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Author Chloe Govan talks about Katy Perry’s first lesbian kiss, her ill-fated marriage split and other exclusives from her book, A Life of Fireworks
Chloe
Govan, who exclusively revealed the cause of Katy
Perry’s marriage break-down in The Sun, discusses her book Katy
Perry: A Life of Fireworks. The book features an exclusive interview
with the girl Katy Perry shared her first lesbian kiss with, who inspired her
Number 1 hit, ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and gives a glimpse of the real Katy behind the
two-headed “naughty or nice?” media image. Read on…
Chloe
says:
Russell
Brand, a notorious womaniser who lost his virginity
to a prostitute and claims to have bedded thousands of women, had always seemed
like a bit of a mismatch for deeply religious Katy, who wears a Jesus tattoo on
her wrist and in the past had prided herself on chastity. Yet, during their 14
month marriage, it had seemed as though the former heroin addict had finally
settled down to wedded bliss. Despite his reputation as a viable contender for
showbiz hell-raiser of the last decade, Russell had described Katy in his
autobiography, My Booky Wook 2, as
“my life” and “my future”.
By all accounts, however, it had been
Russell’s first taste of a conventional relationship. “You have to be faithful,
that’s one of the things about the institution of marriage,” he had announced
to The Sun in horror as if monogamy
was a foreign concept. “I’ve recently had that explained to me by my wife… you
can’t maraud around f**king whomever you like… it’s sort of odd, isn’t it?”
Already, things weren’t boding well. To the
public, Russell was the Marmite of the comedy world – his controversial stage
shows, which included gags on taboo topics such as bestiality, are either loved
or hated. For Katy, it was the former – and, on the track E.T., she’d asked
whether her husband-to-be was an angel or “the devil in disguise”. Her parents,
on the other hand, thought they knew the answer already. Her father, a pastor,
preached against sex before marriage, while Russell’s father had arranged his
first sexual encounter – with a hooker.
As I exclusively revealed to The Sun, a series of rows with Katy’s
parents over religion were the final nail in the coffin for the relationship.
He would mock his in-laws’ commitment to religion, ridicule their claims that
they could talk in tongues and heal by channelling the Holy Spirit and make
lewd jokes at the dinner table.
Katy and Russell’s nuptials had been a
hybrid marriage of the sacred and profane – and ultimately the poignantly
titled track ‘The One That Got Away’, originally a work of fiction, would turn
out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Yet what was the background to the
relationship and indeed to Katy’s rise to fame? My book, Katy Perry: A Life of
Fireworks is the first major biography on the star and is packed full of
exclusives on her unusual life story that no other book on the market has.
It gives the lowdown on Katy’s childhood,
growing up with pastors as parents – a life so “comically strict” that she was
forbidden from watching TV, listening to secular music and even dancing.
Watching the film Jesus Camp, a true to life documentary featuring scenes of fearful
children writhing on the floor in an attempt to “let the Holy Spirit take over
their bodies”, Katy had announced: “I didn’t know they had behind the scenes
footage of my childhood!”
Then, after succumbing to temptation and
smuggling an “illicit” Incubus CD into her house, it had broken in half,
something Katy saw as a sign of disapproval from God.
The book reveals exactly why Katy’s first
album, a gospel collection, failed – selling less than 200 copies – and why
Katy, who interrupted one studio session to pierce his producer’s young
daughter’s nose without permission, didn’t fit in with the world of Christian
music.
Exclusive interviews include several
religious mentors from her past, a school teacher, a friend of her parents,
journalists who interviewed Katy when she was “the next big thing” in the
industry at 16, singers she toured with as a gospel performer, a friend she’d
once lived with as a teenager, and much more.
The book reveals full details on the little
known songs she penned as a teenager, including one about being romantically in
love with God, which got her into hot water privately with the Christian community
for its “blasphemous” content. It details her “eye wateringly embarrassing”
attempts to flirt with men almost three times her age during her early career,
along with all of the signs that predicted she wasn’t cut out for Christian
music.
Then there’s the tale of Katy’s struggle to
get a record deal and of unreleased songs she wrote, including provocative
titles like ‘All I’m Selling Is Sex’ with it’s references to prostitution,
casual sex and posing naked.
Katy had originally claimed she was devoted
to Christian music and that pop was “the complete antithesis” of where she
wanted to be, but she’d also contradicted that she had a “shameless” love of
pop, was “all about mainstream music” and that she had “sold my soul to the
devil”.
Yet who was the real Katy? The angelic
blonde teenage girl reading her Bible, hands clasped earnestly in prayer, or
the scantily clad raven-haired sex symbol who built her career on
sensationalist sex appeal? Was she a religious zealot, a visual prostitute or a
curious mixture of the two? Was she, as one mentor insisted, a girl who
“underneath all the boundary-pushing and edginess, still loves Jesus” or was
she abandoning her religious roots for a taste of fame? The book answers these
questions, providing a glimpse of the real Katy behind the two-headed hybrid
that is her media image.
Then there’s the real story behind Katy’s
first meeting with, and ill-fated marriage to, Russell. While he might have
been attracted to her elusive good girl image – coming in stark contrast to the
more liberated women who fed his “sex addiction” by offering threesomes on tap
– Katy was intrigued by his “extremism”, something so different from her own
restricted life.
Katy’s spiritual side, meanwhile –
something of a rarity in Hollywood circles – was perceived to be exactly what
Russell had been yearning for to complete his drug-abuse recovery. According to Katy’s mother at the time, he
was “hungry for positive influences in his life”.
After discussing the outrage expressed by
both gay and religious communities at the song ‘I Kissed A Girl’, the book gets
to the inspiration behind it. Exclusively interviewed is the girl with whom
Katy shared her first lesbian kiss.
All this and more, in Katy Perry: A Life of Fireworks.
See the book HERE
