Katy Perry explains why she swore off secular music as a teen 

"The first CD I ever bought was an Incubus CD that had 'Pardon Me' on it," Perry said. "It was my favorite song ever, and I brought it home, and I wasn't allowed to listen to secular music. I took it out of its little holder, and it broke into, like the 10 Commandments, and I thought it was a sign from God."

The 36-year-old pop star continued, playfully dramatizing her voice: "And I would never-ever listen to secular, devil-worshipping music again!" She then panned to Boyd, who said: "Until..."

Perry has been very open with the details of her sheltered childhood since soaring to worldwide fame to the tune of secular smashes such as "I Kissed a Girl" (2008) or "Hot N Cold" (2008) as well as her Grammy-nominated Teenage Dream album. This, from a 2011 Vanity Fair profile, sums it up pretty well: 

"Perry, who tells Robinson that she wants her ashes shot out over the Santa Barbara coast in a firework, reveals that one side of her she has definitively left behind is her born-again upbringing. 'I didn’t have a childhood,' she says, adding that her mother never read her any books except the Bible, and that she wasn’t allowed to say 'deviled eggs' or 'Dirt Devil.' Perry wasn’t even allowed to listen to secular music and relied on friends to sneak her CDs. 'Growing up, seeing Planned Parenthood, it was considered like the abortion clinic,' she tells Robinson. 'I was always scared I was going to get bombed when I was there . I didn’t know it was more than that, that it was for women and their needs. I didn’t have insurance, so I went there and I learned about birth control.' 

"'I think sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up,' Perry says of her evangelical-minister parents. 'Mine grew up with me. We coexist. I don’t try to change them anymore, and I don’t think they try to change me. We agree to disagree. They’re excited about [my success]. They’re happy that things are going well for their three children and that they’re not on drugs. Or in prison.' Perry’s mother confirms that she is proud of her daughter’s success, telling Robinson, 'The Lord told us when I was pregnant with her that she would do this.'"

Perry did try first to make it as a gospel singer. She released what is technically her debut album in 2011, titled Katy Hudson (her birth name), and it remains her only Christian-themed project.