Katy Perry Kisses & Tells

As a part of the "Road to the Grammys" series, the Early Show took a special look at the Grammy nominee who's generated a lot of buzz in the music industry.

The 24-year-old is up for best female pop vocal for her smash hit "I Kissed A Girl," which she's going to perform during the Grammys.

Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen caught up with Perry in one of her favorite places, "Hotel Café," a small, intimate club in L.A. where she got her start and where she's rehearsing for the big night.

She's part pop tart, part pop princess and now a Grammy nominee.

Perry's cheeky song about her own curiosity shot to the top of the charts in more than 20 countries.

"I knew I was going to come out kind of, like … " Perry began.

"Controversial?" Chen asked.

"Guns blazing, a grown-up Shirley Temple singing, 'I kissed a girl and I liked it.' And some people were going to be, like, 'Die!' And some people would be, like, 'Wow! This is cool!'" Perry said.

She admits there was one particular girl who inspired the song.

"Does this girl that you grew up having a little girl crush on -- which all girls go through -- does she know?" Chen asked.

"She doesn't know," Perry said while blushing.

"Is that going to stay secret?" Chen asked.

"Well … " Perry said. "I think there are just very powerful beauties, when they walk into the room, it's kind of like -- it doesn't matter if you're a male or a female. Everybody is, like, jaws drop. And you're, like -- 'If you want to sit behind a kissing booth right now, we'll all line up.'"

With porcelain skin and cherry red lips, her look is vintage and sexy. According to Perry, it was swing dancing that inspired her style back when she was just 13.

"I kind of started to emulate them, desperately asked my grandmother if there was anything she had left in her closet that made any sense for me," Perry said.

At 17, she left home to try to make it in the music biz, but producers kept trying to mold her.

"They would take the very most popular song of the time, like 'Since You've Been Gone' or 'Complicated,' and say 'Katy, you really have to do something exactly like this,'" Perry said.

"What would you say to them?" Chen asked.

"I'd tell them that I want my own path. That's really hard to do," Perry said.

But she believed in herself, even after a friend told Perry what music executives were saying behind her back.

"'I think everybody in the industry sees her as, like, damaged goods, you know? Like something you put in, like, a defect aisle at Ross or something. Where it's like you can still buy this, but it's got a dent in it,'" she joked, imitating the friend.

"Did it hurt when you heard that stuff, or did it make you want to work that much harder and maybe not share your dreams with people?" Chen asked.

"No, it didn't hurt. I'm never hurt by what people say because everybody says whatever they want to say," Perry said.

In the end, it's Perry who is having the last laugh.

"I was just kind of like, 'Well, one day when I'm going to the Grammy Awards, I'll wave to you like this (she motioned her hand). You'll be at home heating up your microwave dinner,'" Perry said.