LOS ANGELES — In January, a month after her most recent stint in rehab, Demi Lovato drove the final stake into the heart of her child-star past.
At her home studio in Los Angeles, Lovato posed for a photo with representatives from her record label and management team, led by Scooter Braun, who were all, incidentally, dressed in black. At the center of the picture sat Lovato, raising two middle fingers to the camera; “a funeral for my pop music,” she captioned the image on Instagram.
Almost eight months later, inside a black-box rehearsal studio in Burbank, Lovato quietly strums a cream-shellacked Gibson electric guitar, her face obscured under her Joan Jett shag cut. Gothic crosses dangle from her ears; she wears a loose pinstripe blazer with a leather-studded collar and shiny Creeper shoes to match. She picks at one of several growing holes in her mangled fishnet stockings.
