Two years ago, Bonnie McKee says, she was a “drunken hot mess.” After her 2004 singer-songwriter album, Trouble, fizzled, McKee was dropped from her label, but she stayed in Hollywood, scrounging beneath her couch cushions for Taco Bell money. Then Katy Perry called. They’d been casual friends before Perry hit it big, hanging out at barbecues and getting wasted together. Now, Perry wanted help on a song called “Part of Me,” so McKee stayed up all night writing lyrics. By the time Perry heard the third line, she shouted, “We’re buying you a car!”  

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