On This Day in Pink History… 11th June 2003, Pink attended the Songwriters Hall of Fame

On This Day in Pink History 10th June 2002, Just Like A Pill was released 

Just Like A Pill was written and produced by Dallas Austin and Pink for her second studio album, Missundaztood. In June 2002, it was released as the third single from the album with great commercial success, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. Just Like A pill became her first number one single in the UK, and reached the top 10 in many countries including Ireland, France and Sweden. Although the song was only released as a radio only single in Australia (a physical release was never eventuated), it was a number 1 radio hit. In late June 2009, the song charted at number 97 on downloads, mostly likely due to Pink’s Funhouse Tour.

The song was generally well received by contemporary music critics. NME called it “the third best track off her killer last album”.Drowned In Sound’s Robert Luckett commented that it is “a fascinating record…this is a record with a edge, a kind of pot boiling over at any moment, ready to go off at any time vibe.” He also wrote “it obeys the pop industry’s well-dusted rules for a hit.”Stylus Magazine’s Todd Burns, in his review of the album, compared “Just Like a Pill” to the other singles from the album, “Don’t Let Me Get Me” and “Get the Party Started”, writing “The guitars… sound much more integrated into the work and the overall song works far better.”

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The video for “Just Like a Pill” was directed by Francis Lawrence for LaFace Records. The video for the song is considerably different from Pink’s previous videos. “Get the Party Started” and “Don’t Let Me Get Me” were lighter in nature than the dark atmosphere which is reflected in the video for “Just like a Pill”, an example of which is the fact that Pink can be seen throughout the whole video wearing black outfits with naked arms and legs and wearing black hair. In the first scene, Pink lies on the floor. In the chorus she sings in front of her band. She is also featured in another scene with white rabbits around her in a room, and in another scene, she is seen with an elephant. There are also scenes with Pink singing in front of and amongst various people. In the latter half of the video, she runs in a hall whilst lip-synching the song, before disappearing into a bright doorway atop a staircase at the conclusion of the video.

In the video, Pink is seen sitting in front of an elephant. After the elephant had been on the set, she saw the abuse and captivity the animal was in. “Pink learned about the abuse of captive elephants when a trainer brought one onto the set of her ‘Just Like a Pill’ video. She could see that something was wrong and she called us to learn more about the issue. Now, Pink would like to see circuses pack their trunks”, according to PETA spokesman Dan Mathews.

In an interview with VH1, Pink said “This poor elephant…a huge elephant, it’s so cute, and I could see how painful it was for it to get down on its hands and knees, and I’m like, ‘Can we not do this anymore? I think we got the take, you know, it’s enough. The elephant has had enough.’ And the trainer’s like, ‘Oh, he loves it.’ And so I was like, ‘So when were you an elephant?’… I didn’t like it. I won’t do that again. … No more animals.” When talking about the different style of video, Pink said “This one’s very dark and artsy, and I have black hair, which is very fun. I loved it. It’s another part that I haven’t concentrated on before.”

The censored version of the song/video changes “Can’t stay on your morphine, it’s making me itch” to “Can’t stay on your life support, it’s making me itch”, and changes “bitch” to “witch”. Pink’s mouth is only blurred once in the censored version as she says “bitch” at about 2 minutes 45 seconds in the video.

Wikipedia

The song is almost always included in setlists of performances and tours.

Other performances…

On This Day in Pink History… 8th June 2002, Pink was on Much Music

Happy Birthday Willow!

Towards the end of 2010, there were many rumours going around the social media world that Pink and Carey were expecting their first child. Pink fans around the world were waiting on news to confirm the rumours as true or false and on 17th November 2010, Pink confirmed the news that she was expecting her first child on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

I’m eating for two these days

I’m terrified because she [doctor] thinks its a girl… my mom has always wished me a daughter just like me, I’m terrifed, one of us will go to jail.

Willow Sage Hart was born on 2nd June 2011. Pink took to Twitter to announce the news:

Three weeks after Willow’s birth, Pink posted a note on her website…

To whomever cares:

We are absolutely blissed out in love over here! To our fans and friends all over the world, thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes throughout this time in our life! Carey is a natural, (I knew he would be) and I finally found out what love really means. Don’t worry, I’m not writing an album full of sappy lullabies. Not yet, anyways?

In the interest of full disclosure: (AND BECAUSE I TELL IT LIKE I SEE IT)

Due to the unsettling, surprisingly aggressive and unsafe measures that the paparazzi seem to be willing to go to in order to secure that “first shot” of our daughter–stalking us, chasing us in cars and sitting outside of our home all day and all night, as new parents Carey and I decided that we would release personal photos of our Willow, and donate all of the money to charity.

We will be donating the money to children’s’ charities, among them one of our favorites, the Ronald McDonald House, an organization that houses and cares for the families of sick children so they can be together during treatment, as well as Autism Speaks.

Like any parents, we believe our little girl deserves the right to have privacy and be protected, but unfortunately, this media climate doesn’t seem to provide for that. I feel so grateful that after many years of hard work, music and motorcycles have elevated both Carey and me to such a place that the public has supported us in building our life and lifestyle together. We recognize that celebrity has its upsides and downsides and do our best to manage just being people without hiring stylists and bodyguards before one of us goes to the store to buy some milk. I’ve seen some photos of myself that make me smile and some that make me less smiley. But you see, it’s one thing to harass and stalk us, the adults, the celebrity that signed up for this life, but children should be protected and safe. There should be a clear distinction between us.

