SmartLess - "Katy Perry"
Episode Date: September 19, 2022We’ve got the lovely Katy Perry on the mic this week, who gives parental advice, talks pop anthems and halftime shows, and fine, you’re gonna hear her roar.Please support us by supporting... our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Okay guys, it's great to be here. I'm really happy that we get to do the podcast today.
It's our final smart list ever. Very special smart list.
Don't say that. People are going to think that.
Let's finish strong and this guest is really what a great final guest.
Our final episode.
It's not final.
It's not final.
It's not ever.
Wait, it's not our final episode?
Let us finish.
No.
For today.
For today is our final episode.
It will be our last.
Sean, don't cut us off, rude.
For today, but for today.
For today, this is our final, final smart list.
Ever.
Ever.
But not today.
For today.
Sean with the cutting off.
Welcome to smart list.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
The new small list.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
Smart.
I put the due and douche.
Wait.
It'll be our first line of this episode.
Right there.
We just found our end.
I put the due and douche.
That's not good for me.
Wait a second.
Wait, will jokes over when you come in home?
I know.
Soon, right?
End of this week, maybe?
Yeah, end of this week.
I'm actually really looking forward to it.
You were gonna come home a little early.
Weren't you threatening to do that?
Yeah, I was.
First of all, how, Jason, when were you here?
Remember you were gonna come and you called me?
I was gonna come, but-
And then you never followed up.
The dude came here.
No way.
The dude came here, yeah.
What are you talking about?
So, Sean, are you, did I tell you this when I saw you?
What did I see you yesterday?
Are you sure, can we talk about this?
Wait, did I see you yesterday?
I saw you yesterday.
No, I saw you Saturday.
Saturday, Saturday.
I talked to Sean last night.
I phoned, I face-
You phoned him, granddad?
Face-time bombed him.
That was really funny.
Oh my God, they were freaking out.
Anyway, keep going.
He was with a bunch of, he was with lesbians.
And I was like, yeah, you don't have to tell me
they're lesbians.
I got it.
He did tell them.
Let's go deeper on that, could we have names?
Wait, Jason, tell me what we're gonna say.
So, I don't know if I can talk.
Well, I guess I can talk about this.
I can just kind of skid along the top of it.
My eldest, my 15-year-old daughter.
We talked a little bit about this, but keep going.
Yeah, so she went to Europe this summer in a camp
and she fell in love.
And this guy, he lives in New York.
He is currently married, has three kids, but, you know.
She, but you can always work it out.
You can work through it.
So, she loves him.
No, he's her age, he's 15,
and she was going to fly out there
and see him in New York because they'd been done
with camp for a couple of weeks
and she was starting to really miss him.
This whipper snapper gets a hold of my wife
and works out a whole surprise to come out
and see Franny and visit and surprise Franny.
So, this guy's been here posting up in my house
for three days and just extended his trip
another three days as of today.
It was a surprise, it was a surprise.
He's there now.
Yeah, here now.
And he's staying with you.
Staying with us.
There's rules, there's rules.
There's rules, he's an angel though.
He clearly needs no rules.
He just, he seems to drop straight from heaven.
Nice kid.
But tell Will what you did to keep the surprise from Franny.
Oh, well, you know, it was a whole thing about like,
well, him landing and then, you know,
getting a ride to the house and then do we,
do we have her, you know, like run into him in a coffee shop?
Here, no, next to the house, or should we have him
just kind of be in the house and have her come downstairs?
And, you know, Amanda and I were trying to think.
Jump out of the cake.
Well, yeah, come out, yeah.
We didn't want to.
Here, just getting this cake.
I was really set on trying to preserve the moment
that she sees him that we're not, you know,
having, you know, two cameras rolling and making sure,
because, you know, of course that's what we want
and that's what his mom wants.
But anyway, we kind of, we kind of did a little of each
and I think it was a big success.
You told her to kind of get gussied up for a photo
or something?
Oh yeah, because Amanda thought, well, gosh, you know,
if I was surprised and I didn't look my best,
I'd be upset at whoever surprised me.
So Amanda said that she had to like,
she had to get like her passport picture retaken
or some sort of picture that the photographer
was nice enough to come over to the house.
And so just make sure you comb your hair
before you come downstairs kind of.
Yeah, wow.
Yeah, it was really, really cool.
I love that story.
It's so sweet.
Yeah.
If you have video, you'll show me video, Amanda.
We've got video.
So you did shoot it.
You filmed it with a crew.
We did film it, but it was at a tasteful distance.
Full crew from Discovery.
I had done.
Have you ever seen a loan?
It's the same production crew that shoot,
that works on a loan.
Wouldn't be nice shout out for a loan.
Will, have you gotten into a loan frozen yet?
Dude, I am in a loan.
