- This is how I've always been.
Just being in the music business,
and having the entire world judging me,
instead of 400 kids at high school,
it's not much different.
I'm still gonna do what I want,
I'm...
You know, whether I sell 12 million records or one record,
or whether people are into me at Monday,
and are into Britney [Spears] on Tuesday,
or whatever, you know?
It doesn't matter to me.
Tracking vocals,
do not enter.
Never listen to signs like that.
I was at a radio station the other day
and somebody called in,
and they were like,
you know, "How did you get started?"
And I was like, "I sent a demo tape through the mail."
And they were like, "That's not,
no way!"
Because people do that every day.
I know like, 1500 people who have sent demo tapes
a day but that what I did,
and they saw our picture and they flew us down.
Signed us that day,
I was in a group for the first two years,
and then I went solo. Choice,
We never came out.
We did a whole album,
it never came out.
"There You Go" was probably the most exciting moment
in my life, like,
I decided after those three days of shooting
that video that that's all I ever wanted to do.
I just wanna make songs about videos.
But, I think for an introduction for the world
to first see me,
"There You Go" was the perfect video,
and I think it just,
it captured my personality which is really hard to do.
Well I'm kind of a tomboy I guess, kinda.
I've always been the only girl in my group of friends,
and they named me P!nk.
Actually, the big guy that just walked outta here,
that's my best friend.
He does my security now. And I grew up with him
and he named me basically because of 'Reservoir Dogs.'
'Reservoir Dogs' came out and Mr. Pink was in there
and he was the outspoken one.
So I got dubbed.
And then um,
also 'cause when I get embarrassed I turn pink.
And somebody embarrassed me really bad.
I turned pink.
It's something I never lived down actually,
and now it's just,
I really never live it down now (laughs).
- It's your first VMAs.
You gotta be like,
the adrenaline must be flowin'.
- I'm just happy to be here.
- That's such a cliché.
- With my pink hair, I'm like yes, finally.
- Are you a little nervous about the competition
for Best New Artist,
like Macy Gray is right in there?
- You know what?
Everybody's great, so it's like--
- I love your hair, it's awesome.
You rock.
- So Carson Daly comes up and upstages me.
It's alright.
- Is this y'all's first time performing the song
since the video?
- Yep.
- [Beyoncé] Are you nervous?
- I'm so excited, I love this song.
I can't wait,
I'mma get out there and shake it!
- I always try to sing the words
but I cannot, it's voulez-vous coucher...
- Avec moi! - Avec moi.
- I still don't know what it means, but it's dirty.
I walked by MTV,
you know how they have the barricades in New York
for 'TRL'?
And NSYNC was there,
and I hadn't met them yet,
and I was like,
"Nobody knows me, let me just walk to the pizza shop."
So I went to walk and one girl noticed me
and then it was like a domino effect
and everyone start screaming,
and it was the first time anybody did that for me,
and I got really scared,
and I started screaming too,
and this girl like, jumped out in front of me,
she's like, (screams).
I was like, (screams),
and we just started screaming for like five minutes,
everyone's like, "OK, she's a nut."
The last album was a great introduction,
I'm really proud of a lot of the songs on that album,
but it wasn't fully me,
and I knew it when I got up on stage
and that fire wasn't there.
Especially singing to a DAT,
it's like singing karaoke,
and it really set in with me when I went to Vegas
and saw these drag queens do my song.
And they did it to a DAT,
and they did it better than I did it,
and I was like, OK.
I need a band, like.
I named the album 'M!ssundaztood,'
because I feel very misunderstood at times.
I say the wrong things,
I tell the truth,
which tends to get me in trouble,
and I'm a very eclectic person, so,
I feel that's misunderstood as well.
Everything I do I just, you know?
I've always said that since I was about this high.
- Do you have any idea what the first single might be?
- Hopefully it'll be this one called
"Get the Party Started,"
which is like techno-ish,
hip-hoppy, attitude, just,
it's all about what happens on the way to the club.
Instead of what happens at the club.
This album is a lot different,
it's a lot more versatile.
It's very true to life,
and there's a song on there that's really personal to me
which is "Family Portrait."
And I wrote it not thinking.
When I write, I don't think about the consequences
or what people are gonna think when they hear it,
I just write,
and I write what I think moves me
and what's gonna move the producer.
And it was cool,
and then I started letting people come in to listen to it,
and I just felt really strange,
I didn't like the feeling at all.
