Linda Perry

All Music Guide:

Born on April 15, 1965, in Springfield, MA, Linda Perry 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. During her teenage years, Perry floundered in school and tried unsuccessfully to form several bands in the San Diego area. A drug problem prevented the singer/guitarist from starting off her career at an early age, but after a few close calls and a move to San Fransisco in the late '80s, she cleaned up and began making some real artistic and professional gains. During this period, Perry discovered and refined her powerful singing voice. Part Grace Slick, part Johnnette Napolitano, but unique in her own right and a little quirky, it didn't take long before Perry's solo performances at various Bay Area nightclubs were attracting the attention of scenesters and fellow musicians. One such musician was Christa Hillhouse, who was in quest of a new lead vocalist for her group 4 Non Blondes. Hillhouse asked Perry to join up with her outfit, which also included Shauna Hall and Wanda Day. Perry agreed to give it a try and it wasn't long before 4 Non Blondes were being courted and eventually signed by Interscope Records. The group's debut, Bigger, Better, Faster, More, was released on Interscope in 1992. After a very slow start sales-wise, the David Tickle-produced album began to break in 1993 when a modern rock disc jockey in Las Vegas began spinning "What's Up?" Interscope then began pushing the song, which had by this time developed a life of its own. A video was produced and MTV took an immediate and prolonged shine it, giving the band massive exposure. As "What's Up?" became a huge international hit, 4 Non Blondes seemed to be everywhere. During a period of about two years, Perry and her bandmates appeared on the Airheads and Wayne's World 2 soundtracks, released two more singles and accompanying videos (for "Spaceman" and "Dear Mr. President"), toured the globe, appeared on Carpenters and Led Zeppelin tribute releases, and finally appeared on Roger Daltrey's televised 50th birthday party, which ended up being their final performance. While working on their follow-up to the six-million-unit-selling Bigger, Better, Faster, More, Perry left the group due to personal problems within the band. After departing 4 Non Blondes, Perry began work on some solo material and formed her own label, Rockstar Records, which later signed Stone Fox and 2 Lane Blacktop. Perry also began a producing and session career by joining Stone Fox in the studio and helping out on former Bangle Susanna Hoffs' self-titled solo disc. Perry herself was joined by the likes of Grace Slick, Lisa Germano, and Sheryl Crow producer Bill Bottrell on In Flight, her 1996 solo debut. Darker, and more dynamic than her work with 4 Non Blondes, Perry came into her own as an artist on this exceptional recording. Released on Interscope, In Flight was perhaps too dour or sincere to capitalize on the alt-pop success of 4 Non Blondes and the record was hardly noticed by critics, radio, or fans. After In Flight, Perry moved to Southern California and continued working on production and film projects, as well as running her label. In 1999, she released her second solo effort, the stripped-down, almost bluesy After Hours. A fine vocalist, writer, and musician, Linda Perry has led a serious and occasionally subversive career, punctuated by her individualism and sense of artistic purpose.

Wikipedia:

Linda Perry (born April 15, 1965) is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer. Once known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, Perry has founded two record labels, composing and producing hit songs for several other successful female singers. They include Pink, whom she mentored, and who had a Number 1 hit with Perry's "Get the Party Started". Others include Christina Aguilera (who had a number 2 hit with Perry's "Beautiful"), Gwen Stefani ("What You Waiting For?" from her album Love. Angel. Music. Baby.), and Grace Slick ("Knock Me Out"). 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.

Early life [edit]

Linda Perry was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of the late Portuguese-American Alfred Xavier Perry (1928-2005), an engineer and a musician, and Brazilian-born Marluce Perry. Her mother has worked as a model, designer, and private detective. Linda has six siblings: five brothers (Jay, Solomon, Mark, Marcel, and John) and a sister (Sally).

During Perry's youth she struggled with kidney disease and then addiction before focusing on music. Growing up in an artistic and musical household, Perry displayed musical talent and interest from an early age. Her first song was "Pity Girls", written when she was 15 (according to a 2003 interview with ASCAP).