We took a break for, I'm now in a loan,
the first one where they do couples.
Yeah, so you met your Canadian guys.
How about those Canadian girls?
Are those guys not the best?
I gotta watch this.
But they are such graduates of Hoser U,
they're from Toronto.
And the one of them says to his brother, he goes,
and I noticed the casual swearing by Canadians
is so off the charts that nobody gets beat more
on those shows than Canadians.
He'd be like, fuck it, hell of a day, eh?
So it's just, be hell of a day, eh?
I'm just like, oh, these guys are, they're beauts.
The guy goes, he's fishing, he's like, fuck,
I better catch something or I'm just gonna
stab myself in the face, eh?
I forget how far they make it, but-
It's so, it's so good.
When are you talking about the new one?
It's like a loan frozen.
No, no, no, that's season nine.
He's not there yet.
I'm past that and now going to start the spin-off.
The ex-champions that they drop into a frozen tundra.
This is called a loan frozen.
I haven't started yet, but I've got a couple episodes
all banked off.
Oh, wait, by the way, I, speaking of gussing yourself up,
I got a facial the other day and the woman, when I'm done,
she says, by the way, Will, it's the same spot
that I got you a gift card for.
Wait, how often?
Will has six jokes already.
Just write off the word facial.
I meant about facial.
Yeah, which is just, she's in my face.
Boy, you love a facial, eh?
She's in my face.
Did you, did you, you gave a facial or you got one?
I can't conclude.
Sorry, I don't know what joke to use.
I don't know, there's no way to joke.
Okay, so wait.
Wait, Sean, so you go, you get a facial?
I got a facial.
And when I was done, the woman says,
the woman says, your scalp is too tight.
Wow, good for you.
Yeah.
Stop seeing them up, Sean, you gotta be quicker.
Jason, stop laughing, because when I was done,
she says to me, I mean, drop the ellipses and keep our neck out.
Okay, ready?
Yeah, yeah.
When I was done, the woman turns to me and says,
your scalp is too tight, you think too much.
And I said, sorry, excuse me.
She says, you need to stop thinking so hard.
And I'm like, what does that even mean?
You must have got a real deal on her.
I had a, I did not have a facial today or give one,
but I did, I did have a, like a face,
what did they call it?
Like face gym or something, this person comes
and they like, it was, I was sort of set it up
and they did this thing and they like manipulated my face
and moved it all around, did all this stuff.
It was incredible.
A face gym, so like, like cheek push ups and things like that.
Yeah, they come, they do all this stuff
and then with this electromagnetic thing,
they do all this stuff and it was like, I've never had it.
I've had three facials, I think, in my life.
They were great, but I just forget.
It's nice, they're nice.
I forget to do it.
They're nice because you know.
Your skin looks very, Sean, you look very good.
Well, you look good.
You look great.
I only fill out a V-neck mask.
I'm currently in a relationship, so.
Well, but you're coming out here, right?
You coming out, you changing area codes?
Okay, so wait guys, before we get to our guests,
I have an official announcement.
Oh boy, is it facial related?
What's that?
What did you say?
I asked if it was facial related.
No, it's not.
I got Will Mid-Sip, yeah.
No, it's not facial related.
Okay, so the play I did at the Goodman Theater in Chicago
earlier this year, it's called Good Night Oscar.
This is the official, official announcement
that it's going to Broadway.
No way.
Yes, performances begin April 7th.
Oh wow.
If you go to GoodnightOscar.com,
that's GoodnightOscar.com.
Spell it.
Spell it.
G-O-O-D-N-I-G-E-H-T-S-O-S-C-I.
It's not K-N-I, because this is the sword play
you're doing, right?
No, it's like good morning, good night.
You'll be one of the first to get tickets
if you go to GoodnightOscar.com.
Tickets go on sale today.
Today.
So I hope you call and get excellent seats.
It's a great show. Good Night Oscar.
Wow, that's great.
And this is not the Excalibur one act you were doing.
No, it's not.
And it's going to open at the Bellasco Theater,
which is huge, and it's great theater, and I heard it's a little haunted.
So that's going to be exciting.
That is great.
Congratulations, Shawnee.
Thank you, I'm excited.
I'm afraid of no ghosts, by the way, should be mentioned.
No, but Shawnee, congratulations.
He had a very successful run in Chicago listener,
and he has earned this.
So I'm going to go out there and I'm going to see it.
Will, are you still thinking about it?
Up in the air, up in the air.
About going to see it?
Yeah, and we don't want your matinee money.
I always came to Chicago, and I couldn't do it in the one week
I had in Atlanta.
Anyway, yes, I'm going to be there.
Are you kidding?
We'll carpool.
Thank you, guys, for being so supportive.
I'm excited for you.
