Coming clean. Katy Perry revealed that for her parents, Mary Perry and Keith Hudson, it wasn’t always easy being a future superstar’s mom and dad.
The songstress made the revelation when the American Idol judges opened up about their families while talking to reporters at a live taping on Sunday, May 13. Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan all agreed that their parents were their very first fans.
“Yeah! Mom and dad,” Perry affirmed.
Richie, 68, added: “Parents and your closest family. They’re the grounders because every time you want to get just a little bigger in your britches, you look over and there’s your mom sitting and looking at you and you just can’t go into character.”
The “Witness” singer, 33, agreed, saying: “Oh, my God. We put our parents — I’m only speaking for me, from my experience — I put my parents through hell and back and back!”
The singer-songwriter has been open about her strict religious upbringing, and has said her parents — who run Keith and Mary Hudson Ministries — were worried about some of her career choices, including her hit song “I Kissed a Girl.” But Perry says her mom has always been supportive of her singing, even when Perry was a child.
“Honestly, my nieces sing themselves to sleep when they go to nap time,” she revealed. “My mom told me that’s what I used to do and that’s why she would call me ‘bird’ because I used to sing myself to sleep during nap time.”
While the show was airing, Perry shared three throwback snaps on Instagram of herself as a baby with mom Mary. She showed off a pic of her mom’s baby bump, one of them together in a hospital bed and one of herself as a toddler. “Are you watching this Mother’s Day themed #AmericanIdol?” she captioned the sweet post. “I hope you’re tuning in and snuggling with your mama! ❤👩👧#happymothersday.”
She also shared a photo of her mom on her Instagram Story holding an adorable puppy and captioned it: “Got me mom a pup instead of flowers. Pls welcome Lucy.”
The “Firework” songstress’ mom was by her daughter’s side while she taped American Idol on Sunday. Now that all three judges have signed up for a season 2 of the singing competition, Perry says this time around, it’ll be even better.
“When I think about next season is that, you know, we just came into this not knowing really what we were doing and we’re just getting our bearings,” she told reporters at Sunday’s show. “And now, with all the information that we’ve been able to learn, I know that we are going to have such a spectacular second season, we’ll know exactly what to look for. We’ll know — we’ll see more sparkles in peoples’ eyes, I mean, it’s just gonna be fabulous and very, very exciting.”
American Idol airs on ABC on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
