MADONNA & KATY PERRY LIMITED EDITION PHOTOGRAPHED BY STEVEN KLEIN STYLED BY ARIANNE PHILLIPS
HEEL THE WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY STEVEN KLEIN FASHION ARIANNE PHILLIPS REVISIT V MAGAZINE’S FAMED SHOOT WITH MADONNA AND KATY PERRY FEATURING NEW, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN IMAGES OF THE POP ICONS FLAUNTING THEIR ATHLETIC PROWESS AND ULTRA-POWER MOVES!
KATY WEARS SKIRT OSCAR DE LA RENTA STOCKINGS (THROUGHOUT) AGENT PROVOCATEUR SHOES (THROUGHOUT) CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN MADONNA WEARS JACKET OSCAR DE LA RENTA GLOVES CAUSSE GANTIER
MADONNA WEARS JACKET AND SKIRT OSCAR DE LA RENTA BELT PAUL SEVILLE
KATY WEARS JACKET AND SKIRT OSCAR DE LA RENTA MADONNA WEARS STOCKINGS (THROUGHOUT) AGENT PROVOCATEUR SHOES (THROUGHOUT) PRADA
KATY WEARS RINGS YEPREM
CLOTHING ATSUKO KUDO
“.. I DO BELIEVE THAT WE ARE RESPONSIBLE AS ARTISTS TO NOT ONLY REFLECT WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD BUT ALSO SHAPE IT.” —MADONNA
MADONNA Have you recovered from the photo shoot? Because I have a sore neck. KATY PERRY I was sore in my upper body and in my butt area from all that squatting. M It’s good to be sore in your butt. My neck is sore from that wonderful moment when I was sucking on your heel. I kept thinking, How many bacteria do you think there are on the heel of a shoe? Then I thought, There’s no point. Do they have Purell mouthwash? KP Why don’t they have that yet? I feel like I want to live in a Purell world. This sounds very first-world problems, but we meet so many people a night on tour, and you never want to cancel a show because you caught a cold. M Yeah. It’s something I think about. I load up on B12 shots and things like that. KP I actually have a B12 shot sitting outside my room, ready to jab me in the butt. M I think you should learn to do it on your own, so you don’t have to deal with strangers coming into your dressing room. What you do is you just turn. I put my knee up on a chair and put all my weight onto the leg I’m not shooting it into and squeeze the fat together so that it goes into the fatty tissue. KP Right. Madonna and Katy Perry shoot up! Yeah! M Let’s face it, the person who has the least amount of fun on tour is the artist. Because after the show everybody else can go out and party and not worry if they get a cold or whatever, but the artist has to go home and recover and prepare for the next one. So speaking of being on tour, it’s such a massive undertaking for me, but when I saw you the other day, you looked so chilled and relaxed and beautiful. A couple of weeks before my production rehearsals I look and feel like a truck ran me over. KP Oh, thank you, but I look like that now. M [laughs] I want to know what your secret is. Because you didn’t look like that. KP Now I definitely look a little bit stressed. I’m actually sitting on the couch and I’m only into my fourth day of production rehearsals. I’ve already ordered a doctor. M [laughs] It is the ultimate immune destroyer, being on tour. Aside from long hours and dancing and singing, you’re also in places where it’s freezing cold or insanely hot or dry or the air-conditioning is crazy... KP Don’t do AC… M I don’t either. It drives everybody insane. KP I’ve done some preventative stuff. I went to a Chinese doctor about a year ago and
all the vitamins I take are curated to my blood. And then the thing that I do that I really believe in is Transcendental Meditation. M Really? I didn’t know that you meditated. KP Yeah. I do TM, and it saves my life. M And do you do it in the morning or at night? KP I usually do it in the morning. You’re supposed to do it twice, but I just wake up and plop right into it. The trick is to do it before you look at your phone, because once you look at your phone, you’re done. M Yeah. Good idea. I used to do it, but I would sometimes fall back asleep. KP But that means you’re really exhausted. I feel a hundred times better when I do it. M Do you do two run-throughs a day? KP Not every day, if I’m being honest, but we definitely do one, and a lot of clean up. M But you’re also doing a lot of tech stuff, so there’s probably a lot of stop and start. KP I’m doing lights. I’m doing video. I’m doing edits. I’m picking my next single. M Oh my God. It’s too much. It’s just too much. KP Sometimes you wish you were a girl group, so you could delegate more, you know? M Yeah. It’s kind of like being a single parent. [laughs] KP Yeah, I can’t imagine. You’ve got a lot of kids. They all have different attitudes. M Oh yeah. We all went to see the New York City Ballet last night. It was fun to see my children’s reactions to ballet and the theater in general. KP Who liked it the most? M Lola. She’s had ballet and dance training and could appreciate the discipline of everything. KP And I’m sure she has the understanding and the consciousness to really be able to love that kind of approach. M Yeah, totally. So getting back to the rehearsals and the process, the fact that you even have the patience to do this interview is amazing to me, because when I start doing rehearsals and my manager comes at me to stop for a photo shoot or an interview, I’m like, “Get out! Get out of here!” KP That’s what I did last night…I’ve never said that in my life. I’ve never blown off Madonna. M I get it. I’m sure you’re very involved with your lighting design and your rear-screen projections and the costumes. All of it is so time-consuming.