So happy for you, Shawnee.
All right, guys, so our guest today, boy, does she make me laugh a lot.
But funny enough, that's not what she gets paid the big bucks to do.
She was signed to a major record label at just 15 years old.
Oh my god.
She eventually released her first album under a different name
than what we know her as today.
Jackson.
The self-titled album was heavily influenced by her Christian upbringing,
which I'm going to ask about, too.
She celebrated in the LGBTQ community, winning many awards for advocacy and philanthropy.
Guys like me have some pretty bad ass empowerment anthems because of her strength.
Please welcome the fantastic, the fabulous, Katy Perry.
What?
Katy, Katy Perry.
That was a long wait for you, Katy.
That was a long wait.
You don't have to wait that long for anything.
Katy, you don't have to wait that long.
You could have just hung up on us.
Did you hear me cracking my knuckles?
I was like, guys, my child just woke up from a nap.
She's desperate to see her mommy.
Let's go.
Oh, is that true?
Well, not really.
OK, let's get right into the baby stuff.
How is the kidnapping?
Boy or girl?
She's a girl.
She's about to be two years old.
She's doing OK.
But you know, I am working a lot, and I've always worked a lot,
and kind of been a matriarchal figure.
Yes, you have.
And I have a wonderful nanny, but I
don't have a full-time nanny because I
feel like if I had a full-time nanny,
then I would never be able to know how to care for my daughter.
Like I'm meant to.
And so therefore, any day I get off, I'm just in mom mode.
Doesn't matter if I've had a show that goes till 11
PM the night before, I'm waking up at 6 o'clock,
and we're going to go and do breakfast.
And yes, I have the no-sleep shakes.
But yeah, so I'm doing mom mode today,
and my sister tapped in to do some Play-Doh
while we're having a little chat.
Well, thank you for taking the time.
I think as much help as you can get, just for what it's worth,
it always made me a better parent
so that I could refill my patients tank and my compromised
tank and whatever that is.
I don't think help is great as much as you can get.
Oh, of course.
I mean, it's worth like super blessed.
And I'm so grateful.
But I also want to participate.
And I want like she's two.
So she's at that point where it's like she's
saying new words every day.
And the other day, she was just saying some words
that I didn't teach her.
And I was like, damn it, that doesn't feel good.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, so she's two.
So then she's walking around.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You have all the corners padded and all that stuff.
Yeah, still.
I actually overheard your conversation
about the new boyfriend.
Yes.
Yes.
I think you got to look at the bright side of this,
is that he's on your turf.
She's not over there.
No.
Not texting me back.
He's literally in your house.
So if you wanted to set up that extra ring camera
and throw it in like a old stuff teddy bear in the bedroom,
you know, you could do it.
I might see stuff I don't want to see.
Sure.
I might see stuff I don't want to see.
Now, are you getting help from dad?
Yeah, dad's doing it.
Of course, dad is the best.
But actually, I was a little tardy for this call
because he had just called me to let me know he was alive,
because he's in the Bahamas right now filming a show where
he goes to kind of just the edge of everything extreme.
And he's doing an episode on freediving.
So he just freedove like over 100 feet.
For my sister, Tracy, you're talking about Orlando Bloom.
Yes, Orlando Bloom, yeah.
And so he was just calling me to check in and tell me
that he's still around, which I'm grateful for,
because it's been a few days.
He's been learning how to do all these kind of extreme sports.
He's filming a show for Discovery.
And it's just like, it's a little nerve-wracking.
Wow, no stunt doubles allowed in that.
Sean can relate.
He has his own stunt.
You've got to go in toes first, right?
Will used to do a lot of, in Acapulco,
he did some freediving.
You've got to go in toes first.
You lose your toenail on that.
Excuse me for that footage of me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, from back in the day.
And we will be right back.
All right, back to the show.
Wait, Katie, I want to talk about, by the way, I know
you have to like transfer out of like my mode for a second
and be here to talk about all the stuff I want to do.
I wear so many fucking hats.
Come on.
Yeah, come on, let's do it.
All right, so I did not know your real name was Kate Hudson.
Katie Hudson.
Well, yeah, it's Catherine Hudson.
Yeah, it's, but people called me Katie Hudson.
But in the beginning, I decided not to do that because.
How did you settle on Perry?
My mother's made a name Perry.
So if we were living in a matriarchal society,
it would have just been easy.
Have you cornered Kate Hudson at a party
and told her to back off and to give you the name back?
No, we're best friends.
We get along, and that was actually the first thing
that we got along on, but she's.
How could you not get along with her?
She's just, I don't know first.
Afro-Vethant is the word, I think.
Yeah, she's so sweet.
She's just like, I can do anything.
I've got children.
I can cook.
I'll show you how to do my yoga pose.
