Alecia Moore has just returned from a particularly hectic school drop off. Her 11-year-old daughter, Willow, wanted to take her bike to ride home, so some Jenga-style dexterity was required to accommodate the bicycle, her six-year-old son Jameson’s backpack and the family dog in the car.
Factor in a minor delay after an unscheduled toilet break for her son before the journey got underway. She now has a one-hour window for a Zoom work call with marie claire Australia before taking Jameson to his new favourite sport, basketball.
That work? She’s one of the music world’s most authentic and successful superstars: singer, songwriter and audience mass seducer Pink. She’s sold 60 million albums and 75 million singles thanks to anthems “Let’s Get the Party Started”, “So What”, “Who Knew”, “Just Give Me a Reason” and “What About Us”.
But it’s as a live performer that Pink has truly carved her own path. On tour, she doesn’t limit her frequent flying to aeroplanes but uses her highly developed aerial skills to belt out songs while literally zip-lining above the audience.
It’s common knowledge there’s a special bond between Pink and Australia. As a bratty youngster promoting her first album, 2000’s Can’t Take Me Home, she found herself playing a noisy Melbourne nightclub, singing her early hits live over a backing tape. “Instead of ‘Pink! Pink! We love you!’ it was ‘We can’t fucking hear you! Tell them to turn it up!’” recalls Pink. “I just thought, ‘You are my people.’”
She’s talking to marie claire from a room at the family ranch in Santa Barbara, California. It’s an 81-hectare property that includes several vineyards – a major selling point for the wine connoisseur. In her office there’s a guitar, a smile on her face and a new album to promote, her ninth release, Trustfall.
“We don’t live in Hollywood. I don’t go to parties,” she explains. “Willow has straight As and goes to three different dance classes a week and plays piano and has singing lessons. Jameson skateboards and plays basketball. I cook dinner every night. We watch So You Think You Can Dance or Survivor. We’re just fucking dorks. Normal little dorks.”
In December last year, a proud Pink posted a clip to Instagram of Willow at her first stage recital, singing an Olivia Rodrigo song. (Rodrigo commented, “I’m crying! What a special girl.”) But while Willow has already had a global hit (a duet with her mother, “Cover Me in Sunshine”) and isn’t even slightly nervous jumping on stage at her mother’s stadium shows, Pink doesn’t expect her to join the business.
“People say to her, ‘You have such a beautiful voice, do you want to be a singer?’ and Willow says, ‘Oh God no!’ And I’m like, ‘Hold on, you don’t have to say it like that! I’m kinda cool – at least some people think so!’ “She’s keeping her options open,” continues Pink. “I think she should be a lawyer for the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union]; she can change the world and bail out her brother. She’s thinking actor, Broadway, something like that. Who knows? She’s brilliant, she loves school, she loves dance, theatre, she loves life. She’s a total frickin’ weirdo. She doesn’t know what’s cool and she doesn’t waste time thinking about it. She is just an odd little bird and I’m super into her. And Jameson is probably gonna be a DJ in Vegas because he’s a fucking psychopath! But a very charming psychopath.”
Jameson is her second child with husband Carey Hart, a motocross star and frequent lyrical subject. Willow turns 12 the week before Pink’s 2023 global stadium tour begins in June, and that entire multimillion-dollar global tour is now being routed around Willow’s school theatre productions, at Pink’s insistence.
Trustfall will continue to find a balance between music and motherhood, a tightrope she walked for posterity on that documentary, All I Know So Far. “Willow and I have had a lot of teary, interesting conversations. I’ve told her that I honour her childhood as much or more than I honour her adult choices. These are my choices; she shouldn’t pay for them. But I’ve also told her in the same breath that I love what I do, I’m fucking good at it and I worked my ass off to get here. There’s a handful of people who get to do what I do. I think what I do helps people in some small way. I’m proud of me. I won’t apologise for any of that, but I’m going to try to make it the best for all of us.
“I said to her, ‘If you want me to quit I’ll walk away tomorrow, I’ll cancel the whole tour.’ She’s like, ‘I don’t want you to quit, Mama.’ Then later that night she’s asking ‘When are you going to Paris and Amsterdam?’ and I’m like, ‘You little fucker!’ So [emotionally] we’re all over the place. It’s going to be great. We had our first tour meeting the other night and I walked away going, ‘Holy shit, my job is so fun.’ I’m just stoked. Everyone’s excited. The kids are excited. Jameson is excited – he has no idea what to be excited about, but he’s excited.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the March issue of marie claire Australia, on news stands Thursday 16th February.
Want to see Pink live in concert? Win one of 35 double passes to her Australian tour here.
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