PINK TALKS TO BILLBOARD ON HER CAREER

****

TIMES SQUARE GOSSIP IN THE PINK

****

Pink In Billboard Magazine

It's rare for a pop star with 13 years' worth of success to truly hit her stride in her career's second decade. But then again, most pop stars aren't P!nk. After scoring her second and third No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 in the last four years ("So What" and "Raise Your Glass," ­respectively), stealing all the buzz from the 2010 Grammy Awards with her suspended performance of "Glitter in the Air" and shattering Australian tour records with her highly successful (and acrobatic) Funhouse tour in 2009, P!nk was at a career high by the time she took a well-deserved break to give birth to her daughter with husband Carey Hart, Willow, born in June 2011.

This week’s issue of Billboard features the outrageous singer in their cover story, where she talks about writing music after Willow, her “drama” with her husband Carey and where her career is heading.

Billboard: The songs talk about all phases of a relationship, but you must be aware that people are going to hear songs like “How Come You’re Not Here” and “The Truth About Love” and assume that you’re having marital problems again.

Pink: It’s funny. I wrote “Family Portrait” when I was 21 and my parents divorced when I was 9, so I tend to hold onto things. I’m still exorcising some of those demons. And look, I’m in a relationship that I’ve been in for 10 years and it’s never going to be perfect. Carey always jokes, “You’re always just mad enough at me to write a song.” “Yep. Thanks, baby, you’re my muse.”

Billboard: Is it surreal to think your career is at this point right now? Because there was a period after 2003’s Try This and even after “Stupid Girls” in 2006 when your singles weren’t taking off in the U.S. Was that time frustrating for you?

Pink: I never looked at it that way. I was always on the road in the U.K. and Australia, and things were really great over there. Then I got to come home and be left alone. And you know what? It gave me lot of time to create my show and to become a performer. I would go on 22-month tours and work my ass off, and it’s been the biggest blessing of my life that now I am a touring artist. It got me out of the popularity contest that music can be sometimes and gave me time to hone my craft as a stage performer. I’m also grateful, and I got to come back and do the Grammys [in 2010]. That was my “A-ha.”