Pamela Littky for AOL Music

Pink may be at the top of the charts with So What, the biggest hit of her career, but she won't let that spoil her bad mood. She's the first to admit that she has no use for happiness when it comes to the artistic process: "Frustration, anger, sadness, and loneliness ... that's, to me, inspiration for lyrics. Happiness? Useless," she says with a hearty laugh.

During an interview for AOL Music Sessions, Pink is candid, funny and, as her music and videos suggest, not afraid to show her true self, whether discussing creation of her new album, Funhouse, or coming out the other side of her divorce from motocross racer Carey Hart.

Full Interview

AOL: As an artist, how do you even get yourself mentally prepared to run this gauntlet for the next 36 months?

P: I just become a machine. I detach from all of my foundations at home. I get all of my suitcases out. I think, "What do I think I might want to wear in January of 2010?" [laughs] And I'm always wrong, that's why I bring everything that I have. But I work through all of my issues, each album. Like at the beginning of the two-and-a-half year run, I still am sad about whatever I wrote about and then by the time I'm home, I'm fine. It's like therapy.

AOL: What issues are you working through on Funhouse?

AOL: You're not afraid to show that side of yourself.

P: I am a work in progress. I'm a beautiful mess. I'm perfectly imperfect. That's what I write about. On M!ssundaztood, about 2 years into it, I was in an interview in Paris, and I was so tired and drained of talking about a divorce that happened when I was 8. I was like, "I'm fine guys, it was just a song." And I just started crying. I was like, "I can't do this anymore," and then I started getting all these letters from all these people and things like "you helped me to come out today," or "I listen to your song and I didn't want to kill myself today because I'm going through the exact same thing." It's just things like that, that I had to say to myself, "You know what, it's not really about me."

AOL: I think that must be incredibly humbling, to realize the role that you can play in someone's life.

P: It is humbling. It's not all about me. I see these artists that think it really is about them and it's hilarious to me, but it's also a give and take. When I'm writing these songs, I feel like I'm going through it by myself, and then when I find myself in an arena with however many thousand people and they've all gone through the same thing, it actually helps me, too, cause I'm actually going, "Oh yeah, right, I'm not the only person that's ever been sad."

AOL: Let's talk about So What. It's turning into the biggest song of your career. Why do you think so many people are responding to it in such an incredibly positive way?

P: I have no idea why anyone gets So What. That song was a joke when I wrote it. I was like, "Oh, this will be funny: 'I guess I just lost my husband, I don't know where he went.'" That's funny right, and then it just kept going on from there, and every line was funnier than the last. Although, everyone thinks I'm trashing Jessica Simpson, but I'm actually not at all. I'm actually saying that she's cooler than me 'cause the waiter keeps taking my table and giving it to her. It was a syllable thing with that -- Jessica Simp: "The waiter just took my table and gave it to Jessica Simp." It would have been that or "the pilot just took my private jet and gave it to Haylie Duff," but that wasn't as cool, so it ended up being Jessica Simpson. It's also funny of how much pain I had to go through to write that song and now it's the biggest song of my career.

AOL: You've been doing this for almost 10 years now, so what is the biggest thing that you've learned?

P: I signed my record deal when I was 16. I just turned 29. I've learned so much. At first, I wanted to write a book called Artist to Artist: How to Get Fucked 101, because I felt like I could fill every chapter and now it's less of like an angry thing. It's more like a sitting back and knowing which way to go. I know I have to be healthy on tour. I know that I have to write the kind of songs that I'm gonna live with for the next two years. I know I have to work with people that are creative and safe, as opposed to one-hit wonders or people on top of the charts. I know that it's more fulfilling to do what moves you than to try and get a song on the radio. I know more about myself. It's completely night and day, and I'm grateful for every lesson. I'm fearless when it comes to that stuff.

AOL: Another one of the songs you did for Sessions is Sober, which is kind of the reverse of Let's Get the Party Started. Maybe it's time for the party to be over.

P: Do I have a drinking problem? [laughs] Sober was a dark moment. I have a lot of clean and sober friends. Alcoholism has been around my family. It's a dark thing -- alcohol or any vice, really. It's not even just about alcohol. Vices help us to be the person that we would like to naturally be, and my thing is I'd like to figure out a way to naturally be who I think I am with my vices, 'cause it's not the case. I mean, if you've ever seen a girl to walk into a room being the one to laugh the loudest, and being the obnoxious one -- everyone else has been there and we're all still judging. It's this big party, yet we're all kind of alone. Everyone knows me as this loud, obnoxious, aggressive, sort of party girl, but really at this point I just want to stay home and garden. [laughs] Give me a week. My heirloom tomatoes are amazing right now.

AOL: Why did you title the new album Funhouse?

P: Funhouse can mean fun and it could mean nothing is what it seems. My visual on it was when you get in front of a fun house mirror, you're distorted, you don't recognise yourself, you want out of there, but you paid to get in. I'm on the roller coaster, I'm strapped in, I'm not getting off, but damn, does it have to go this fast?

AOL: Is it hard to be single again or is it great?

P: I don't know. I'm surrounded by so much love in my life. My friends and family are awesome. If you look at the headlines, I've been frolicking all summer in the ocean in the arms of various men. I wish I was having as much fun as they said I was. No, I'm good. I'm really good right now. I'm kind of perfect. I'm exactly where I need to be.