Alternative pop singer, Pink, released her ninth studio album on Friday, titled, TRUSTFALL. This being her first album released since the coronavirus pandemic, in which she underwent multiple surgeries and experienced some weight gain.
Pink opened up in a recent interview with Variety about what she went through amid recording this album.
“Having breaks is good for my voice. Not so good for the body,”she said. “Especially during COVID — I gained 36 pounds. All I did was make sourdough and then eat the sourdough. And then I had not just the hip surgery but double disc replacement in my neck. So now I’m the bionic woman. I’ve lost those 36 pounds, and I am stronger than I’ve ever been in my life. And I’m ready to go, and I’m ready to get the hell out of here. I’ve been home way too long.”
Pink underwent hip replacement surgery in 2021. She first revealed the news with an Instagram post in November of 2021 while she was still recovering from the surgery.
“Hey world! This is what 9 hours of sleep and cuddles from my kiddos looks like 7 days post hip surgery!!” she captioned a selfie photo of her smiling. “I have to say thank you to everyone at The Steadman Clinic in Vail and Dr. Philippon.
“Because I’m married to an athlete who has hundreds of surgeries, I get to meet some of the worlds greatest doctors. I am never not completely grateful. It was a brutal first week full of tears and pain med depression, ulcers from meds and constant fevers, but my @hartluck brought me through.”
Pink married former motocross racer, Carey Hart, back in 2006, and the couple share two children, Willow and Jameson.
“(No one recovers from surgery like [Hart] does, he’s not real.),” the caption continued, “he brought me coffee in the shower, lugged around my 100 pound CPM contraptions every where I went, dried my tears, cooked me oatmeal, kept track of my meds, got me my phone charger, plugged in my compression machines, took my temp, made the bed, and talked me off the ledge.
“I’m learning the gift of accepting help. My journey will be quick and intentional,
And I will make a full recovery. For that I am so blessed. I’m impressed by those that face real, hard challenges, and alchemize their situation into something magical, or meaningful,” she wrote, concluding her message by shouting out “all of those on the journey to wellness, and those making magic out of the impossible.”
Pink has been doing what she can to improve her health throughout her entire singing career. She details in the Variety interview that when she began, she idolized singers like Janis Joplin, Don McLean, and Mary J. Blige, and thus, tried to “emulate” their voices. For Janis Joplin, who’s known for her raspy voice, Pink attributed smoking to her ability to imitate that and she really gravitated towards wanting that to keep being the voice she was known for.
“I feel like I’ve found three voices in 43 years,” she admitted. “My first voice was opera, because I used to sing ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Les Miz’ — things like that. Then my second voice was R&B-ish, but I sounded like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. But I was also smoking, and I was steadily getting raspier and raspier, which is why Janis was an easy sell for me. I loved it, but then it started going too far.
“Billy Mann, my friend and songwriting partner, sat me down and said, ‘I think you’re at the point now where you have to ask yourself, ‘Am I a singer or a smoker?’”
This was a sort of wake up call for the now 43-year-old singer, and she ultimately decided to quit in 2010, despite eventually losing that coveted raspy voice she had solidified as her singing identity.
“And then I found this grown-up voice that I have and got two octaves back. My voice has never been stronger,” she proudly stated. “But I don’t have that rasp anymore, and I miss that — I wish I could have kept a little bit of it. But, I chose life instead.”
As for her new album, TRUSTFALL, Pink intentionally starts the album with a song about death and the afterlife, titled, “When I Get There”. It’s a more emotional song, driven by a soft piano, and could be accredited to her father, who died in 2021. But more than that, she wanted to lead her album off with a song that could help her listeners regain those “authentic feelings” in a world that has been distraught since the COVID pandemic.
“I feel like we’re all in this constant state of overwhelm, and so we put our feelings away just so that we can get through a day,” she said. “I wanted to find a way back to the truth and the authentic feelings. So opening the album with that, instead of like, ‘Hey, let’s ease into each other,’ it’s like, ‘No, no. Sit down. I want to talk to you. We’re gonna clear all the bulls–t away and have a conversation.’ That’s how I am as a person. If you ask me how I am, how much time do you have? So ‘When I Get There’ as an album-opener was my way of saying, ‘Let’s talk about real stuff.’”
TRUSTFALL is now available to stream on all music-streaming services (Apple Music, SPotify, etc.). Pink is also embarking on a North American and European tour starting in July.
Sources:
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/pink-trustfall-album-stadium-tour-interview-1235524120/
https://people.com/music/pink-details-brutal-recovery-from-hip-surgery-in-emotional-instagram-post/