Wait, speaking of poses, the first time I met you
was very brief backstage at either Madonna or Janet Jackson.
I can't remember.
But I think it was probably Madonna.
Madonna.
And I didn't stick around because Madonna
was like two, three hours late.
I was like, I'm old.
I got to go to bed.
I get it.
But I saw you backstage, and the first time we didn't even
say hello, I go, Katie, you go, Sean.
And we both did the lion's pose because we
have the same vocal coach.
Oh, yeah.
Remember that?
We stuck our hands up like that.
Eric Vitro, shout out.
Eric Vitro, yeah.
He's the greatest.
The most iconic, he's like kind of like,
he's Corky St. Clair in a Christopher Guest movie.
He really is, he's like a little,
he's like a character from Christopher Guest movie.
He's the greatest, and the greatest vocal coach ever.
Got me through Broadway.
He's amazing.
If I had his name, I would call my business in Vitro, of course.
How would you not?
Of course.
Of course.
How the fuck would you not?
Wait a second, wait a second.
So Sean came up to you at a after a concert.
And then did the.
No, before.
Oh, before the concert.
And were you on your, so you went to Janet Jackson,
and then were you on your way to share?
Or was that?
The Holy Trinity?
Yeah.
You mean the Holy Trinity?
The Trinity was complete with Katie there.
Sean, you know that Katie doesn't know that I was actually
a backup dancer for Janet Jackson.
Will was on an episode of Will and Grace,
where we were both backup dancers to Janet Jackson.
Sean and I had to dance off, and I was in the Jackson band.
Jason, you were there that night.
Yeah.
I was there.
So true story.
Wait, go back to just for one second with Eric Vitro.
Do you still use him and call him up?
Because you're doing a Vegas show.
Is it every night you do the Vegas show?
No, I do it in like three week installments.
How much you get for that?
How much money do they pay you for that?
You don't have to answer that.
Don't listen to him.
It allows me the ability to drop my daughter off
at preschool, and then mommy goes to work and comes back
home the next day.
So it's like, it's such a great routine, you know?
It's like, it's something that like pop stars love to do
and check off the box.
But it's also, I get to create an incredible crazy,
crazy show that I can't tour with because I couldn't possibly
move all these absurd props that are on the stage.
But do I call him every single time I sing?
No, I actually have a recording.
Yeah, I do too.
Yeah, and it's like from like 10 years ago.
Yeah, it's the best.
Do you know, so you know Eric Vito, do you know Scevo?
That's Sean's beautician.
We all know each other.
This community, we're all just, we just all hang.
All right, so in Vegas, so you do three weeks at a time
at your, what is the place?
What is the venue?
It's at Resorts World.
Resorts World.
Which is the newest hotel on this trip.
Gotcha.
And it's right next to the win.
And I started it out on New Year's Eve, I think,
or a couple of days before New Year's Eve.
Just this past year?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I'm there for this year.
And I'll be doing some more shows.
I'll do my last kind of announced run so far,
and it depends if we'll go next year, is in October, so.
So you do three weeks on one week off,
three weeks on one week off, all year until October?
No, I don't do that.
Actually, it's kind of crazy.
It's three weeks on, and then sometimes six to nine weeks off.
Oh, that's a nice thing.
And it's really easy to become fat Elvis in between.
Really?
Incredible.
So listen, Katie, I've always,
this is so cool that you're here, so thank you.
It is very cool to have you on this.
Oh, stop.
I'm only doing this because of,
it's divided between Sean and Amanda.
I'm gonna tell her.
I'm gonna tell her.
It's mostly Amanda.
I love you, Sean, but Amanda, she's.
No, I get it.
I get it.
We all love Amanda.
She's pretty great.
Will loves Amanda.
She's the real boss of this.
I think Will talks to Amanda more than I do.
Everybody loves Amanda.
Well, she has.
Next fall on NBC.
She's my most frequent FaceTimer.
But.
Wait, wait, Katie, can I go back to,
Sean was, I wanna talk about,
we talked about you go to Vegas and doing this stuff.
What was, for you musically,
like what was, I don't know,
who were your idols growing up?
Who were the people you're like,
I wanna be like that, I wanna sound like that,
like this is the kind of shit I wanna do.
Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morse that changed my life.
That was the record that changed my life.
How old were you when that came out?
Well, that's rude ass, but I just.
I mean, I'm 37, so I don't know.
It was like early 20s or, I mean, that was late teens.
Sorry, late teens.
God, that was so good.
That was a good record.
But before that queen,
queen was like the, Freddie Mercury was.
Yeah, yeah.
I only listened to gospel music.
I know.
The whole life, up until I was about 13,
and then I discovered like a greatest hits of Queen
and the wide album from the Beatles
and Pet Sounds from the Beach Boys.
