P.O.D. rocker: 'Katy Perry was more than a backup singer'

P.O.D. guitarist Marcos Curiel has slammed critics after old footage of a young Katy Perry providing backing vocals for the band surfaced this week (begs12Oct15).

Prior to hitting it big as a pop star, Perry attempted to kick off her career as a gospel singer, and joined forces with Christian metal band P.O.D. in her early days.

Recently, fans were reminded of her humble beginnings when a video of Perry performing with P.O.D. on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2006 was unearthed, and featured her singing in the background for their single Goodbye for Now.

Many fans began mocking Perry as a "backup singer", a description Curiel took offense to since he believes she deserves more recognition than that.

"This is revisionist history and disrespectful to our girl Katy who was never a backup singer," he told Rolling Stone. "We invited her to participate on our record as she was and is still is one of the few pop artists with strong musicianship roots.

"She paid her dues not as a backup singer but in a van going town to town. This is the problem with music journalism today... Shabby reporting. No research. No history."

Perry provided vocals for the original recorded version of the song, and was also featured at the end of the official music video.