting fucked up with my friends? The answer is, yes, I can. Yes. Yeah, she said, so it's just me reclaiming my joy as a woman

who's really fought for it and earned the rights to my voice and my happiness and just not being held in the corner as a victim for the rest of my life. That's not the narrative I want to leave as my legacy. So Rainbow is the healing portion, I think, like, is the addressing to of the trauma. Yes.

High Road is the like, I'm back, bitch. Like, part- I'm the freedom. I'm still that party girl. I'm still that, I'm still have that big fun pop energy and I want to keep bringing that to the world. She's still actually not free.

That she's making this music and still, even though that she can see the end in the future, she's still not free. She is. She had to distance herself from her work, which is a difficult thing to do. And Raising Hell is such a fucking banner. God damn it's good.

That she does with New Orleans rapper Big Freedia. is it Frida or Frida? Frida. Who does guest vocals and has this gospel influence to it. And also my own dance. Ketha said about my own dance. It kind of was my gateway drug into just being like, fuck it.

I really like pop music. I'm going to write it because it makes me happy. And I'm not going to apologize for my love of pop music. And I'm not going to call it a guilty pleasure. It's just one of the most pleasurable things of my life, period. Speak, Kasha. I agree with you. I feel the same way.

I do love to. that apparently she wrote my own dance because of her brother, that she really enjoyed her work on Rainbow, and that when she was working on High Road, a lot of it was just more towards country. And her brother called and asked why she wasn't making pop music anymore. And she said, I had to do some thinking about it. I guess I felt I just didn't deserve to be unapologetically joyous and happy.

So the first crack at answering her brother's question resulted in my own dance, a floor-shaking reckoning with the public pressure to shut up and sing. Quote, the internet called and it wants you back, but could you kind of rap and not be so sad? She sings on the track. I told her that the song makes it seem like she's flipping a middle finger to fans' expectations, even as she embraces them. She says, it was like reluctant.

Okay, fine, I'm going to write a pop song and I ended up loving it. It makes my life happier by making happier music. Hell yeah. Love it. I have one more quote before we finish this out, but I think we've come close to the end of our, at least our first episode on Kesha. Again, next week we'll just focus on the trial of Kesha.

Jackie, Natalie, do you have anything else to say before we wrap this big old fun, freshly punched dick in? I don't know where I'm going with that. I do. I really enjoy, again, the positivity, the connection with the audience that Kesha has. And also, I apologize that I keep kind of comparing her to the Mariah Carey story. It's similar but very, very different. But in the same way, when asked if people often underestimate her, she says,

I think that sometimes in entertainment, people are not used to a woman knowing what reverb and EQ they would like on their vocal, or what guitar tone sounds good through what pedal. Hopefully, tides are changing. So where I've been dismissed before, I feel like I've worked through that with everyone. And now they realize that I do love to be hands-on with everything, which is what we saw with Mariah Carey. They didn't think that she could do the actual production side of it. And she's like, oh, bitch, I know how to do all of it.

I love that her first number one album since Animal was Rainbow. Yes. You know, the one that she did her damn self. And she could have done from the beginning. And I think Warrior, because she always talks about how she had a bunch of songs she wanted on Warrior and Dr. Luke wouldn't have it. And I bet that album would have performed way better if she had had the control she wanted. Totally. All right.

Here's my quote to close it out. Oh, wait, but I was going to say, I think she's a good representation of. of how we're gonna be in 2021 once we get this fucking back. And her tour was canceled, obviously, as everyone else's was. I'm hoping, I will be like front and center, like getting a ticket to a show

if she's performing near. I like need her live show. Right? I need that live show. Like that, that, I was literally thinking about it while doing this research show. I was like, fuck, I want to see this woman live. Keshe said, and this is about, you know,

fans and, that being the most important thing to her. Nothing fucking matters, but if me writing songs make somebody else happy, then thank fuck. If I can spread just a tiny sliver of the good stuff before I turn into manure, I think that's the goal. And I'd actually, it's funny because I have the same quote, and it's from an interview where she had been stopped in the middle of the interview by two girls that like ran up to her and were like hugging her and asking her about praying and asking her about all these things. And when the interviewer was just like, do you get tired of all this shit. She's like, that's why I do it.

And I love that when she really truly means it. And I believe her too because I feel like so many people, I mean, it's so I rolly, so many down and everyone's just like, it's all about the fans. And you're like, it's not about the fucking fans with you, dog, but I believe it with her. Oh yeah, I do too. All right, that's our episode, at least our

first episode on Ketha. Thank you so much. We'll break your heart next time. It's going to be awesome. Yay! Hey! We saved most of the trauma and triggering stuff for its own episode. At least you can skip it too if you want. that's fine too.

All right. Thank you so much for joining us. If you'd like to further support us, patreon.com, forward slash page seven podcast. If you'd like to check me out, I'm always doing some fun stuff with Jackie, uh, Twitch.tv,

forward slash holdenators hoe on Fridays. It's so fun and you're gonna not hate it. And everyone's gonna love it. And I, why did you, Jennifer? I put my arm around you in now. Nope. And you leave for it.

And you never look back, girl. But I know you might have. Yeah, you definitely never looked back at that. You definitely don't bring it up all the time. This poor, man, I wonder if this woman knows that you talk about her as much as you do. Hey, Tay and the Wien. I love you guys. My name is Jackie Soprowski.

I'm not going to bring up any of my personal trauma right now, but you can definitely watch some of my personal trauma play out on my Instagram. That is Instagram at Jack That Worm. All right, Natalie. And now Natalie tells us about the missing women podcast. If you like trauma. I have a show called Someplace Underneath That's out on LPN

And any streaming platforms And we just did a three-part series On Shelley Misgivage And we're starting a new one So check it out We can also follow that show on Instagram and TikTok All right TikTok

Stop Love you guys All right Take care everybody Bye This show is made possible By Thanks to our ad sponsors

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