And those three compact discs were on Rotate.
That was it.
That's amazing.
Were you not allowed to listen to other?
Oh, that's what I was listening to.
Guys, don't fight.
Don't fight.
John Jinx.
No, I wasn't allowed.
I was raised in a very Christian,
but it's like, they call it born again Christian.
So it's like, it's very kind of emotional
and like, it's new wave.
Don't call it new age,
but it's not like, it's not like Catholic.
It's like, it's pretty radical Christian.
But no music sounds more like boring again.
You know what I mean?
Well, actually there's a whole, like,
I mean, there's like all kinds of.
You don't have to take that shit from them, Kate.
No, she's with me.
You're not offending me, please.
But no, I grew up with listening to gospel music
and Christian music, and there's like a whole,
there's a whole Christian music world out there
that have their own type of Grammys.
I mean, it's a whole thing.
Yeah, it's huge, right?
Yeah, it's massive.
Really?
Do you mind if I ask how big a religion plays
in your life currently?
Currently?
Yeah.
Religion, organized, no.
I don't believe in the way that I was raised.
Organized religion is not necessarily for me.
I'm a big, big seeker.
Orlando is a devout Buddhist,
and he chants every morning, mostly.
And so I kind of follow a little bit more of his philosophy
or just the Buddhist philosophy,
but I'm actually just like a seeker of all of it.
I mean, like from mysticism to math to geometry
to like physics, lots of science.
Right, there's something bigger up there
that somehow explains all this beautiful,
miracle stuff, but what that thing is
can be for anybody's choosing kind of thing?
I mean, I'm sure it's ultimately gonna be something,
I don't know if it's anyone's choosing,
but I'm sure-
No, but I mean, whatever they wanna call it, right?
Buddha or-
I have some freaky, not freaky,
but there's some thoughts that I entertain.
I mean-
That explains it all kind of thing?
I mean, I'm into simulation theory.
I'm into like NPCs.
Sure, let's hear all of it.
Somebody just walked me through the simulation thing
last weekend.
What's the simulation?
Have you guys heard about that?
Well, I mean, I've never been walked through it.
We're a part of a simulation?
Yeah, but like for instance,
my brother is a big gamer and he's into crypto
and I'm into crypto and all that stuff,
but they were watching like the X games
of video gaming yesterday.
And it was like,
it was literally just video gamers on their computers
with their fancy chairs playing FIFA or playing soccer.
And there was a stadium full of people
watching these people play their characters,
their avatars.
And I was like, well, isn't that already happening?
Is this like meta, meta?
Is this happening with us?
Is someone potentially playing us?
Right.
And then we're figuring out how to play another game.
And the metaverse is just like the next dimension
of our reality.
I don't know.
Something just outside of what we can see.
And perhaps this is all sort of happening in another place.
And we think we're here, but we're really not kind of thing.
And I don't even smoke weed.
I'm not even allowed to smoke weed
because you don't want to smoke weed.
It sounds like you're making it.
I mean, you're talking about, listen.
It sounds like I'm micro dosing now.
Here's the other thing to keep in mind.
I have had those thoughts too,
where it's that whole like, are we in the matrix?
All that kind of shit.
Yeah, I love that.
And I have to be honest, I had it quite recently
and to a certain degree, I thought if I am,
I actually don't want to know because where's the point.
Yes, it's pretty intense to try and process
any of that information.
Now, what was the other thing you said?
So simulation and what was your M.M.T.?
No.
M.P.C.
What is that?
What is that?
Non-player character.
Non-player character.
And M.P.C.
It's like that free guy movie.
That's where Sean's movie was all about that.
Background.
People that are not actively participating in life.
And they're like so, and it's a reference to basically-
My dad.
Or Katie, correct me if I'm wrong.
Characters who are extras in video games
who just walk around and aren't actually part of the thing.
They're-
Wow.
I think it's maybe a sociopathic way to explain it,
but I mean, on a more esoteric spiritual level,
maybe it's just people that lack awareness or consciousness.
I feel like as soon as that the headset thing,
the virtual reality thing,
yeah, when that really takes over,
I feel like we're gonna have a bunch of those people.
They're just like, well, why should I go out?
I got this perfect environment
that I could just kind of put on my head.
I could stay in my air-conditioned house
and I can really kind of go wherever I want.
Have you done that, Jason, before?
Have you put-
No, but from what I hear about it, it sounds fantastic.
Yeah, because the second you take it off,
the second you take it off, you forget,
oh gosh, I'm in my living room.
It really transports you to another world.
Like it's crazy.
But it's really simple.
We're just from aliens, period.
That's it.
We're all just stars bound to a body.
That's exactly right.
Guys.
I've been saying it for years.
Yeah.
