In fact, speaking in an interview in Vanity Fair magazine, the E.T. singer goes as far as to say: "I didn't have a childhood."
Her upbringing by her evangelist parents Keith and Mary Hudson is a topic Perry has never shied away from.
In her latest interview, Perry describes her youth as one in which she wasn't allowed to buy non-Christian music and the only book her mother read to her from was the Bible.
"I was always scared I was going to get bombed when I was there," she said.
Katy Perry was formerly a Christian music artist performing as Katy Hudson but she later went mainstream, departing from the faith of her younger years and making it big with her catchy and sometimes controversial pop songs and hallmark raunchiness.
"I have always been the kid who's asked 'Why?'," she said.
"In my faith, you're just supposed to have faith. At this point, I'm just kind of a drifter. I'm open to possibility."
In the past, Perry's parents have expressed their disapproval of their daughter's lyrics, particularly to her hit song "I Kissed A Girl", and her skimpy, low-cut outfits.
Where do they stand now?
"We coexist," said Perry. "I don't try to change them anymore, and I don't think they try to change me. We agree to disagree."
She also insists upon not trying to change her husband, comedian-turned-actor Russell Brand.
"I come from a very non-accepting family, but I'm very accepting," she said.
"Russell is into Hinduism, and I'm not really involved in it. He meditates in the morning and the evening and I'm starting to do it more because it really centres me."
She added: "But I just let him be him, and he lets me be me."