Entertainment

Rare Footage of 17-Year-Old Katy Perry

by Quinn Keaney

Ever wondered what Katy Perry was like before she started kissing girls and shooting whipped cream out of her bra? I mean, there's no way she came straight out of the womb with green hair and a penchant for guitar-playing bad boys, right? Right. In fact, before Katy Perry was Katy Perry, she was Katy Hudson, an almost-famous Christian rock singer more interested in grunge than glamour, and with a failed debut album that barely sold 200 copies. Jesus saves a lot of things, but apparently Katy Hudson's singing career wasn't one of them.

Thankfully for the rest of the world, whose Spotify accounts may or may not show "Firework" and "This Is How We Do" played on repeat 34 times per day (who, me?), Hudson changed her name to Perry, ditched the Alannis Morrisette-esque chokers, and a controversy-causing, cotton-candy-covered pop star was born. Before that, however, cameraman Jim Standridge was commissioned by her record company, Red Hill Records, to shoot some footage for an electronic press kit, and got a very rare chance to capture glimpses of Perry way back when. Standridge has apparently been holding on to the video for a while now, but posted it to Vimeo on August 26 for the world to see.

In Standridge's quick summary of the video, he wrote:

The other day I was cleaning out some old footage in my office and found 90 minutes of raw footage I had totally forgot about. Pamplin had the originals but I had always made backups of everything I shot. I quickly put together a short edit of the experience with Katy. Funny how she spent so much time messing with her hair…. In the present day her hair changes color and style in every photo shoot, music video and performance…. I think Katy has grown into an amazing entertainer and woman. Enjoy.

Whether you're a Katy Perry fan or not, it's definitely worth a watch. Perry is as raw and unguarded as can be, happily inviting Standridge to check out the tour bus bathroom (the "toy toy") and self-consciously messing with her not-yet-signature 'do (about one million times, btw).

Standridge said that he unearthed over 90 minutes of Perry footage, but the resulting 12-minute clip is just a montage of it all. He definitely got some candid moments of the superstar, though. She sheds a tear or two over her parents, refers to herself as a "pizza face," and gushes over the Christian tour circuit ("They actually laugh at my jokes!").

"I'm just some little kid from California who plays the guitar and sings," she says. "I'm not a huge, deep person. I might seem really deep right now, but I'm not."

I wonder if Katy Hudson knew all those years ago that she was destined for greatness. And by greatness, I mean this beautiful moment in pop culture history, but still. Rock on, Katy.

Images; Vimeo (3)