Perry and Ballard went on to work together for three years -- three very tumultuous years, during which Perry was signed to and then ultimately dropped by both Def Jam and Columbia Records. Three uncompleted albums and over 50 recorded songs later, Perry was starting to lose hope, and she was not even 23 yet. Fame had a way of dangling itself in front of her, only to be immediately snatched away. "I remember living in Beverly Hills," Perry says, "and having a new black Jetta, being very comfortable on my monthly stipend, and my cousin looked at me and said, 'Katy, this can go away,' and I was like, 'It's never going to go away!' And then it all went away. I remember that moment so clearly." There was another point, Perry remembers, "when I would write a check for my rent with fifteen dollars in my bank account and on the memo I would write, 'God, please help.' I would not recommend that anybody do that." During various bleak times during her early 20s, the only way Perry could buy new clothes was to sell her old ones at L.A. thrift store Wasteland. "I would tell people, you know, 'I'm going to have a record out,' but after three years, after being dropped by two labels, people were like, 'You're not going to have a record out, you're a liar and what do you really do?"
One thing Perry did was to go out a lot. "At one time in my life, it was almost a priority for me to be on the scene in L.A., but at a certain point, I was going out and not getting anything done the next day. We'd all go to Teddy's, and I couldn't believe how many lost people there were dancing the night away." For a glimpse into her party girl days, Perry points to her album's surprisingly moving power ballad "Lost" ("I'm out on my own again/ Face down in the porcelain/ Feeling so high but looking so low/ Party favors on the floor/ Group of girls banging on the door"). Read into it what you like.
To make ends meet, she got a job working in the A&R department at Taxi, which had her (a bit ironically) listening to music all day, deciding whether a band had hit-making potential or not. It was while working there, during January of 2007, that Perry received a call from the then head of Capitol Records, Jason Flom, who had heard an old recording of hers and wanted to meet with her. From there, Perry's rise was about as smooth sailing as could be -- she teamed up with Dr. Luke, a producer who had worked with artists like Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne, and recorded an album. Capitol released the buzzy "UR So Gay" on iTunes in November of 2007, the even more buzzy "I Kissed a Girl" in May of '08 and when One of the Boys debuted in June, the album was an immediate hit; by February 2009 it reached certified platinum.
"I'll have a Red Bull and vodka," Perry tells our waitress, before pausing a beat and coyly smiling. "Just kidding, I'll have a Coke." Perry likes to push people's buttons. From her lyrics ("UR So Gay," which was her ode to a former metrosexually-leaning boyfriend, has found some folks in the gay community less than pleased) to her live shows (how many pop starlets have descended from a giant banana into a fruit bowl during the Grammy Awards?) to interviews (she famously told one reporter that her dream lesbian kiss would be with Miley Cyrus), Perry has spent her time at the top delighting, befuddling and at times pissing off the masses. As Perry sees it, she's always enjoyed making people slightly uncomfortable. "I was always that person who said the unspoken. I remember even in school, if someone had a crush on someone, I'd go up to that person and I'd say, 'My friend has a crush on you, do you like her? You don't? OK, great. She can move on.' Or, 'You like her? Great, I just made something happen.'"
There is something ever so self-conscious about all of Perry's button-pushing, and to be sure, label executives have done a good job of exploiting her "edginess," capitalizing on the music-listening public's current desire to have their pop starlets (Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, et al.) a little rough around the edges. And yet, there is actually something genuinely crude about Perry. While she's prepping backstage for an appearance at the Chelsea Lately show, it's decided that Perry's panty line is visible through her vintage kelly-green dress. As this reporter looked on, Perry casually dropped her underwear, did a quick wipe with a napkin, tossed it in the trash and headed out onstage. Perez Hilton, a tried-and-true Perry loyalist, has never drawn those little white dots coming out of Perry's crotch -- and we suppose she would like to keep it that way?
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