Kesha, who shot to fame back in 2009 with her hit song “Tik Tok” and gritty party girl aesthetic, opened up about a touchy subject in a vulnerable interview with Alex Cooper on the May 6 episode of Cooper’s popular podcast, “Call Her Daddy.”
“I went through a horrible filler phase,” she admitted, before saying, “God, that sucked. Because I was like, ‘Oh. That’s what I should do.’ And then I’m like, ‘I actually don’t like the way that looks.”‘
Kesha said her path to becoming comfortable about her looks has been “such a journey.” She explained that from the beginning of her career, people have commented on her body and she “internalized those comments,” making them “the word of God” and trying to adjust her body to fit the expectations of others.
Kesha Boldly Discussed Aging & Eating Disorder
After reflecting on the regrettable fillers, the songstress went on to discuss aging, saying, “It’s just this constant dance with society on what it does mean to be a woman and what is acceptable. And like also, we’re not supposed to age. Like trust me, I don’t want to. But like, I don’t know what else to do.”
She said her body image can tend lean towards “perfectionism,” which is something that affected her while in the throes of an eating disorder which she said has “been a while ago now.”
The 39-year-old then heartbreakingly admitted, “I just really wanted to be loved. And in my healing process since I got my freedom, I realized like, wanting to be famous, and wanting to loved, all of that actually had to come from myself.” She said she discovered the key was to treat herself with “kindness and grace.”
The “freedom” Kesha might have been referring to was her release from her recording contract with former collaborator Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe Records, RCA Records, and her management team, Vector Management, in December 2023 following a 10-year legal battle. The singer had been locked into a controversial 360 deal, which allows record labels to take a percentage of all of an artist’s revenue streams, including non-music ventures.
Kesha’s Mother Is a Songwriter Who Wrote a #1 Hit for Dolly Parton
Kesha’s mother is Pebe Sebert, a songwriter best known for writing Dolly Parton‘s hit “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You,” which topped the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1980. The song, cowritten by Hugh Moffatt, was first recorded 1978 by Joe Sun, and later the same year Brian Collins.
Kesha said on the podcast that Sebert, a single mother, taught her “so much.” She said, “I’m so grateful I saw a woman that just did it all.” She called her mother’s songs “iconic” before going on, “She’s so cool. She raised three kids all on her own.”
Kesha also said her mom is “really instrumental in the power of looking at your life positively and deciding who you’re gonna be and what you’re gonna do.” The artist recalled her mother discouraged her from saying “Oh, maybe I’ll be a popstar” and instead told her daughter to believe, “I’m gonna be a popstar.” She admitted, “It’s a little delusional but it also worked.”
The “Your Love Is My Drug” singer said her mother always warned her the music industry was hard, but that she recognized Kesha was meant to sing when she noticed her obsession with wandering around “yodeling in the backyard.”
Kesha said her unforgettable “oh oh oh oh” run in “Tik Tok” is “my weird spooky Monster Mash voice version of a yodel, kind of.”
