Linda Perry, born April 15,
1965, in Springfield, Massachusetts
, to parents of Portuguese and Brazilian descent, is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record
producer. Once best known as the lead singer and primary
songwriter of
4 Non Blondes, Perry has
founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and
producer responsible for hit songs by a number of successful female
singers such as
Christina
Aguilera (who had a #1 hit with Perry's song "
Beautiful"),
Gwen Stefani ("What You Waiting For" from her
album
Love Angel Music
Baby) and
Pink (who had a #1
hit with "
Get the Party
Started", written by Perry). Perry has also contributed heavily
to albums by
Courtney Love and
Kelly Osbourne as well as signing and
distributing
James Blunt in the United
States.
Biography
Linda Perry was raised in a large family that comprised her mother
and father and six siblings -five brothers (Jay, Solomon, Mark,
Marcel, and John) and one sister (Sally). Her Brazilian-born
mother, Marluce Perry, worked as a model, designer, and private
detective. Her Portuguese-American father, Alfred Xavier Perry
(1928–2005), worked as both an engineer and a musician. She spent
her youth struggling with kidney disease and then addiction before
focusing on music. Growing up in an artistic and musical household,
the young Perry displayed a good share of musical talent and
interest from an early age. Her first song was "
Pity Girls" at the age of 15 (according to an
interview from
ASCAP in the middle of
2003).
Career
Linda came to San Francisco at the age of 21 in early 1987.
Although
she had been involved in music and pursued some sort of musical
interest while a teenager in San Diego
, starting out playing the guitar and auditioning for all-girl cover bands, her
arrival in San Francisco marked the actual beginning of her career
in music. Waiting tables, doing coat check, and working at a
pizzeria, she lived in a very small room without a window and would
play her guitar and sing her own songs out on the street in the
city. People started recognizing her as "that chick with the big
voice."
After some time spent paying dues as a solo singer at Bay Area (San
Francisco) clubs and coffeehouses, Perry composed her first
professional song, called "
Down On
Your Face", and was recruited into the band
4 Non Blondes by its founder
Christa Hillhouse in the middle of
1989. After several years of playing
locally and negotiating with various
record companies, the band finally signed
with
Interscope Records and
released its debut album,
Bigger, Better, Faster,
More!, in late
1992. The
album, featuring Perry as lead singer and dominated by her
compositions, was an immediate success and spawned a hit single,
the Perry-penned "
What's Up?"
(often erroneously called "What's Going On?", since that line is
sung repeatedly in the chorus).
While promoting the song, Perry was touring around the world and
displayed the word
"dyke" on her guitar
for a performance on
the 1994 Billboard Music
Awards . She has always been openly
lesbian. In May 2009 she announced she was dating
Cybill Shepherd's daughter,
Clementine Ford .
In February 1994, Perry had a solo appearance in
Roger Daltrey's production, album and video
A
Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who.
She shared
the stage with the Juilliard
Orchestra and members of The
Who as she sang "Doctor Jimmy",
"Acid Queen", "I'm Free" (in a duet with Roger
Daltrey) and the encore for "Join
Together" with original The Who members John Entwistle and Pete Townshend. In 1994 a CD and a VHS
video of the shows were issued with the songs "Doctor Jimmy" and
"I'm Free", but in 1998 a DVD was released with the song "I'm Free"
only.
In June 1994 the guitarist
Roger Rocha
was replaced by
Concrete Blonde
member
Jim Mankey, who had just played
for
Van Halen's cover
I'm The One recorded as the theme from the
movie
Airheads. During sessions at
Interscope studios in Los Angeles, the band
struggled to come up with a followup to
Bigger, but Perry
left the band during the attempt to pursue a solo career. The band
recorded one last video, for a cover of
Led
Zeppelin's "
Misty Mountain
Hop" with
Dave Navarro on
guitar.
Solo career
With the band in disarray and the recording contract unfulfilled,
Interscope reluctantly allowed Linda Perry to make a solo CD while
dropping the rest of the band. Interscope insisted on choosing the
producer for the album, and the production team behind it was
Bill Bottrell and members of the
Tuesday Night Music Club,
who had recently been successful producing
Sheryl Crow's debut. Released in
1996, the CD,
In Flight, was an
atmospherically appealing work—moody, mellow and at times dark, far
removed from the sound of 4 Non Blondes. The release received
critical acclaim but was a poor seller, perhaps because of
Interscope's lack of promotion. Linda hooked up with
Red Fish, Blue Fish for her world tour,
supporting such acts as the Who. She promoted her CD with her own
funds, including from an appearance on
The Howard Stern Show, wherein
she participated in "lesbian dial-a-date" and performed her former
band's one and only hit single, "What's Up?", for Howard. Perry
also took time out to host and appear at the 1997 and 1998 Bammies
(
Bay Area Music Awards).
