“THE act of living requires a lot of trust these days,” says Pink, explaining the name of her new album.

“Getting out of bed in the morning, going to work, dropping your kids at school, being in a relationship requires a lot of trust. 

“And a lot of the time, I feel like I’m falling backwards. I don’t know when the ground is coming. It’s about falling and not knowing where you’re headed and taking chances. 

“Look, I made it out, I know how resilient I am. That’s why I called the album Trustfall.”

When we connect on Zoom, Pink, real name Alecia Moore, is sat in her Californian ranch drinking tea.

It’s where the 43-year-old mum of two lives with her husband, former motocross racer Carey Hart, daughter Willow, 11, and son Jameson, six.

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For one of the most famous pop stars in the world, Alecia seems pretty down to earth. Unlike interviews with less famous folk, there is no list of off-topic subjects and when the chat starts, it’s evident that she is the real deal.

She’s been at the top of her game for more than 20 years after emerging with debut single There You Go, a No6 hit in 2000.

“I am officially a rash. I do not go away,” she says. “Each album is a chapter in my life in this experience I’m having.

“I was a little punk when I wrote Can’t Take Me Home (her 2000 debut album) and Missundaztood (the 2002 follow-up). I still feel that way at times but Trustfall is right now. 

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“And this, my ninth album, is also a nice two fingers for all the haters that think I don’t matter. 

“It’s also been a 20-year conversation between me and people all over the world just trying to figure out how to be human. 

“It’s been therapy for me and the shows are like group therapy. And I feel nothing but grateful. 

“I’m stoked. I love that I still get to do this and I still have a lot to say.”

If there’s a message on Trustfall, Alecia says it’s: “Life is really hard and I feel things deeply. But I’ve had enough now, so everyone shut up and dance.”

In tracks Runaway, Last Call, Never Gonna Not Dance Again and Trustfall, the album features some of the best songs of her career. 

She’s worked with a host of artists on it, including Grammy-nominated electronic producer Fred Again, Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid and songwriter Greg Kurstin and has guest appearances from First Aid Kit, The Lumineers and Chris Stapleton.

She says: “I got to hang out with people I love. Good people. Making this record was a really enjoyable process.”

The album opens with poignant ballad When I Get There, a song that made Alecia — who lost her dad Jim in August following an eight-year battle with cancer — cry when she first heard it.

She performed a stunning version of it this week with the BBC Concert Orchestra on Radio 2’s Piano Room. And it’s a song that anyone going through grief can relate to. “That’s what’s beautiful about it,” she says.

“I was able to be with my dad in the end when he died. And it’s such a gift, an absolute honour. I could have been away on tour or in Europe. But I was home and I was with him. 

“My stepmom who was an army nurse in Vietnam and has dealt with a lot of death said, ‘It’s the greatest honour in the world to be with someone when they pass’.” 

‘Allergic to injustice’

Lockdown gave Alecia time to spend with her family but it wasn’t always easy. Turbulence, another standout on Trustfall, is a song about the anxiety it invoked.

“I think we’re all walking around with this low-level trauma after the pandemic,” she says. 

“Turbulence is a song about anxiety and it’s almost like I’m having a conversation with my kid about it. My favourite line is, ‘And when you say that you can’t, I will watch you dance through this turbulence’.

“And that makes me want to cry about trying to help Willow through the world as it is now. It’s daunting, so daunting.

“Willow is a worrier. She’s an internal processor. And she’s also allergic to injustice.”

In 2017, Alecia’s acceptance speech at the VMAs went viral. It was dedicated to a then six-year-old Willow who had come home from school and announced she was “the ugliest girl I know”.

Alecia responded by making her daughter a PowerPoint presentation of androgynous pop stars, such as Prince, David Bowie and Annie Lennox, to highlight “more kinds of beauty”.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be as big as it was,” she says. “I was just trying to tell Willow something out loud in front of people so she might hear me.

“I hate speeches and I never know what to say. Willow was there and she looked amazing in her suit. Her saying she was ugly made me sad.”

Alecia explains she’s also learned not to compare her childhood to that of her kids.

“I do a lot of therapy, I’m super into it,” she tells me. “And this brilliant woman that I speak to said to me, ‘You cannot compare your life and your experiences to your child’s’. 

“Their lives are completely different. Willow is growing up with a mother that sees her and talks to her. She’s just gonna have to figure it out herself and she’s strong.

“My son is so friendly and says hi to every kid and when they don’t say hi back, I have to restrain myself.”