People liked it but I mean,
most of the people that heard that song cried, so.
I don't know,
my mom cried for four days when she heard that song,
but I like to write.
I like to upset people and make points,
and break down barriers,
and all that sort of stuff,
so that's where my motivation comes from, definitely.
- I just keep thinking how gratifying it must be,
'cause I remember when the album was first comin' out,
you were talkin' to me about how much
this record meant to you,
and how it was so much more you.
And to have it so well received,
triple Platinum, three singles,
I mean, it must be amazing, right?
- It's a little surreal.
It feels really good though.
It's been,
I can't even describe it.
It's been a crazy year but it was,
at first I was kinda like, "Yeah,
now I get to say I told you so." So I'm happy.
My favorite part of touring?
Being on stage every night.
Getting to see the different faces, you know,
singin' along with you,
and just waitin' to see what you're gonna say or do,
and laughing at you or with you, hopefully.
I just love being on stage,
it's where I'm probably the most comfortable.
The new album is called 'Try This.'
It was really fast,
really easy.
I started with Linda [Perry] again 'cause that's my safe place,
and it was just different, you know,
we came up with really great songs,
and then Tim Armstrong came along
and they were on tour with his group.
The Transplants were on tour with the Foo Fighters
and I went out on tour with them and slept on the bus,
and set up drums in the hallway,
and guitars in the back,
and Pro Tools,
and we recorded three songs on the bus in two days,
and that was "Trouble," "Save My Life," and "Oh My God."
I had a lot to prove last time with 'M!ssundaztood.'
This time, it was a lot easier to do what I wanted.
So it was kinda,
it was laid back, you know?
And it was just fun,
it wasn't like...
it's hard to explain, really.
With "Family Portrait" and the "Lonely Girls,"
and the "Dear Diaries," and the "Numbs,"
and all that stuff.
This time it was just kind of like, "Trouble,"
and "Tonight's the Night,"
and there is,
it's also got a lot of personal stuff on the record.
- [Interviewer] The new record is called 'I'm Not Dead.'
I love that title 'cause it's got a lot of balls,
and it's very, you know,
it's a statement which I think is really cool.
The song itself as well,
let's talk a bit about that track, "I'm Not Dead."
- Um, the track was sort of,
we were,
me and Billy Mann were in the studio for a month here
down at the Magic Shop in New York
and it was sort of the last day,
and usually the last day all you do is party and talk,
and listen to stuff.
But it was sort of done in 15 minutes,
and it's just about relationships and coming and going,
and growing and changing,
and just, fear and, just all of it.
- Anyone who's seen "So What," the video,
knows that you're kinda really venting in this song,
and doing it here in the backlot.
I mean, is it kind of nice release,
this whole song, and--
- It's nice because Carey [Hart] was in it with me.
- Right.
- It's nice because he knows I'm psychotic
and rolls his eyes and shows up still, so.
Being a mama,
I don't really feel like it's changed my songwriting,
other than the fact that I do it on Monday
through Friday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.
as opposed to every day until 4 a.m.
Lyrically, I'm more aware of my cursing,
but I haven't changed it yet.
I think denial is the first step,
and...
I feel like I've expanded as a person.
I'm capable of feeling more,
and I'm probably a little,
tiny bit more thoughtful.
But other than that,
I'm just having a lot more fun.
- [Interviewer] If you could go back in time,
what would you tell "There You Go" era P!nk?
- "Put the weed away! (laughs)
Can you see or feel anything?
Really, blunts for breakfast?"
That would be one.
Another would be,
"Don't worry, you're not always gonna be this angry."
And another would be,
"Oh, girlfriend, take those clothes off.
you look good.
You're not fat, you're not ugly,
you look beautiful,
and you're (beep) 20, so get over it."
Pop music nowadays is given a little less credit
than the pop music of yesteryear,
but the Beatles, and Bad Religion,
to me that's all pop music.
I love all of it, so,
I'm stoked to have a songwriter's award,
it's something that's very important to me,
my writing.
I'd say performing and writing is all that matters to me.
I would want somebody to say,
"I like P!nk because she made me realize
"I could have pink hair and sing any kinda music I wanted,
"and look any type of way,
"and say anything I wanted,
"and be completely free,
"and she helped me to respect myself,
and to teach these guys out here to respect us as well."
Just inspiration, as long as I provide motivation
for somebody then I'm good,
'cause that's what my favorite artists did for me.