The third time is feeling like a charm for Pink.
The popster-turned-rockster – in the middle of promotions for her latest disc, “Try This” – battled her way to creative freedom, which surprisingly for her, came with mainstream success and a few other rewards.
“I never expected (second album) “M!ssundaztood” to be that commercial and that successful, and that was a blessing,” Miss Pink said Thursday before going on stage at Motorola’s fifth annual talk-of-the-town holiday bash benefiting Toys for Tots.
“The lyrics got out to a lot of people, and I feel like I’ve done it my way and did everything I said I was going to do when I was a little girl – and I’m happy.”
Her label topper, L.A. Reid, with whom she battled to drop the pop and R&B sounds she had become famous for courtesy of her first album, must be happy too. Pink is enjoying solid sales and critical praise for the third album while prepping for a spring world tour. But now that the girl does whatever she wants, what does she think looking back at her studio-led freshman effort?
“It was fine, and I don’t regret it,” she explained. “I was excited to do an album and willing to take direction. I love some of the songs on that album still, but I liked being ballsy and putting everything on the line and going for it with these last two.”
Part of that was seeking out and stalking the right collaborators and writing all her own material, no matter how personal (her song “Family Portrait” made her mom cry for a week).
“I definitely feel it was the right thing to do. I needed to let it go, and other people needed to hear it,” she said of the emotional tracks. “From the feedback I got from kids, it’s like we’re not alone. We’re not lonely freaks; we’re just all freaks.”
Lately, she has been getting a lot of feedback from the press too for her public battles with pop stars like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. But for the record, she’s stepping out of the ring: “I’m taking the high road now. I dropped out of high school because I don’t like drama, and the music business doesn’t have to be competition because there is room enough for all of us. It’s retarded, and I’m not taking part anymore.”
