P.O.D. & Katy Perry pairing not strange as it seems

P.O.D., meet Katy Perry! Katy Perry, meet P.O.D.! Collaborate! Testify!

By almost any standard, a pairing between the jiggly teen-pop queen and San Diego’s nationally acclaimed Christian rap-metal-reggae band seems unlikely on paper, let alone in reality. But social media was abuzz last week precisely because of such a collaboration.

Never mind that the collaboration in question took place in 2006, when P.O.D. invited Perry to perform a song with them on “The Tonight Show,” back during its Jay Leno era. The song in question was “Goodbye for Now.”

It appeared on 2006’s “Testify,” the four-man band’s eighth album, which also featured Perry as a guest vocalist. She was even more prominently featured in the video the band made of the song. She also sang with the band when they performed the song on the show "CD: Live."

At the time, Perry was just beginning her transformation from being a Contemporary Christian Music singer with little success to the full-fledged pop phenomenon she would soon become. She released her debut album in 2001 (under her given name, Katy Hudson). P.O.D., short for Payable On Death, had released its debut album in 1994.

“When we did that song ‘Goodbye for Now,’ (we) we’re like: ‘You know what would be cool is if we just got a cool female vocal,’ ” P.O.D. singer Sonny Sandoval told Songfacts in 2012.

“And (our producer Glen Ballard was) like: ‘I got just the perfect person.’ And here comes little Katy Perry. ... You could tell she came from a good family, and just wanted to show the Jesus tattoo on her wrist. And she was like: ‘I think I saw you guys in a (Christian) youth rally so many years ago.’ I’m like: ‘That’s so cool.’ But here she was in Hollywood trying to do her thing and make her career.”

It’s unclear why, so long after the fact, the P.O.D./Perry collaboration started making waves last week. But after one poorly informed fan tweeted: “KATY PERRY USED TO BE A P.O.D. BACK UP SINGER,” the Internet went crazy.

P.O.D. guitarist Marcos Curiel quickly dismissed speculation that Perry was ever P.O.D.’s “backing singer,” as numerous reports have erroneously indicated. “This is revisionist history and disrespectful to our girl Katy who was never a backup singer...” Curiel 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.”

So far as can be determined, P.O.D. has not performed “Goodbye for Now” in concert since early 2007. So there’s little reason to believe the band will include it when P.O.D. performs tonight at Observatory North Park (formerly the North Park Theatre).

Happily, the South Bay-bred quartet will likely play several songs from its potent new concept album, “The Awakening,” which came out in August. It features a vocal cameo by a female singer, but (spoiler alert!) she is Maria Brink of the band In This Moment, not Katy Perry.

In the meanwhile, by almost any standard, a pairing between P.O.D. and the proudly profane Detroit rap duo Insane Clown Posse seems unlikely on paper, let alone in reality. This holds especially true since the two-man ICP and its fan base have been investigated by the FBI (the court case is ongoing), for reasons too complicated to easily explain.

But disregard ICP’s over-the-top raps abour rape and mayhem. In 2010, the group’s two members, Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, came out as evangelical Christians. That their repertoire contains such songs as “F--- the World,” “Cherry Pie (I Need a Freak)” and “Bitches” certainly adds a new spin to the world of evangelical Christianity.

Exactly how close, or not, ICP’s spiritual beliefs hew to that of the members of P.O.D. remains unclear.