Willow and Jameson both sing on Trustfall — they provide backing vocals on recent hit Never Gonna Not Dance Again. In 2021, Alecia released Cover Me In Sunshine, a duet with her daughter. So does she want to follow her mum into music?

Alecia says: “Willow has gone through so many ideas already. And Jameson wants to be a stuntman. So that sounds worrisome. But we’ll see.

“As long as they work hard and have joy in their life, I don’t care what they do.”

She laughs when I ask whether her youngest understands what her job is.

“Well, Jameson said to my best friend, ‘Do you know that my mama is the best singer in the whole world?’.

“She goes, ‘Yes, Jameson I do know that’. 

“And then he goes, ‘Did you know she sings to 100 people sometimes?’. He was so cute.

“But I’m just Mom to my kids. And an embarrassing one too. Jameson told me that when I kiss him at school it’s embarrassing.

“I’m like, ‘You’re only six, dude. I am not done with kissing you at school yet’.”

Alecia says she’s lucky she can spend a lot of time with her kids but that she suffers from working mum’s guilt.

‘Tired of being villain’

She adds: “I even feel guilty when I go and play tennis for an hour. I am with them all the time. And they expect me to be there all the time.

“When I go outside to grab the newspaper, they freak out. Or they follow me to the bathroom.”

Alecia says she is a strict mum and has banned both kids having a mobile phone until they are older.

“Willow says she is the only one in her class that doesn’t have a phone. And I said, ‘Well, that doesn’t move my needle. I don’t bend to peer pressure’.

“We were camping and all the kids had iPads at breakfast. My kids looked at me with tears in their eyes, like, ‘Why can’t we have an iPad?’.

“But I knew they’d be the only two kids at the table that remembered this camping trip.”

Alecia has never been one to hold back, and she certainly does not on song Hate Me.

She says: “I tried to write what it feels like to be the woman in the equation. Whether that’s how society treats us or villainises us. 

“Whether it’s our boss, father, or husband, it’s infuriating. I’m tired of being the villain.”

Her relationship with husband Hart has been a rollercoaster but today she says they are happier than ever.

“We still drive each other crazy and he still doesn’t know how to take the trash out,” she says. “But we celebrated on our 17th anniversary and said, ‘Holy s**t, who’d have thought it?’.”

Alecia often speaks out on political and social issues, and after the US Supreme Court overturned abortion rights last year, she tweeted: “Let’s be clear: If you believe the government belongs in a woman’s uterus, a gay person’s business or marriage, or that racism is OK, then please in the name of your lord never listen to my music again.”

I ask what she thinks about this year’s Brit Awards, which went gender-neutral but saw only men shortlisted for the main Artist of the Year award.

She says: “When I won the Best Female Rock Vocal Grammy, they dissolved the category the next day. So this took away a woman’s ability to win and there’s not a lot of women in rock.

“I believe you don’t need to label yourself. You can be whatever you want. You can vote for whoever you want. You can change your mind 1,000 times. And I think in running from labels, we’ve just created more of them.” 

Tanned and toned, Alecia looks in great shape — which she needs to be for the highly physical shows on her Summer Carnival tour. It calls in to the UK in June, with gigs at the University of Bolton Stadium, Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, Birmingham’s Villa Park and London’s Hyde Park.

Alecia says: “I always tell people, it’s about being strong, fit and healthy.”

And if she had a message for her younger self it would be to not think about her weight but about being strong.

She says: “It’s not about fitting into a certain size or looking a certain way. There are eight million kinds of beautiful.

“I would tell the teenage me to chill out. I would give her a hug for her anxiety and tell her she will find solid ground and will create a life and choose people that love her. And they are out there waiting to love her.” 

Last year Alecia underwent hip and double disc replacement surgery and struggled to bounce back.

“It was tough but I kicked it into gear this past year because I just have to be in shape. I must be in perfect shape.

“I’ve been working out pretty hard. I do a lot of HIIT training — high intensity interval training — and circuits, yoga, Pilates and weight training.

“The thing with putting a show together like mine is I want it to be amazing but I want to have fun.

“And it’s a long show too. I will try and get five or six new songs in with the favourites — keep rotating the favourites because that’s what I want to see when I go and see a show.

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“I want to have every emotion available to be felt, so we try to hit it from all angles. I’m so excited.”

• Trustfall is out today. Tickets for Pink’s Summer Carnival 2023 tour are available at pinkspage.com.

PINK

Trustfall

★★★★☆

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