Why Am I Writing About Katy Perry & Kelly Clarkson?

As you know, I’ve spent many Hump Days dropping some Wikipedia Wednesday on you, but I’m not going to bring that every week.  Don’t worry, I’ll still keep Wiki Wednesday in my aresenal, holstered at my left side and ready to draw the second I feel like making you dance.  Take heart because I’ve whipped up a fresh batch of Wikiliciousness just for you.

Katy Perry & Katy Hudson

You never quite know where I’m gonna go around here during my “quirky musings” as a wonderful commenter recently put it, so apologies if I sometimes stray farther than you care to follow.  I still love connecting what seem to be random dots, but music’s my game today.  Must be all the American Idol and Grammy Awards talk I’ve been ignoring so much lately.

So why am I talking about Perry & Clarkson?  For starters I love a good story with twists, turns, and longshot connections.  I also dig the work of a guy named Matt Thiessen who’s at the heart of this short tale.

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With all the talk of kissing girls and liking it while dancing around in whipped cream, most folks don’t connect Katy Perry to gospel music, but that’s exactly where young Katy Hudson–preacher’s daughter–began.  She snagged a GED (high school equivalency) after her freshman year and started chasing the music dream.  Her self-titled debut album was a gospel/Christian effort that went under when the recording company folded in 2001.

Matt Thiessen of Relient K

So Perry was pressing on past her 18th birthday when she met Matt Thiessen, frontman of a band called Relient K.  I’m a big fan of piano-driven rock whether it’s super poppy or not.

A few years ago, Katy and Matt wrote a bunch of music together to be part of her new project, the album expected to make her a star from Columbia Records.  The label couldn’t figure out how to promote Katy (now called Perry), and the project dissolved.  So what does all this have to do with Kelly Clarkson?

Apparently (because I just don’t know these things like a hip person would), Clarkson’s album last year includes a song called Longshot.  Check the fine print and you’ll see the writing credits go to Perry, Thiessen, and Glen Ballard (more on him in a second).  Not only did the former couple write that song, they even recorded a video for it a few years ago.  Here’s a YouTube clip that includes the original video of Longshot, the Katy Perry version that was shelved around 2005, followed by the Kelly Clarkson rendition.

After watching a second self-titled album fail, Perry continued finding work including backup vocals on an unlikely album.  The aforementioned Glen Ballard is the glue.  He’s all over some of the biggest albums of our time including a couple little projects that did okay called Thriller and Bad by that Michael Jackson guy.  Ballard’s done a whole lot more than that but his most recent megahit was Testify by SoCal rockers P.O.D.  And guess who sang backup vocals on the album’s first single Goodbye For Now.  Yup.  Here’s the P.O.D. video of Goodbye For Now featuring Katy Perry near the end.

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Katy Perry’s carved an erratic path from teenage gospel singer to lascivious pop icon too controversial even for Sesame Street.  Who knew Relient K and P.O.D. were in the middle of that road?  She’s gorgeous, gifted, and got life by the throat.

I wonder how she’ll end up once the opportunities stop rushing at her and the lights fall dim.  Finding our true identity is challenging enough in this nutso world.  I wonder what goes through her mind when the music stops long enough for her to think.  Does someone like that find herself questioning who she really is?  Imagine having everything you always wanted no matter where you went on the planet.  There has to be a “now what?” moment at some point doesn’t there?  Maybe gaining everything is overrated.  Most of us will never have the glamour, but we can at least be who we are rather than who we’re told to be, a person rather than a product.

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Here’s an interview where Thiessen talks about his ex-girlfriend and how she continues to rocket some of his musical creations into the stratosphere.  If you’re really interested, one Relient K song that’s directly about Katy Perry is The One I’m Waiting For.  Props to Art10 at NewReleaseTuesday.Com.  His 2009 article on the initial connection between the two singers set me off on the rest of this stuff.

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Got any crazy music connections?  Find me on Twitter @ClayMorganPA.