Oh wait, Katie, I wanna talk about you just you for a second
and like your songs and music and everything.
I know we are, but I wanna talk about like,
I just, you know, I'm obsessed.
So first of all, I just have to say this,
you know, for as long as we live,
Mariah Carey will have a Christmas song
that will be played every single holiday season
called All I Want For Christmas forever.
And there's only a handful of people
that have anthems like to a holiday and stuff.
But for as long as we have the next 10,000 years,
fourth of July, they will always play
Firework by Katy Perry for the rest of our life.
Great song.
I mean, isn't that cool?
Apparently for 10,000 years.
Yeah, 10,000 years until the next polar shift.
Then all the pop stars start over.
None of us are living more than 40 more years
on this planet.
Keep going, Sean.
Yeah, that's the polar shift.
No, but that's just like, obviously.
It's so great.
I'm so, look, I'm so grateful.
I know, you don't have to say anything.
I just think it's so cool.
It's the best.
Yeah, I mean, and that you didn't write it
for that purpose, but it became that thing.
And now every fourth of July, we just hear that.
I think it's so cool.
I just think it's cool.
It's wild, you know, you guys know,
because you guys have a lot of,
I mean, all of you have been in success
for a long time, for more than a decade.
It's like in the beginning, there's a lot of anxiety
and worry and doubt and fear and blah, blah, blah.
And then you just keep chipping away,
chipping away, chipping away.
And then 10 years pass and then 15 years pass.
And you're like, oh, this is gonna be okay.
I think, yeah, it's gonna be okay.
And the more, the more I decide to live,
the better I get at living it, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
The more you decide to live,
meaning the less you pay attention to business
and the aspirations and the ambition and stuff
and more about like personal life you focus on.
I mean, yes, but no, I'm just saying that like,
you know, I don't come from anything.
So I just, I'm grateful that I've been able
to scale these heights.
Yeah, yeah.
I wouldn't say that I didn't dream of these heights
because I totally did.
Yeah, yeah.
But just because you dream,
it doesn't mean you always get the opportunity to do it.
Right, but your work ethic, I mean,
it's like song after song, album after album
is just massively globally huge.
It's just unbelievable.
Thank you.
You know, where does that come from?
Where are you just like, you know what?
I gotta get another album and another album
and another album and all the people that you collaborate with.
Childhood trauma.
Yeah, for sure.
Childhood trauma, it is the gasoline for all art
for a long, long time until it turns against you.
We'll be right back.
And now back to the show.
Now, what does it look like?
What does it look like in another 15 years?
Is there, would you love to just become
a more and more mature singer, a songwriter,
a producer or all of it?
You know, my currency is communication with people.
You know, that's what I feel like
I'm put on the planet to do.
Yeah, you're an excellent communicator.
I watch an American Idol the way you speak
to the contestants.
I've seen you in interviews, the way you just speak,
the way you carry yourself is extremely intelligent,
very succinct, very-
Sean, go ahead and ask her.
He wants to know how much you make on American Idol.
He's desperate to know.
And by the way, he's laughing now
and he's also like, but maybe she will.
Scratching the question off the list.
No, but seriously.
So I'd like to continue scaling with that.
I mean, I love music and that has been the main,
that's my main tree, but I have a ton of branches
and maybe another tree.
By the way, what about acting?
Because in all your videos,
I swear I'm not just saying this,
you're a really talented actress
and I can't be the first person to tell you.
But in every video, I'm just like,
why is she not like in a movie or something?
Or like a TV show?
Can I tell you?
Can I tell you?
Yeah, let's make some news.
So...
You and Orly are doing love letters.
You're doing love letters down at the get-
No, I respect what you guys do,
but I think I have a little bit more fun.
Oh, wow.
You probably do.
Sorry, sorry.
Because I have been on set.
I have, you know, I've been around all the actors.
I've dated them, married them, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And like the amount of time that you guys sit in a trailer
and then the amount of deliveries
and takes you do like close up and then wide
and over the shoulder.
And it's just like, I just go on the stage for two hours
and I do it all in real time in front of a real audience.
And, you know, I feel like I love what I do.
And like I would not, not do a movie.
Obviously I have ideas and dreams
and I probably will in the future,
but it has to be something that I'm totally like
so excited for and develop and own and all that jazz.
Because I'm, you know, it's a real communal job
that you guys have.
And my job takes a team, but it's not as communal.
Like the buck stops at me.
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
So I'm like, I love watching films.
I love, you know, I respect and admire
and I'm in awe of the dedication,
the time spent, the effort that all y'all do.
But it's just, it's a lot.
Yeah, but you're in the studio for hours and days
and weeks and then you shoot videos for hours
and days and weeks.
No, the videos are just a couple of days, right?
Videos are two to three days.
All right.