KATY WEARS CLOTHING ATSUKO KUDO MADONNA WEARS BRA AND BRIEFS TABLEAUX VIVANTS CORSET, GARTER BELT, GLOVES ATSUKO KUDO
“I’M SO OCD I WANT THOSE LETTERS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. C-D-O WOULD BE MY PREFERENCE.” —KATY PERRY
KP Oh yeah. I’m picking the shoes for the dancers! M Of course you are. You have to. You can’t leave that up to other people, because then when you see them on stage and you don’t like them, it’s too late and you have no one to blame but yourself. KP Do you have little things that you carry around for protection? Like, I have crystals and little tchotchkes around my dressing room. M Yes, I do. I carry 22 volumes of the Zohar with me everywhere. KP Oh wow. M That’s one thing that I do. I’ve been studying Kabbalah for 18 years. And I feel like it protects me. So wherever I go and they set up my dressing room, I have a bookshelf with the Zohar. But I also take miniature copies of one of them and my crew guys tape them up inside of every lift and any mechanism that has the potential to fail. KP Really? M Yes. I’m so superstitious and don’t trust stages. You know, people are human, they make mistakes sometimes. They don’t set things up properly. So I drive everyone insane, because if there are mechanisms and moving parts in the show, I make them test everything and show it to me during the sound checks. KP All the aerials and stuff? M Absolutely everything, and it drives people nuts. But, you know, that’s a manifestation of OCD and just having things go wrong in the past and having people get hurt. I can’t afford that. KP I’m so OCD I want those letters in alphabetical order. C-D-O would be my preference. M Details. KP God is in the details. I really appreciate people being the best they can be in whatever field they’re in. M Speaking of people who are the best. You have the best dresser. I love Tony. KP Oh, Tony! He’s such a great, hard worker. I don’t know if Lisa was ever on tour with you as well? Because he brought her. M They’re a great team. I hope they’re both dressing you in your quick change. You’re in very good hands with those two. KP I love that that’s exactly what they do and I can yell at them and at the end of the night there are no hard feelings.
M They’ve got thick skin. I’ve had some major temper tantrums in my dressing room. KP Having your flesh zipped up in your boots before you’re supposed to go act spritely on stage is the worst thing ever. M Yes. So many things can go wrong. It’s all about the quick change. It’s kind of like in Formula One when the drivers stop and the crew takes the car apart and then puts it back together again. You better hope and pray that they do it in the right order. KP That’s a great analogy. M Okay, who’s your director? Do you work with the same person every time? KP Yeah, I do. His name is Baz Halpin. He did Pink, Taylor Swift, Cher. M Pink’s show was great. KP Amazing. That’s an excruciatingly hard looking show. I don’t know how she does it. M She’s a little toughie. She’s an athlete. KP When did you start dancing? M When I was in junior high. I’m sure that’s what saved me. My dance training and my super Catholic upbringing. The combination of discipline and rigor and stick-to-theplan and don’t be a flake. KP Are you always on time then? M No, no. Unfortunately. I expect everyone else to be, of course. KP Sure! I understand. M But I’m only a few hours late. [laughs] I want to be on time. I try to be on time. KP There are many variables. M Well, when you have four children, everything goes out the window. They slow me down enormously with their surprises. But in terms of my show, we got major aggro from my management for being late. But I have this set amount of time between sound check and the show. I need exactly three hours to get ready. KP That’s about as much time as I need. Even if you are a little bit late, it’s not like you’re sitting backstage drinking champagne and watching your favorite TV show. M Right. I’m not partying. I’m not being frivolous or lazy. There is no time to waste. KP Right. M So…the thing about touring is that it’s the one thing left that nobody can mess with. People can download your music and you can make a video and you can create a whole new version of yourself, but when you go on tour, you have to pay the piper. When you
KATY WEARS CLOTHING SAINT LAURENT BY HEDI SLIMANE GLOVES VINTAGE FROM THE WAY WE WORE BOOTS STELLA McCARTNEY
