Nicole Richie almost ruined Ke$ha’s musical career before it even started.

Five years ago Ke$ha was still Kesha Sebert and still living in Tennessee with her family.

Her mother, Pebe, a singer/songwriter who wrote Dolly Parton’s 1980 country No.1 Old Flames, saw an ad in the local paper seeking “eccentric families”.

“My family is literally the most eccentric family in Tennessee,” Ke$ha, 22, says.

The ad was placed by the producers of The Simple Life, the reality show that starred Richie and Paris Hilton. Soon the Hollywood starlets were staying at Sebert HQ for three days in 2005.

“It was retarded,” Ke$ha says of the experience. “Stupid, really stupid.”

The stint has suddenly found its second wind on YouTube.

Even though she was only a teenager at that point, Ke$ha was already writing songs and hunting for a record deal.

Her demo tape had made its way to Dr Luke, the Swedish songwriter behind hits for Kelly Clarkson (Since U Been Gone), Katy Perry (I Kissed a Girl) and Pink (Who Knew).

He called the Seberts’ house at the worst time possible - a petulant pre-motherhood Nicole Richie answered.

“She hung up on him,” Ke$ha recalls. “She said ‘Oh, it was just some guy’. Thank God he called back. She could have ruined everything, that bitch! Luckily she didn’t.”

Luke saw something special in Ke$ha. He flew her to New York and Los Angeles for recording sessions, grooming her for stardom.

Ke$ha wrote more than 200 songs during this period. One, This Love, became a hit for the Veronicas; another, Time of Our Lives, was recorded by Miley Cyrus.

She also reconnected with Hilton, recording backing vocals for the heiress’s single Nothing in This World and, through a series of random events, Ke$ha admits, “I puked in Paris’s closet”.

Is she still in contact with Paris or Nicole?

“Hell no!”

Watch KE$HA ON THE SIMPLE LIFE