By now, we’ve all seen the 2006 video of Katy Perry singing background vocals with nu-metal band P.O.D. The group, along with Perry, who was known as Katy Hudson at the time, performed “Goodbye for Now” on The Tonight Show. Watching the video, it’s natural to consider Perry a “backup singer,” being that she is singing while standing behind the rest of the group.
But P.O.D. guitarist Marcos Curiel is pissed at everyone calling Perry a backup singer for this performance, for some reason. So pissed that he even released a statement to Rolling Stone about the situation:
This is revisionist history and disrespectful to our girl Katy who was NEVER a backup singer … We invited her to participate on our record as she was and is still is one of the few pop artists with strong musicianship roots … She paid her dues not as a backup singer but in a van going town to town. This is the problem with music journalism today … Shabby reporting. No research. No history.
So, what does this make her? Was Katy Perry an actual member of P.O.D., and not just a backup singer, because she had strong musicianship roots? No one was accusing her of not paying her dues.
(via Stereogum)
