So make a wish, trivia will make it like your birthday everyday.
Katy Perry has already had an amazing career, from starting as a Christian rock singer to breaking records to even showing up in all denim to this year’s MTV VMAs. She’s got the eye of the tiger and we’re all going to keep hearing her roar for a long time.
As the princess of pop turns 30, on Oct. 25, let’s review a few facts even hard core Katy Cats missed. If you’re a super fan, you might have known about Kitty Purry and her ability to sing Italian opera, but this is about what you missed.
Learn eight things about Katy Perry, and go from zero to your own hero.
1. Katy Perry and Paul McCartney are practically BFFs.
Twist and shout and twerk. During a Twitter Q&A, 72-year-old Paul McCartney revealed that he and Katy Perry have twerked together, even saying she was “rather good.”
Earlier in 2014, the two singers appeared on “The Graham Norton Show,” where Perry said she’d “hope to have half the career” that McCartney has had (also noting that she’s sort of surprised he’s “still here today”). At that point, McCartney clutched his chest and jokingly keeled over.
2. Katy Perry’s spinning peppermint bra was banned by her insurance company.
According to the Sun, the spinning peppermint bra that Katy Perry initially wore during her California Dreams tour caused issues with her insurance company. As Perry reportedly explained:
My hair got caught in the wheels of my spinning peppermint bra and began to coil around and around. I’m forced to just go with it so, by the end of the song, it looked quite like I was licking my own tit. What a girl does for her art … I keep being told the insurers are worried I will injure my neck. I seriously doubt it could be lethal but they want a new bra designed that will not allow hair to be caught up.
3. The album “Prism” was deemed a biohazard by the Australian government.
Members of the Australian Department of Agriculture were not happy with the inclusion of seeds along with “Prism,” which Katy Perry instructed fans to plant in order to “spread the light.” The officials were worried that the seeds would not be native to Australia and therefore be considered a weed.
A special edition of “Prism” was made with seeds local to Australia, but there was concern over albums purchased from international locations. Despite being deemed a biohazard, “Prism” still debuted at the top of the Australian charts.
4. Katy Perry helped deliver a baby in a living room.
Finally you can add “helps delivers babies in living rooms” to my resume! It’s been a miracle of a day…❤️ Auntie Katy aka Stylist Auntie
— Katy Perry (@katyperry) February 27, 2014
The mother was Katy Perry’s older sister, Angela Hudson, who had a water birth in a friend’s living room. Perry recorded the delivery on her iPhone. The Mirror quoted her as saying:
It’s insane, like birth and women giving birth, whenever I see moms walking down the street I’m like, ‘Damn, you’re a rock star, you’re the real rock star, you did something incredible … I was kind of like Martin Scorsese with my iPhone, I have the whole thing. It was like a water birth, the whole thing we were like the child is swimming through the water. It’s crazy.
Baby you’re a firework / Come on show them what you’re worth / Make them go, “Oh, oh, oh” / As you shoot across the living room.
5. Katy Perry thinks aliens may have built the pyramids.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Katy Perry admitted that she was fascinated by alien conspiracy theories. Talking about the History Channel show “Ancient Aliens,” Perry said:
Oh my God. When it talks about the sky people, how everyone comes from the sky and how the pyramids were used for star observations, it’s too much for me. It all seems to connect the dots. It’s blowing my mind.
“Ancient Aliens” is the show that gave rise to the meme of ridiculous “alien expert” Giorgio A. Tsoukalos.
6. Mary Perry, Katy’s mom, is now a preacher along with her husband, but once dated Jimi Hendrix.
Katy Perry’s parents are now Evangelists and her childhood apparently closely resembled the movie “Jesus Camp,” but her parents, Keith and Mary Hudson, weren’t always so religious.
Despite forcing Perry to called deviled eggs “angeled eggs” while growing up, her mother dated Jimi Hendrix and her father was apparently a drug dealer. Perry has said, “Sometimes I say to her, ‘Mom, you shouldn’t have been such a prude with him — I would have been a Hendrix.'” According to a quote from the Mirror, her father sold acid with Timothy Leary.
7. After just a few months of high school, Katy Perry completed her GED to pursue singing.
At a very young age, Katy Perry got her high school equivalency out of the way:
I got my GED [high school equivalency] when I was 15, when I was a freshman in high school. I know it was my first semester of my freshman year of high school, I decided to bounce. I was like, I know exactly what I want to do, I have the opportunity to do it and hopefully I will learn as much as I can in this first semester. I took a test and I decided to leave high school. Ever since then it’s been fantastic. I think sometimes you just know what you want to do at a really early age so you don’t have to deal with certain things. Like the drama of going to prom.
Perry has later admitted that wishes she had pursued more schooling. “I’m kind of bummed at this stage that I didn’t have a great education because I could really use that these days,” she said.
8. Katy Perry owns locks of both Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus’ hair, and has kept them in her purse.
During the Q&A portion of an interview with Mario Lopez promoting “Prism,” a fan asked what Katy Perry keeps in her purse. Out of nowhere, Perry responded:
One of the first times I went to the Grammys, I got to share a dressing room with Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. And I asked for a lock of their hair from each one of them, which is totally creepy, but awesome … I put little bows on them individually and put them in my purse. And that was my little secret and I’m a freak!
This likely happened at the 2009 Grammys, but Swift probably wouldn’t be so willing to give Perry her hair these days. The two pop stars have been feuding as Swift hinted she was angry that Perry apparently sabotaged her tour.
BONUS: “Teenage Dream” had five No. 1 singles, which is tied for the most ever on an album with Michael Jackson’s “Bad.”
With the release of “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” topping the Billboard charts, Katy Perry’s album, “Teenage Dream,” tied Michael Jackson’s record for most number one singles on an album. Jackson initially set the record with the release of the 1987 album, “Bad.”
At the time, Perry tweeted, “What a way to wake up! SO proud to announce that the little-engine-that-could of a song ‘LAST FRIDAY NIGHT’ is officially #1 & made HISTORY!”
All images Getty unless otherwise noted.
