LONDON – "American Idol" contestants should be thankful that they have caring, sharing Ellen DeGeneres on the panel now and not Katy Perry.
The singer was a guest judge for auditions to be featured on next season's show, and she didn't pull any punches with the hopeless hopefuls.
"We all have friends or people that we've known that maybe they wanted to be a rock star, or be this or that, and no one ever told them that they can't," she says. "Like, 'It's just like you weren't born with pitch, so it's not going to happen and someone needs to tell you that because 15 years later you've wasted all this time and when you could have been a doctor.'
They should probably take Perry's advice - the Grammy-nominee knows what it takes to be a success. Her 2008 album "One of the Boys," went platinum and featured international smash hits like "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot N Cold."
And now she's proud to be following in the footsteps of Nirvana and Lauryn Hill by recording her own "MTV Unplugged" session. The CD/DVD is being released Tuesday.