“I WOULD ALWAYS SAY, ‘DAD, I’M AN ARTIST, I HAVE TO EXPRESS MYSELF. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.’ I THINK HE’S FINALLY COME TO TERMS WITH IT. IT’S ONLY TAKEN 30 YEARS. HE’S LIKE, DO YOU HAVE TO SIMULATE MASTURBATION ON THE BED? DO YOU HAVE TO? YES, DAD, I DO.” —MADONNA go on stage, you have to do it, and there’s no faking. You could lip-synch, that’s true, but understand people who say “I’m here now” and how they leave bread crumbs and say I feel like there’s something about live performance where it’s the one thing left for an “I’m in this city and now I’m on the plane. Now I’ve landed.” Like, Okay, alright, stop artist that’s living on the edge and there’s no way to cheat it. It’s the one risk we’re still telling everybody. allowed to take. Do you feel like that too? KP We get it! KP I feel like that’s where the true connection with your music comes from. I still M I don’t want to see the inside of the plane you’re on. believe that you reap what you sow on tour. If you’re touring, you’re really planting KP We live in a really self-important time. People want complete transparency, but I personal seeds in the fans. I’m very one-on-one. don’t think we understand that when we get it there are all kinds of faults that I don’t M Do you stop during your sets sometimes and talk to them? think we want to see. It’s weird saying this, because I like to be an encouragement and KP Oh yeah. There’s nothing more boring than an artist coming to a city and saying a light, but everyone is in a state of self-indulgence. I think it’s a by-product of social “Hi, City Center” and that’s the only thing they say. I like to go outside the palace walls, media. Everybody is encouraged to... put on a hat, get on a bike. Being a real observer and ingesting the vibe of a city so that M ...to just put their shit out there. when I walk on the stage I have something to say. Otherwise it feels like you’re just KP Yeah. I’m at fault for it too, so it’s hard to even comment about it. using the fans in some ways. M We all are, to a certain extent. The Internet is the greatest invention of all time. It’s M Yeah, I think it’s super important. Does it bother you that you can’t just think about incredibly helpful and you can start revolutions with it, but it’s also absolutely the most making music and being an artist? You have to think about branding and selling prod- dangerous thing in the world. The same amount of darkness and the same amount of ucts as well? light are in the same place. KP I am a healthy percentage left- and right-brained, so I can dream dreams and be KP All just made out of zeros and ones. very pragmatic, and that has served me well. Everything has to pass through my eyes M [laughs] Okay, another question. Can you think of situations or people that inspire and my ears, but I think that’s why in a time of short-span pop-up careers I’ve had a you or inspired you to begin with or that keep you going? It could be anyone from your longer one than most people would have bet on for me. parents to some artist or a teacher. M If you get down to betting, no one’s going to bet on you. Unfortunately we don’t live KP An artist? Oooh. in a world where people support or encourage longevity or people doing well. You have M My big inspiration when I first started out was teachers. Teachers that believed in me, or to manufacture that yourself. painters, or writers, or people who don’t have anything to do with the business that I am in. KP I’ve done things for creative reasons and also to make sure that I can have the type KP I would say it would be the love of music that I had when I was really young. It was of tour that I want. I have to pay the bills, because there are a lot of them to pay. We’ve like finding another language. Music touched me, like I had someone that I could finally got over 120 people on this tour, not counting our openers. I always say, I’m the biggest speak to like a therapist or a friend. It was finding solace in lyrics. domino and if I fall then everybody falls. M So you found words... M It’s a huge responsibility, when you think about how it used to be and how it is now. KP Words are so powerful to me. There was a real connectedness with lyrics, so I picked KP It seems everybody expects so much transparency these days. Like when someone up a guitar at 13 and started writing my own then. at the photo shoot was talking about Google contact lenses, I just thought, I’m never M So I imagine reading and writing were important to you when you were growing up. leaving my house when that thing comes out. That method of transporting, transmuting, transmitting information. M It’s too much. I don’t want everybody to know where I am all of the time. I don’t KP Reading and writing were important, but I didn’t have the formal education to
BRA AND BRIEFS TABLEAUX VIVANTS GLOVES VINTAGE FROM THE WAY WE WORE
“I’VE DONE THINGS FOR CREATIVE REASONS AND ALSO TO MAKE SURE THAT I CAN HAVE THE TYPE OF TOUR THAT I WANT. I HAVE TO PAY THE BILLS, BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM TO PAY.” —KATY PERRY
