“You can’t move mountains by whispering at them.”
Pink
Introduction
Alecia Moore, or Pink as she is known on stage, sells out concert venues, and her album sales go through the roof. The acrobatic artist whose voice tugs at your heartstrings still sees herself as an underdog despite her meteoric fame. She is a game changer who completely revamped herself from an R&B style to a unique brand of power ballads and party anthems. A career spanned an incredible 25 years with no signs of slowing down.
An Open Book
Pink prides herself on the fact that she has a personal connection with her fans. She doesn’t want to be seen as a mystery. She wants to know you and vice versa. She is a muscular singer who trains hard, juggling her career as a devoted mother and wife. Whatever artist could belt out a song suspended on a harnessed wire, often upside down? She doesn’t lip sync and freely admits that she sings better upside down. It’s pretty good going for a 44-year-old.
Pink is part rocker, part Broadway spectacle with a sprinkle of goofy Tinkerbell mixed in—a lady who has carried her childhood fantasies into adulthood. I have seen her live twice at the O2 in London, and she is truly incredible to watch. She calls her adoring fans, the uncool kids, fans that span the generations. A woman with a snarl who is prepared to take on the social media haters with free-flowing language and someone who you wouldn’t want to mess with, beating you hands down if you challenged her to an arm wrestling competition. Someone who may have been born a man or lesbian in another life.
The True Pink
Behind the rock chic lies a fun-loving and goofy person. These days, it is less about getting the party started and more about getting the kids to bed. She often takes her 7-year-old son Jameson and 13-year-old daughter Willow on tour. They ride backstage on scooters, and her husband, the motocross star Carey Hart and mother, Judy, are there when she performs in her hometown of Philadelphia. Pink even has a book swap shelf backstage. A tour library filled with books of all genres, including her favourite, romantic novels. She has even created a sign-in sheet to sign for the books when you take them out.
Gone has the whiskey and cigarettes in her dressing room of old. The bullpen and stuffed animals are now a distant memory. When this mohawk mum is at home in southern California, she likes to bake sourdough, participate in the PTA or drive a forklift across her 25-acre vineyard. She has a passion for wine and has even schooled herself in the science of wine-making. A hobby that she studies into the night after her shows. Her favourite wine is the grenache her vineyard produces. She admits she drinks a lot of her produce.
Pink is unique because she writes songs that are not general but personal. The ups and downs of her marriage are one subject matter. She is a self-taught instrumentalist and grew up singing opera and gospel in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She had a complicated childhood and, in the end, was desperate to leave the family home. She argued constantly with her parents and called her relationship with her father, Jim Moore, complicated—a Vietnam veteran who passed away two years ago. One fight got so violent that her mum ended her falling down the stairs, and she cites this incident as her one regret in life.
Alecia was the one kid that others didn’t want to play with. She was a childhood punk who had a mouth. She had a chip on her shoulder. She lived in a house where arguments were rife, and it led her to a life of taking drugs and selling them. She was off the rails, kicked out of the family house and dropped out of high school. The crunch point came in 1995 when she overdosed at a Thanksgiving rave. She was taking a cocktail of ecstasy, angel dust and crystal methadone. She almost died as a result, and it was this survival that caused her to ditch the drugs for good.
Weeks later, Pink got a record deal as the lead singer with an R&B girl group on La Face Records. It didn’t last long, but she was encouraged to take etiquette lessons, wear dresses and use the right fork. She only went once, and it didn’t work out. She hated it because they tried to turn her into something she wasn’t. She sees the image as everything in business and started using her childhood nickname of Pink. She went solo and never looked back. Her first album was rewarded with double-platinum success, and she broadened her brand to include rock and pop. Her second album, “Missundaztood”, sold 15 million copies across the globe.
The Mighty Voice
At 5ft 3, Pink is still a voice to be reckoned with. Her latest global tour, touring the UK, has sold three million tickets in the last six months. A tour that a child, adult or gay couple loves. Under the direction of her aerialist coach, Dreyer Weber, she transforms her shows into an almost circus experience. She tightens her stomach and sings. A singer and a gymnast. Her body is her power. She eats well to look good but to go far, fast and hard. She carries a metamorphic machete at all times. She never got a record deal because she was cute, and her voice outweighed conventional beauty. She looks forward to plans and aims for a barnstorming show in Las Vegas. A mission that she aims to continue until the wheels fall off.
