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 ABCās 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 sheās also hosting and performing at Sundayās MTV Video Music Awards? Because that too.
The āSwish Swishā singer, first and foremost, couldnāt be more excited to serve as a judge on Idol ā and she already knows exactly the kind of judge she wants to be.
āIām very excited,ā Perry gushed. āItās one of those shows that actually makes people's dreams come true. ā¦ I just wanna give constructive criticism,ā she explained of her role. āHonestly sob stories come second for me. Everyone has a situation and God bless them ā¦ but if you donāt have the goods, you donāt have the goods.ā
In fact, brace yourselves, because Perry has already come to terms with the fact that sheāll likely be filling Simon Cowellās shoes.āIām going to maybe be more the Simon Cowell,ā she added. āI really respect him. As much as people said, āOh, heās grumpy or heās mean,ā he was just truthful, you know? Heās seen it. I donāt need to be there to win the popular race.ā
As for who sheād like to accompany her on the judging panel, Perry spoke candidly about those whose names have been unofficially thrown in the ring.
āIām really pulling for Lionel [Richie] because I think Lionel is an icon, and not only that, but if youāve ever met Lionel, he just knows how to charm the whole room ā¦ I love Lionel.āSheās also rooting for Charlie Puth.
āCharlie I think is an interesting play because Charlie Puth is someone new to the general public of America,ā she added. āObviously he has his own big fan base, but I think heās really talented. Heās a writer; heās a producer; heās young; heās hip; heās fresh. Between Lionel and me, it would be nice to have someone a little more fresh.ā
Speaking of fresh, Perry shared that her collaboration with Calvin Harris ā hit track āFeelsā ā came about after they ran into each other at an Oscars afterparty.
āI saw Calvin at [the] Vanity Fair Oscar party,ā she recalled. āWe just bumped into each other and he said, āI think I have a song that you should come check out.ā We had always meant to work together for years and years and years and weād had little falling outs here and there ā¦ we had some Twitter spats ā¦ and it was time to put that behind us. ā¦ He played this one part of āFeelsā and I was like, āOh yeah.āā
Perry ā who describes the MTV VMAs as the ālast part of rock ānā rollā ā teased that sheās going to perform a āhybrid of songsā at the awards show, where sheās 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 hadnāt arrived in time.
āWhat happened is a lot of our stuff didnāt even show up ā¦ so we were like, āWhoa we need some time on this.āā
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.