In EVERY other country that I recall, children’s faces are blurred out in magazine photos. Why is USA the only country that continues to financially incentivize intrusive paparazzi behavior to capitalize on photos of babies, infants and children? Why is this acceptable to any of us? Why is this even legal? These are questions I ask myself as a new parent. Why are celebrities/public figures having to seek restraining orders to keep strange grown men with still and video cameras from sitting perched outside of their children’s pre-schools and elementary schools, preying on little innocent kids? After all, if a stranger was sitting outside of a school taking photographs of random little girls and boys, wouldn’t he be arrested? Or, at least in Philadelphia, he would have to face a more primal sort of recourse. But because it’s the child of a celebrity, somehow it’s okay? I’m just not sure what is wrong with us as a society, that we do more than tolerate this, but our appetite for it seems insatiable. We buy these pictures. We buy these magazines that publish these paparazzi pictures. WHERE DOES IT STOP?

Here’s the bottom line: we don’t want you to take our little girl’s picture. We don’t want you to one day follow our little girl home from school. We don’t want our little girl’s picture in a magazine or on a blog. If you take or publish her picture, it is against our wishes, and without our consent as parents, as people.

Carey and I are new parents. We know we have so much to learn in our new role and are thankful for the family and friends around us. Not a day goes by that we are not grateful to the universe and to our fans and friends who believe in us–and to our foes, too (our best teachers)–for the incredibly interesting privileged lives we get to live each day. But this is about our daughter who just got here. In the face of camera lenses as long as my arm and flashbulbs as bright as the sun, Willow is powerless. All she has to protect her is us. But that’s not all she has; she has you.

To anyone out there that buys a magazine, or goes onto a website to look at pictures of other people’s children, may you at least think for a second about what you may inadvertently be supporting. We are so appreciative that people are interested in seeing our daughter. We WANT to share our joys with you, but as parents (and new parents), we should be able to govern these decisions, shouldn’t we? And to be clear, I’m speaking directly to these “stolen” photographs–paparazzi photos.

So when you see our middle fingers up in all of our pictures, now you know the motivation. It’s all we can do to stop images of a newborn baby from being printed without our consent. Can you imagine a world where they would blur out our middle finger to protect a “consumer” over blurring out an innocent child to protect their integrity and privacy?

Thank you for letting me say my piece. Do I expect this letter to change the world? No. But if it plants a seed of awareness, if a politician or an activist or a legislator or a teacher or police officer is prompted to even think about it–let alone engage, I have done my part on behalf of my daughter. Not surprising that lesson one from me to my daughter is to let one’s voice be heard.

I’ve never shied away from a controversial opinion because of the fear of bad press. My music and my fans and I connect year after year because I talk TO them and, man, do they so beautifully talk TO me. This is such a meaningful dialogue in my life. To all of my friends out there, I love you and I appreciate your help with this, and this happy little family cannot wait to visit your countries again and play music and rejoice in all the beauty that we share and have shared together all over the world.

We’ll call it a playdate!!!!! Xoxoxoxoxooxoxox

Love,
the new parents–learning as we go.
? kisses, besos.

P.S. baby poop really isn’t as bad as all the guys out there think. Careys’ already been pooed on, and he’s still breathing. Ahhhhh, ain’t love grand?

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On This Day in Pink History… 2nd June 2001, Pink attended the MTV Movie Awards

Skip to 2min 15secs to hear Pink talk about her dog, Fucker

On This Day in Pink History… 30th May 2014, Carey Hart was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame

On This Day in Pink History… 30th May 2010, Pink played at Pinkpop on the Summer Carnival Tour

On This Day in Pink History… 30th May 2006, Pink performed at MTVTRL

Justin Christopher Derrico was born May 26, 1982 in Long Island, New York. He then moved to Charlottesville, Virginia with his family when he was 6 years old. At the age of 15 he developed a strong passion for the guitar after listening to music legends like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Looking to emulate his idols, Justin set out to become a guitar hero himself.

Justin moved to Los Angeles in 2004 and went to the Musicians Institute of Technology in Hollywood. While attending MI, he auditioned for The Calling and after a call back or two, he landed the gig.

After touring with The Calling, Justin played with international artists such as VV Brown, Robin Thicke, and Lil Wayne.

While on tour with Robin Thicke, Justin got a call to audition for Grammy award winning artist Pink. After an initial 3 song audition, Justin was hired and soon found himself playing in front of 125,000 fans in Budapest just one week later. Since then he has toured with Pink as her lead guitar player for the last 8 years.

In addition to playing lead guitar for rock band Lexington Queen, Justin’s also credited for playing with global acts like Tina Turner, The Pussycat Dolls and Beyonce.

Now, Justin Derricon has unleashed a beast of his own. His debut album, Boldly Going Nowhere, is available to download now at Jam Track Central and iTunes, alongside official backings and performances of some of the main album tracks.

Text from JustinDerrico.com

PHOTOS

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