This is gonna be good. Katy Perry called in to On Air With Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday, August 23, and revealed not only her top picks to round out ABC’s American Idol reboot judging panel, but also how she reconnected with frenemy Calvin Harris and exactly why she postponed her upcoming Witness tour. Oh, and did we mention she’s also hosting and performing at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards? Because that too.
The “Swish Swish” singer, first and foremost, couldn’t be more excited to serve as a judge on Idol — and she already knows exactly the kind of judge she wants to be.
“I’m very excited,” Perry gushed. “It’s one of those shows that actually makes people's dreams come true. … I just wanna give constructive criticism,” she explained of her role. “Honestly sob stories come second for me. Everyone has a situation and God bless them … but if you don’t have the goods, you don’t have the goods.”
In fact, brace yourselves, because Perry has already come to terms with the fact that she’ll likely be filling Simon Cowell’s shoes.“I’m going to maybe be more the Simon Cowell,” she added. “I really respect him. As much as people said, ‘Oh, he’s grumpy or he’s mean,’ he was just truthful, you know? He’s seen it. I don’t need to be there to win the popular race.”
As for who she’d like to accompany her on the judging panel, Perry spoke candidly about those whose names have been unofficially thrown in the ring.
“I’m really pulling for Lionel [Richie] because I think Lionel is an icon, and not only that, but if you’ve ever met Lionel, he just knows how to charm the whole room … I love Lionel.”She’s also rooting for Charlie Puth.
“Charlie I think is an interesting play because Charlie Puth is someone new to the general public of America,” she added. “Obviously he has his own big fan base, but I think he’s really talented. He’s a writer; he’s a producer; he’s young; he’s hip; he’s fresh. Between Lionel and me, it would be nice to have someone a little more fresh.”
Speaking of fresh, Perry shared that her collaboration with Calvin Harris — hit track “Feels” — came about after they ran into each other at an Oscars afterparty.
“I saw Calvin at [the] Vanity Fair Oscar party,” she recalled. “We just bumped into each other and he said, ‘I think I have a song that you should come check out.’ We had always meant to work together for years and years and years and we’d had little falling outs here and there … we had some Twitter spats … and it was time to put that behind us. … He played this one part of “Feels” and I was like, ‘Oh yeah.’”
Perry — who describes the MTV VMAs as the “last part of rock ’n’ roll” — teased that she’s going to perform a “hybrid of songs” at the awards show, where she’s also hosting. The "Chained To The Rhythm" songstress stayed mum, however, on specifics.
As for why she postponed her Witness tour, Perry revealed that necessary materials to rehearse with hadn’t arrived in time.
“What happened is a lot of our stuff didn’t even show up … so we were like, ‘Whoa we need some time on this.’”
Listen to the complete audio above for more from Katy and head to her website, katyperry.com, for a complete list of Witness tour dates.
The MTV Video Music Awards air on Sunday, August 27, at 8/7c.