Well, calm down, everybody.
Well, no, no, no, I'm, I'm, I was looking up,
Katie, I was looking at,
I was trying to remember the name of your song.
Anyway, I was just looking up.
Give me some context clues, I'll tell you.
Well, no, it was Roar.
Sing a little bit of it.
Roar, yeah.
But then the question is this,
well, it's more of a statement.
So then Wikipedia decides to tell me
that you've sold over 143 million records worldwide.
You've had over a billion streams on Spotify.
You have nine number one US singles.
I'm like, what?
That's what I'm saying.
That's what I said.
So when you're saying to her,
do you ever want to be an actress?
She's like, what?
Why the fuck would I go and do what you do, you tool?
I'm gonna, she's like on top of a mountain.
No, it's an artistic medium.
Yes, no, but have you seen her videos?
She's like a really fantastic actress.
Yes, I have seen her videos.
I don't disagree. It's amazing.
That's what I'm saying.
If you have a two year old, it'll start eventually.
Yeah, well.
Okay, so wait, before we let you go,
because it's been too long and you're gonna get back to it.
You're narrating an Elizabeth Taylor podcast,
which is amazing.
Tell me about why and what it's about.
And Elizabeth Taylor,
you only talk about Elizabeth Taylor, I don't understand.
Well, I'm learning so much by narrating it.
She's like one of my heroes.
I mean, she just, you know, she wasn't just an actress.
She was an activist and expanded.
She was the first influencer, I would say, you know,
she created a brand and, you know, she had ownership.
She really was such an incredible business woman.
And, you know, I'm just so inspired by her
and I resonate a lot with her story
and hope to, you know, have as many husbands as her.
So, you know, what did she have seven?
It's a seven and one of them was twice.
I don't know.
Yeah, that was Richard Burton.
Wow, old Dickie Burtz.
Yeah. Oh my God.
At what point do you think she said, maybe it's me.
But anyway, okay.
But last stat that I think is so impressive
and I couldn't name a million of them
is of all halftime Super Bowl shows, yours is the most watched.
Worth it. I think it's incredible.
Well deserved.
Thank you.
I thought it was amazing.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Was it worth it?
Can you know when they talk about, like,
they're all like, this year in the Super Bowl,
it's gonna be Katy Perry and then they're like,
did you guys hear in this weekend,
this year in the Super Bowl, it's gonna be so-and-so.
Was it that much of a thrill?
You can be honest,
because nobody listens to this podcast.
Yeah.
You guys are actually really popular.
I thought that it was really fun,
all the apparatus about it.
Was it fun?
So was it everything that you wanted it to,
is it the greatest thing?
Yeah, yeah, it was everything.
It was like, it was really intense.
It was the most adrenaline.
It was like, I had never been close to death.
I had never given birth,
so I had nothing to compare it to those feelings.
Seemed like really intense life feelings,
but it felt like it was in that same category.
You don't really wish it on anyone,
but it's a rite of passage in some ways,
and it separates, I think, people,
and it definitely helps catapult
and just puts you in a different thing.
And it was amazing,
and I got to pick my people that I performed with,
which was Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz,
but I rehearsed the hell out of it.
You did.
Well, one of my producers for that particular show,
he literally had a cattle prod,
and he would run after me with this cattle prod,
and it'd just go,
and it was like, my legs were so sore,
but I had to climb and mount that lion again.
And get on it.
And what you didn't see in between all the changes
and stuff on that particular show
is that I was coming down from the lion
by literally holding onto a fire pole.
So I was like, coming down the fire pole,
I was changing, ripping things.
I was wearing three costumes under one thing.
There was so much behind the scenes
that was going on in order to give it
that color and variety and life,
and just have it be the biggest thing.
How long did they let you rehearse that?
I don't know, I rehearsed it for months on end, but.
Really months?
Yeah, but you only get like,
there's so much room for error in that show.
Yeah, of course, it's only like 10 minutes, right?
10, 12 minutes, yeah.
And a lot of my show was based on projection.
So the funny thing will not funny.
I do a lot of projecting too.
Yeah, I guess.
No, but like, it has to get,
the light has to be a certain way
in order for projection to work.
And that game was running early.
So I was about to get totally screwed.
And something happened, the universe covered me,
and there were some calls or fouls or whatever
that were called that delayed the game.
And finally, it got dark enough
that the projection would actually be read.
Otherwise, I was gonna have a pretty crappy show.
Wow, that's so much pressure.
And so you're building up, you're rehearsing,
then stuff like that happens.
And it sort of occurs to me.
I mean, not only do you have to go and do it,
but you are, especially because you're a solo artist.
I know there are a lot of people who you work with
and a lot of dancers and people, of course,
but it's you, it's your name.
And you're the CEO of Katy Perry, Inc.
