Katy Perry Opens Up About Religious Upbringing, Not Selling Her Soul For Fame in Vanity Fair

Katy Perry has just landed one of the most coveted magazine covers!

For the June issue of Vanity Fair, Perry poses seductively in a pale pink, corset-style strapless dress and rocks an Old Hollywood glam look of red stained lips, with a wave of her thick, dark hair falling in front of one eye. It's a sultry shot!

Perry is all grown up and enjoying runaway success, as well as a happy marriage to comedian Russell Brand, but it was not an overnight situation. The singer, who comes from a hardcore Christian background, one which she isn't afraid to discuss, has had to fight for her fame and for freedom from the tyranny of her parents' strict faith.

“I think sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up,” Perry told the magazine about her evangelical-minister parents. “Mine grew up with me. We coexist. I don’t try to change them anymore, and I don’t think they try to change me. We agree to disagree. They’re excited about [my success]. They’re happy that things are going well for their three children and that they’re not on drugs. Or in prison."

Perry says that Brand practices Hinduism, but that she isn't involved in it other than to meditate, since it "centers" her. She calls herself a "drifter," faith-wise, in a statement that should ruffle her mother's feathers.

Perry holds nothing back and is open about most topics. She even speaks about the photo her adoring hubby once tweeted of her, sans makeup, in the middle of the night. "I didn’t really care," she said about Brand publishing the photo of her on the social networking site. "I mean, when I go to rehearsals I look like that. I’m every woman. It takes a village to make me who I am ... You don’t have to wake up looking like, you know, Gisele.”

The singer also did not sell her soul to the media, which offered her millions of dollars for photos of the couple's October wedding, choosing to keep the intimate moment as private as possible. She did, however, share a clip from the wedding during her performance at this year's Grammys. "I felt the moment was right and not forced. Russell and I had time to savor our moment privately first and then share it with people when we were ready, and not for a paycheck," Perry reasoned. "I loved the idea, because I thought it was beautiful and artistically accompanied the song I wrote for him. Plus, it was Valentine’s eve!”

Despite being blessed with a lifetime of success at the ripe age of 26, Perry is astutely aware of the trappings of fame and success and isn't harboring any disillusions about her place on the pop music scale. “I don’t take anything for granted,” she said. “There are 500 other girls right behind me. And I know that, because I was one of them. I remember what it’s like to be someone who’s always trying to get there — sending out tons of e-mails … trying to connect with some person who could connect me with some other person. And I wouldn’t be working at this pace now if I didn’t truly know that fame is fleeting.” Perhaps that's why Katy Perry will outlast many of her peers.

Read more about the lovely and talented Katy Perry when the June issue of Vanity Fair hits stands tomorrow, May 5.

Watch Katy Perry's Performance at the Grammys Featuring Photos of Her Wedding