Katy Perry Reveals That She Suffered Bouts of Depression

Katy Perry Reveals That She Suffered Bouts of Depression

Katy Perry covers the August issue of Vogue Australia, where she gives an in-depth interview about her career, her well-being and her love life. If you’re familiar with Katy Perry the interviewee, you know that she gives good talk, and this interview doesn’t disappoint.

Of all the things she discussed, what stood out was her mentioning of bouts of situational depression, which she said was a result of the tepid reaction to her 2017 album, Witness. Music audiences — particularly fans of contemporary music — are fickle and never stick around forever; this is perhaps because there’s always something newer, younger and fresher, or maybe because people stray from contemporary music as they get older, which makes it hard for artists in that format to hold onto fans. Who really knows.

Either way, Katy had a really good run, and quite frankly, few artists have been able to achieve such a long stretch of commercial success. This isn’t to say that her best days are behind her, but if they were, she has nothing to cry about. That being said, I’m struck by how hard she took her commercial “slump” (if we’re gonna call it that) because Katy is notorious for talking recklessly about other stars and their struggles. She poked fun at Britney Spears’ head-shaving incident for years, so it’s almost difficult to empathize with her; also, she once said Mariah Carey was “fabulous for a throwback,” which is now almost poetic as she moves full steam towards throwback status.

In the interview, Katy mentions attending a personal growth retreat, after which she was asked if she worried that it would impede her artistry. To that, she responded, “The biggest lie that we’ve ever been sold is that we as artists have to stay in pain to create.” I happen to agree with her wholeheartedly, and I think the notion that art needs to be cathartic for the artist is a prime example of twisted hipster logic that has gone unchecked for too long.

See more pictures from Katy’s Vogue Australia shoot below.