continue that into the end of my teenage years, when things were supposed to be really developing. I was homeschooled sometimes. I was always being taken out of school. I was in quote-unquote Christian schools, which weren’t always focused on the education. I never really went to high school. M You didn’t? You didn’t go to high school, but you were homeschooled to get your GED? KP Yeah, I only ever went to one semester of my freshman year of high school, but now more than ever I’m thirsty for education in any way, shape, or form that it comes. I’m soaking up information constantly. I want to know more. I never want to stop learning. M I think you have to, in order to stay relevant and to continue to be creative. I’m a big ballbuster about people reading and asking questions. I don’t see how there can be any other way. It’s about information and digging deeper and investigating. Peeling back the layers. Speaking of Christianity, I don’t think many people who call themselves Christian even understand the evolution of Christianity. Like where it started or how it began. KP My dad is very Pentecostal and emotional and excited and dramatic with his preaching, but my mother studied at Berkeley and speaks French. The approach with her style was more educational, and I was always more drawn to that. I liked knowing the true hard facts, because it took more than just the idea of faith for me. I wanted more. M There needs to be a balance of both, and I think that works in all areas of life. You need the heart and the brain to be married. At a certain point you have to have faith. You can’t explain everything. Some things are inexplicable. You need to intellectually understand things, and I think that’s a big problem with religion. The idea of religion and science. People feel like there has to be a separation. KP No. I wish they would be married. M I agree. I think if they were married and if people did understand that there was an interface between religion and science, we wouldn’t be in the situations that we’re constantly in. Wars over religion. I believe that the evolution of our species can coexist with the story of Genesis, Adam and Eve. KP When people don’t know the facts, they feel inferior and get defensive. Then they react in a way where they’re more passionate about something they don’t understand. M I agree. So are your parents supportive of your work? KP It’s a very strange dichotomy. They love me and support me, of course. But I think they do turn a little bit of a blind eye and don’t necessarily agree with everything I do.
Thankfully we have come to a wonderful place of agreeing to disagree. M Yeah, that’s where I am with my dad too. He spent many years just freaking out. Being a very traditional Italian Catholic father and not really understanding why I had to do the things I had to do. I would always say, “Dad, I’m an artist, I have to express myself. You don’t understand.” I think he’s finally come to terms with it. It’s only taken 30 years. He’s like, Do you have to simulate masturbation on the bed? Do you have to? Yes, Dad, I do. KP I haven’t gone that far yet, but maybe under your great mentorship I might reach that point. M [laughs] Well, one doesn’t discover these things until becoming a parent. Now I have huge amounts of admiration, respect, and sympathy for my father. So, the last question, which is kind of connected. Obviously you were the curator for Art for Freedom for a month, which I hugely appreciate. I don’t know how much of a dent it is making on the world, but I do believe that we are responsible as artists to not only reflect what’s going on in the world but also shape it. I believe that wholeheartedly. Do you agree? KP I do. I think that it’s something that you realize along the way. Sometimes that’s the initiative for becoming an artist, and then sometimes you are…what’s the word...a messenger, and you don’t even know it. M You’re the channel. KP Yeah, you’re channeling and you’re not conscious of it and then suddenly you become conscious of it. I feel that my music is more on the inspiring-joyful-light front. Not light as in lighthearted, but bringing light to a dark world. I believe that we can offer light, love, inspiration, and equality through these songs. M I think of all the art forms music is the most accessible and healing and universal. KP One hundred percent healing. M Alright, let’s end on that note. The healing energy and capacity of music. Whilst looking at pictures of the heel of your shoe in my mouth. I love the paradox. I really enjoyed working with you on the photo shoot. People always expect when two divas get together that there might be weird vibes or a strange competitiveness, but this was nice and easy and fun. KP If you ever come to the show, there’s a little wink to you. I’m paying my dues! M I’m looking forward to it.
KATY AND MADONNA WEAR DRESSES CUSTOM GUCCI MASKS ATSUKO KUDO MADONNA WEARS BOOTS STELLA McCARTNEY GLOVES ATSUKO KUDO
KATY WEARS DRESS BORDELLE STOLE J. MENDEL GLOVES VINTAGE FROM THE WAY WE WORE NECKLACE LYNN BAN MADONNA WEARS DRESS BORDELLE BRA TABLEAUX VIVANTS GARTER BELT ATSUKO KUDO GLOVES VINTAGE FROM THE WAY WE WORE
KATY WEARS BRIEFS LA PERLA
BRA AND BRIEFS TABLEAUX VIVANTS GARTER BELT ATSUKO KUDO GLOVES VINTAGE FROM THE WAY WE WORE
DRESS BORDELLE
KATY AND MADONNA WEAR DRESSES AND GLOVES DOLCE & GABBANA BOOTS STELLA McCARTNEY NECKLACE KIKI DE MONTPARNASSE