The Sun Interview

A 13-year-old girl wrote to me after being raped by her grandad ... she said my music gave her reason to live
PUNK-POP singer PINK has been through a lot – her parents’ bitter divorce when she was young, teenage years blighted by drug problems and now her own marriage woe. But the star, who is about to release her fifth album, is secretly motivated by another tragic story.
One of her loyal fans wrote to tell her she survived years of serious sexual abuse by listening to the American star’s music.
Pink, real name Alecia Moore, invited The Sun to hear her new album at a recording studio near her Malibu home and revealed her secret motivation.
The singer, 28, said: “I remember being in Paris, talking about my childhood, my parents divorcing and I started crying during an interview.
“I thought I was over music and I couldn’t take any more.
“But then, not long after, I got a letter from this 13-year-old girl saying her grandfather was raping her mother.
“It went on saying her mother had just died and now he was raping her.
She said when she listened to my music, she knew she didn’t want to die.
“She wrote saying I should never stop making music because it helped her. I get chills even talking about it.
“I have 50 of the most insanely awful letters that remind me that this job isn’t about me.
“It is crazy. Some people might say the new songs are heartache b******* but somebody out there is going to get through their pain a little easier and that makes me feel better.
“I get all the letters . . .
‘You helped me come out,’ you name it. I got one that really touched me. It said, ‘I don’t want to be like you, you made me want to be like me’. That’s my favourite one. I f****** love it.”
Pink has had her own personal problems to deal with over the last year. She has split from her husband, motocross star CAREY HART.
Her new single, So What, is all about the bitter split.
In the video for the track, the singer, in a furious rage, fells a tree in her back garden with a chainsaw. The trunk has both their names etched together inside a heart.
She admitted: “We are insane and we love each other and we always will, even if we are not husband and wife. He knew what he was getting into 6½ years ago.
“We are best friends, we really are. It’s confusing for most people but that’s the way it is.
“I have bulldozed every foundation I have in my life recently. I will have no more issues in two years’ time once I have worked through all this s***. The universe knows exactly when to pull the rug out from under me. I am useless when I am happy anyway. I can’t write. I really wear my heart on my sleeve. I just crack my ribcage open and bleed for you. I just can’t help it.
“I feel as though I bare my soul every time I write. It doesn’t start to set in until I am touring.
“Even now, eight years since my first album came out, I am still singing about dark times.”
The Grammy Award winner has sold 22million albums around the world. She has recorded, toured and performed nonstop since her debut album was released in 2000 – when she was only 20.
Her fifth album Funhouse comes out in the UK on October 28 – and she reckons the burnout of other stars like BRITNEY SPEARS helped her succeed.
She added: “I hope I never get too big for my boots. I haven’t so far and I hope I won’t. I have seen others do it and it’s disgusting.
“I was lucky enough to get a record deal at 16 and then not have a record out until I was 20.
“I had four years to watch everyone else f*** up and blow up and think they were s***. You see the same people on the way up you see on the way down.
“But then, not long after, I got a letter from this 13-year-old girl saying her grandfather was raping her mother.
“They are all over the place in music. It’s incredible. I always find myself so mystified that they think it is about them.
“I don’t think it is about me. My best friend is a single mum, who is broke and works for an insurance company she hates.
“My brother is in the air force so he is broke. My dad is a Vietnam veteran, unemployed and my mum is a nurse. It is all very working class. I don’t hang out with rich people.”
She does have the odd wealthy acquaintance. US tennis legend and BBC commentator JOHN McENROE lives nearby.
She said: “I live around the corner from JIM CARREY but he hasn’t been round yet. John McEnroe lives nearby. He goes to karaoke locally.
“I am an awful tennis player. He should teach me and I could help him with his karaoke.”
Pink has a reputation as the wild girl of American rock but not quite at the same level as AMY WINEHOUSE and her hellraising image in the UK.
She said: “Amy Winehouse is awesome. Her music is the core of her and she is f****** brilliant.
“If I got together with Amy Winehouse it would be bad news. That was me ten years ago – but different drugs.
“I have been clean for a long time now but I am glad I did it then.
“I f***** up like crazy and no one gave a s*** when I was Alecia and got away with it.
“I can throw down. I still get stuck in. I have house parties now but it is mainly red wine and civilised now.”
She has a lot of admiration for British pop stars and even mentioned RUSSELL BRAND as a rising star in America – leaving US comics trailing behind.
She said: “It’s not just Amy. I like ADELE too. That voice kills me.
I always wanted to have that kind of voice.
“Her voice is incredible. I dig a lot of LILY ALLEN’s songs, I think she’s as funny as f***.
“I love Russell Brand. I did an interview with him before. It was years ago. He was so wonderful.
“I am glad he is cracking America. He is intelligent, he has got a story. He has been there and he is really charming.
“He is a good interviewer. We need some new blood in this country. As far as comedy is concerned we are so far behind you.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article1630166.ece