She was never one to shy away from a challenge, and P!nk is still finding new ways to push herself. At 43, she feels stronger than ever and is getting ready for a brand new to ur. Warning: her nothingis-of f-limit s attitude is contagious
How s hould a woman act?
It’s a question that’s been asked of – and because of – P!nk for as long as she can remember. Should she be frothy and flirty, like her pop-star peers of the early 2000s? Strong, like the Williams sisters who inspire her? Irreverent, like Billie Eilish, who inspires her 11-year-old daughter? Should she make her own wine? Do 75 press-ups in one take? Fling herself in a harness over a stadium of 70,000 people?
The answer, I don’t need to tell you, is that she should be however she wants to be, and that was P!nk’s response long before it was cool. Twentythree years into a career that’s produced nine albums, 21 top 10 hits in the UK chart and three Grammy awards, P!nk ( born Alecia Moore) has approached pop stardom with a brazen, don’ttest-me energy that’s surprising, in a way, because at her essence, she describes herself as ‘goofy ’, ‘cuddly ’ and a person who often acts out of guilt. It’s at odds with the ‘crazy, snarling, man-eating, righteous person’ she thinks some men have her pegged as – particularly during the less-forgiving era in which she became famous. ‘I was the perfect person to take all of that flak,’ she says of the build-them-up-totear-them-down culture of the early 2000s. ‘I have very thick skin. I do what I want. I can handle criticism; it doesn’t move my needle. It hurts my feelings, I guess – or it used to. But it doesn’t change my actions.’
P!nk is in a car being driven from a photo shoot in Los Angeles to her home north of Santa Barbara, where she moved back from LA eight years ago after a preschool application asked her to describe her daughter Willow ’s strengths and weaknesses and she wrote, ‘She’s three.’ She was chided by the admissions officer, decided to leave the city and placed Willow in a school that was ‘outdoorsy and muddy ’. The country has been good for her family: Willow, now 11; Jameson, who is six; and her husband, former motocross racer Carey Hart. She considers the ocean and the woods healing. She knows not everyone gets the option to leave a place that isn’t working for them, and she feels lucky.
‘In my career, I’m around so many people with so much energy directed at me,’ she says, ‘and I also make noise for a living. So it’s important for my mental health to unplug and be in nature.’ It was that stillness that laid the groundwork for her new album, Trustfall, released in February.