In 1997 Perry took on two new ventures, producing a movie called
Pink as the Day She Was
Born, which featured cameos by
Les
Claypool of
Primus and comedian
Margaret Cho. Perry was displeased with
what she experienced in the music business, so she also launched
her own record label,
Rockstar
Records, for the primary purpose of releasing the CD of a band
she loved called
Stone Fox. In
addition to Stone Fox, she signed another local San Francisco band,
2 Lane Blacktop. The year 1998 saw
Perry appearing and performing on
CNN as part of
a special on music and the
Internet—how
independent artists are cutting out the major labels. In 1999 she
released her second solo effort on Rockstar Records entitled
After
Hours. For the rest of 1999, she opened for Brian Adams,
reuniting with 4 Non Blondes' bassist Christa Hillhouse, then
toured behind
After Hours, with Hillhouse and San
Francisco-based drummer Claudia Page.
In 2001 Perry again returned to music and touring. She had written
new material and hoped to secure a major label contract. She had
decided to take this route because, as an independent artist, most
of her time was spent in the office instead of on the stage. During
this period, she wrote a handful of songs, two of which,
"Beautiful" and "Cruz", would eventually be recorded and appear on
Christina Aguilera's hit album
Stripped. In 2001 she closed most
of her shows with "Beautiful", a song she hoped would be her own
comeback hit.
In
2002 Perry made a rare live
performance at the
Knitting Factory
in Los Angeles, where she performed a set of original music and a
set of Zeppelin covers. There she was cheered on by a full house of
fans and critics, who witnessed Pink joining her for "Lonely Girl"
and Aguilera debuting "Beautiful." Also in 2002, she made an
appearance on a solo record of
Gordon
Gano entitled
Hitting the
Ground, performing a song entitled
So It
Goes.
Perry made a live appearance at a
DKNY benefit
show in Los Angeles, where she joined
Slash on stage for a version of Led
Zeppelin's "
Whole Lotta
Love."
2005 marked Linda Perry's first official set performance since
2002's Hollywood Knitting Factory Show. She was a performer at
ASCAP's showcase at the
Sundance
Film Festival.
Perry has signed with indie
Kill Rock
Stars Records, who re-released her solo album
In
Flight in October. Featuring new artwork, the re-release
includes original videos for "Fill Me Up" and "Freeway."
Additionally, Perry promoted
In Flight with three rare
live performances on the west coast with
Sierra Swan opening.
In 2008 Linda played guitar in the official video for Christina
Aguilera, "Save Me From Myself".
Most recently, Perry has been seen playing live at
Halloweenabaloo, which is brought annually
as a fundraiser/concert/auction by the
Silverlake Conservatory of
Music, which was founded by
Flea, bassist
to the band
Red Hot Chili
Peppers, who are on hiatus as of now.
Songwriting and producing
In 2000 Perry was first contacted by rock-pop singer
P!nk, seeking production and songwriting assistance on
her second album. Perry co-wrote and produced much of Pink's
successful album
Missundaztood, which catapulted Perry
back into the spotlight as one of the best producers in the music
business. Perry took full writing credits for the songs "Get the
Party Started" and "Lonely Girl".
After success with Pink, Perry's next big project came in the form
of providing
Christina Aguilera a
career makeover with the international hit "
Beautiful". In 2009,
the Lemonheads included "Beautiful"
as a track on their
covers album
Varshons.
Since then, she has gone on to work with many artists, including
Jewel,
Courtney Love,
Gwen
Stefani,
Blaque,
Vanessa Carlton,
Sugababes,
Lillix,
Robbie Williams,
Melissa Etheridge,
Sierra Swan,
Solange
Knowles,
Gavin Rossdale,
Juliette and the Licks,
Lisa Marie Presley,
Fischerspooner,
Unwritten Law,
L.P.,
Britney
Spears,
Kelly Osbourne,
James Blunt, Cheap Trick,
Ben Jelen,
Enrique
Iglesias and
Giusy Ferreri.
The 2002
Faith Hill album
Cry has a song co-written by
Perry and Alecia B. Moore (
P!nk).
In
2003, Perry was recognized with two
awards by ASCAP (music publishing society) for her songwriting and
a
Grammy Awards nomination for her
song "Beautiful" as a contender for "Song of the Year"; the song
received the award for
Best Female Pop Vocal
Performance at the
2004 Grammy
Awards.
With actress
Gina Gershon, she wrote
the song "StupidStar" for the movie
Prey for Rock and Roll.
With
Brooklyn
rocker L.P.,
she co-wrote "The Darkside".
For most of 2004, Perry remained behind the scenes, making another
appearance with Camp Freddy, this time at LA's Live 103's Birthday
Concert. She again belted some Zeppelin and then joined Lisa Marie
Presley on stage for a few songs that they wrote together. Also
appearing at the show was
Juliette
Lewis and
Billie Joe
Armstrong of
Green Day.
The year 2004 also saw the release of Courtney Love's solo
America's Sweetheart,
to which Perry heavily contributed. Although the album was mostly
overshadowed by Love's turbulent antics, Perry was critically
appreciated both by the press and by Love.
A song called "Girls & Boys", which was originally intended for
Pink but later recorded by
Britney
Spears, was released as a bonus track on Spears' European DVD
release. The track marked Perry's foray into more
electroclash-inspired tunes.
She collaborated with art-dance duo Fischerspooner on a few songs
for their upcoming release and ended the year with a few co-writing
credits on Gwen Stefani's debut,
Love. Angel. Music. Baby., including the album's
first single, "
What You Waiting
For?" Additionally, her Atlantic-distributed label,
Custard Records, was launched to promote two
new acts, Sunshine and James Blunt. She produced and played guitar
on the recording of Blunt's song "No Bravery."
The year ended with Perry co-writing "Save Me" for Southern Cali
punkrockers Unwritten Law, which helped build anticipation for the
group's upcoming CD.
Perry contributed widely to Christina Aguilera's latest album
Back to
Basics. Perry was involved more in the production of the second
disc of the album, which featured songs like "
Candyman", and "
Hurt". Perry co-wrote every
song on the disc.
Releases for 2005 included Kelly Osbourne's second album, which was
written and produced by Perry. The lead track from Osbourne's
second album, "
One Word", reached the top
of the UK and USA dance charts.
2007 saw Perry working with Vanessa Carlton on her third studio
album,
Heroes and
Thieves. She also co-wrote and did session work on many of
the songs on Sierra Swan's solo album,
Ladyland. A new release from Courtney Love. A
fresh collaboration with Hip-Hop chanteuse
Kelis, co-writes with Cheap Trick and Ziggy Marley.
Production on Ben Jelen's new album; production on
Skin's next record. There are also
collaborations with
The Format on the
song "Dead End" from their
Dog
Problems album and "Darker Side of The Moon" on Bay Area
artist
Goapele's
Change It All
album, and a couple of songs for the new Enrique Iglesias
album.
In 2007 Linda Perry was recognized with an award from the San
Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy for her contribution to
the world of music. The years 2007 and 2008 saw more tunes written
and/or produced by Linda Perry: The Section Quartet, Alicia Keys,
Vanessa Carlton, Gina Gershon, and the anticipated release of
Courtney Love's second solo record.
Discography
Solo works
Albums
Compilation Credits
Soundtracks
The Crow: City Of Angels (1996), Hollywood Records (August
30, 1996)
- "Knock Me Out" Linda Perry (featuring Grace Slick)
Production and songwriting
Other Appearances
"Weak With Love" Guitar and Backing Vocals by Linda Perry
"Lonely Girl" featuring Linda Perry
"So It Goes" Music and Lyrics by Gordon Gano, Vocals by Linda Perry
also featuring
Frank Ferrer
"Stupid Star" performed by
Gina
Gershon, Linda Perry &
Patty
Schemel
"Happy" Additional Vocals by Linda Perry
"Enter The Circus" performed by Linda Perry (uncredited)
"Chompin' On A Bit" performed by Planet Swan featuring Linda Perry
&
Sierra Swan
"Paranoid Android" Operatic Vocals by Linda Perry
"Superstar" & "Race With Time" Backing Vocals by Linda Perry
"Am I Still The One?" performed by Daniel Powter with Linda
Perry
Singles produced or written by Linda Perry
References
- Liner notes from Back to Bedlam
External links
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