And you're also the star.
Katy Perry, Inc.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
But you're all, everybody's leaning on you.
There must be, that's a lot of,
must be a lot of pressure.
When the call comes in, they're like,
hey, Katy, they want you to do a Super Bowl.
Are you like, yes, automatically?
Are you like, huh, this is risky?
You have to make all these big decisions, is my point.
It's a lot, I bet.
Big risk, big reward.
Looks right, yeah, that's right.
I like to roll it.
I mean, it's admirable as hell.
But I like to roll it with preparation.
So when I decide to do something, I'm a super prepper.
It's not by accident.
So there's no nerves ever for anything.
Like opening the show in Vegas,
I had been developing it for over a year.
I had been on stage rehearsing it for months on end.
I had everything dialed in.
There were no surprises.
The only thing we were navigating in that time was COVID.
And we were bobbing and weaving left and right
because it was such a crazy time.
But the preparation makes the precision.
Yeah, for sure.
I like that.
Yeah, and it shows in everything you do.
Every single thing you do is like perfection.
Thanks, John.
I really appreciate you.
It's true.
Yeah, you're drilling it.
You're absolutely killing it.
It's amazing.
Katie, we love you.
Thank you for being here.
Please go and tend to your daughter.
Thanks for doing this and taking some time out
from being mommy and please say hi to daddy.
I will, I will.
And please say hi to other mommy, Amanda.
I will, I definitely will.
Love her.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Katie.
Can I give a shout out to my cousin, Jen,
who listens to your podcast
and she's the reason why I ultimately said yes.
Jen.
Thanks to Jen.
Thanks, Jen.
She's a huge, she's a huge fan.
Where's Jen?
Where's Jen?
Jen is in LA and she just conquered breast cancer.
So, huge, huge fan of you guys.
And I, she was telling me about smart list
and then someone said, oh, you should do smart list.
And I was like, oh, well, my cousin really likes it
and she's cool, so I'm gonna do it.
But I also like you guys.
Very nice.
That's awesome.
Well, send, please send our love to Jen.
We're saying it right now.
Jen, we're sending you our love.
Jen, we love you.
Yeah, we do love you.
We're happy for you.
Congrats, it's awesome.
We love you too, Katie.
Woo, love you guys.
Thanks for doing it.
All right, bye.
Oh, I forgot to tell her to text me.
She's never gonna text me.
You know, just text her?
Text her, yeah.
Text her.
I don't know, I don't know.
And wait for the bubbles.
Could you imagine?
If I had her digits, that's what you guys say.
If I had her digits, I would be texting her all day and night.
Just like a bunch of like kitties on skateboards
and stuff, I just make her just throw her phone
out the window.
Just kooky stuff all day and night.
I didn't know that she and Amanda were friends.
She is, she has talked with Amanda quite a few times.
I didn't know that.
Dinners and stuff with Orlando and, you know, Amanda, Amanda.
Amanda knows everybody.
Amanda knows the house at night.
I do not, you know, I'm a house cat.
But how great is she?
It's not a nice surprise.
I've never had a lengthy conversation with her.
I just said hello once and then she came on the phone.
No, I don't know her at all.
Oh, oh.
I just met her once so fast.
It was so brief.
We did like a bit with like, you know.
They should have been in the interview.
God, we're bad interviewers.
We're the worst.
Oh, my God.
Well, we're not smart.
You know, if we were smart, we'd ask good questions.
I know.
We do research.
I know.
But it just occurred to me when she was talking about it.
This goes for all solo artists,
but just, you know, how much pressure there is on her.
Like, you know, it's insane.
It's incredible.
By the way, I did this huge enterprise.
I know.
Well, you know, there's a lot of pressure on you too, Arnette.
Who's the CEO of Will Arnette?
I know, but you know what I mean?
Like, yeah, but I'm not Katy Perry, man.
She's on a, you know, she's killing it.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, let's do it.
Sing Roar one more time.
You're going to hear me roar.
You're going to hear me roar.
Just take on me.
What about, what about?
I do like that song so catchy.
So, like, how does the fire?
She said nine, number one U.S. singer.
How does the firecracker one go?
It goes, firecracker, wait, wait.
And I can't think of it.
Of course, I know it's not.
You light it and I will spark it.
Is that, am I close?
Who is you?
Start this fuse and I will bang, bang, bang it.
That's it for you.
Listen to the style of music.
You get too much Paul Anka in your life.
If I close my eyes, Katy Perry never left.
Every song that Jason Singh sounds like a Paul Anka yet.
You are the one.
Wait, how does fire work though?
Oh yeah, wait, I have it here and look,
and it says, firework written by.
By.
Katy Perry.
Beautiful, all time best, right there.
That was the best one.
Smart.
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