In 2006, well after nü-metal’s heyday, the genre’s foremost Christian rock band P.O.D. appeared on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. They played a dramatic, Linkin Park-reminiscent rap-rock ballad called “Goodbye For Now,” which is actually their third-best-charting single but didn’t make nearly the cultural impact of “Alive” and “Youth Of The Nation.” The song would probably be continuing to fade into obscurity today if someone hadn’t noticed that a pre-fame Katy Perry, who befriended P.O.D. back when she was pursuing a Christian music career under the name Katy Hudson, sang with them on The Tonight Show. Here’s footage of that performance for your perusal:

Now, although Perry’s role in the band that day was clearly singing backup, P.O.D. guitarist Marcos Curiel is not happy that various websites have been characterizing her as a “backup singer.” Again, if you watch the video, you’ll see Perry standing near the back of the stage, providing vocals of a supporting nature. But whatever, people love a chance to be outraged, so Curiel issued this statement to Rolling Stone:

This is revisionist history and disrespectful to our girl Katy who was NEVER a backup singer … 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.

I wasn’t aware that being a backup singer precluded you from exercising strong musicianship or going town to town in a van, but hey, shabby reporters like me learn something new every day!

P.O.D. also posted this video to Facebook: