Background singers don’t always stay in the back. This ended up being the case for a little-known recording artist named Katy Hudson, who had a small part singing on P.O.D.‘s 2006 hit ‘Goodbye for Now.’ That singer has since sold 11 million albums and has achieved three Guinness World Records under the name Katy Perry.

The connection between P.O.D. and Katy Perry flew under the radar despite the singer becoming a breakout superstar in 2008. More than seven years after Perry turned into a pop phenom with ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ the video of P.O.D.’s ‘Goodbye for Now’ started making the rounds on the internet this week. Perry even performed with the band on The Tonight Show.

P.O.D. frontman Sonny Sandoval spoke about working with Katy Perry in a 2012 interview with Songfacts. “When we did that song “Goodbye for Now,” we’re like, you know what would be cool is if we just got a cool female vocal,” Sonny recalls. “And he’s [producer Glen Ballard] like, ‘I got just the perfect person.’ And here comes little Katy Perry. She’s a little studio rat, she’d just come around, and such a sweet girl. You could tell she came from a good family, and just wanted to show the Jesus tattoo on her wrist, and she was like, ‘I think I saw you guys in a youth rally so many years ago.’ I’m like, ‘That’s so cool.’ But here she was in Hollywood trying to do her thing and make her career.”

Sonny continues, “We’re good friends with her, she’d hang out all the time. She did Jay Leno with us and a couple of other TV shows, and we’d always see her in and out of Hollywood just networking and stuff. And who’d have ever guessed she’d be one of the biggest pop stars in the world right now?”

Check out Katy Perry performing with P.O.D. on The Tonight Show in the clip below, and get a closer look as she appears toward the end of the band’s video for ‘Goodbye For Now’ posted below.

P.O.D. new studio album “The Awakening” has been released on August 21 through Universal.

“The Awakening” features guest appearances by Maria Brink from In This Moment and Lou Koller from legendary hardcore punk act Sick Of It All. The disc was recorded with longtime producer Howard Benson.

Video below: ‘Goodbye For Now’ (live on The Tonight Show)

Video below: ‘Goodbye For Now’