Career [edit]

1987–1989: Early career [edit]

In early 1986, at the age of 21, Perry moved to San Francisco. As a teenager in San Diego, she had pursued an interest in music, playing the guitar and auditioning for all-girl cover bands. Her arrival in San Francisco would mark the beginning of a career in music, though not before waiting tables, working coat-check, and working at a pizzeria. In San Francisco, Linda lived in a small, windowless room, and would play her guitar and sing her own songs on city streets. Eventually, people began to recognize her as "that chick with the big voice."

1989–1995: 4 Non Blondes [edit]

After some time spent paying her 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! released on Oct 9th 1992, 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 at 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", while in 1998 a DVD was released with the song "I'm Free" only.

In June 1994, 4 Non Blondes 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, and 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.

In a 2011 Rolling Stone interview, while promoting her most recent band, Deep Dark Robot, Perry was quoted saying, "I wasn't really a big fan of my band" due to the "fluffy polished bullshit" sound of Bigger, Better, Faster, More!

1996–2001: Solo career [edit]

With the band in disarray and the recording contract unfulfilled, Interscope reluctantly allowed Perry to make a solo CD, dropping the rest of the band. Interscope insisted on choosing the album's producer; the production team selected was Bill Bottrell and members of the Tuesday Night Music Club, who had recently produced Sheryl Crow's debut. Released in 1996, In Flight was moody, mellow and, at times, dark, far removed from the 4 Non Blondes sound. The release received positive notices, but was a poor seller. Perry joined Red Fish, Blue Fish for her world tour, supporting such acts as The Who. She promoted her CD with her own funds, including an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, during which she participated in "lesbian dial-a-date" and performed her former band's only hit single, "What's Up?". Perry also hosted the 1997 and 1998 Bammies (Bay Area Music Awards).

In 1997, Perry produced a film, Pink as the Day She Was Born, featuring cameos by Les Claypool of Primus and comedian Margaret Cho. She also launched her own record label, Rockstar Records, for the primary purpose of releasing a CD of band Stone Fox. In addition, 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 album on Rockstar Records, After Hours. For the rest of 1999, she opened for Bryan 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 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. Also in 2002, she made an appearance on a solo record of Gordon Gano, Hitting the Ground, performing the song "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".

In 2005, Perry was a performer at ASCAP's showcase at the Sundance Film Festival. In August 2006, she played piano on Christina Aguilera's performance of "Hurt" at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Perry has signed with the independent label Kill Rock Stars Records, who re-released her solo album In Flight in October 2005. Featuring new artwork, the re-release includes original videos for "Fill Me Up" and "Freeway". In 2008, Perry played guitar in the video for Christina Aguilera's "Save Me From Myself".

Perry made a live appearance at "Hope For Haiti Now" playing piano while Aguilera premiered a stripped-down version of their song "Lift Me Up". She also made guest appearances on Hole's "Nobody's Daughter" tour and on a concert of the Perry-signed band Little Fish in London. In May 2010, Perry again hosted the "Evening with Women" at L.A.'s Gay and Lesbian Centre, where she reunited with P!nk for a live duet of Perry's song "What's Up?" Christina Aguilera invited Perry to her VH1 Storytellers concert in May 2010. Perry played piano to Aguilera's "Beautiful" and talked about the song.

On November 5, 2010, Perry appeared live in San Francisco with 4 Non Blondes guitar player Roger Rocha at TwentyFifty (formerly CELLSpace). The appearance celebrated the release of Rocha's album with his band The Golden Hearts. It was the first time in 20 years the two had appeared together live. Perry performed a solo set of cover tunes, including Radiohead's "Creep" and Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun". Perry and Roger Rocha performed one song together, Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You".

2001–present: Production and songwriting [edit]

In 2000, Perry was contacted by pop rock singer P!nk, seeking production and songwriting assistance on her second album. Perry commented on the experience in an interview with HitQuarters: "She was this white girl singing R&B music, and it made absolutely no sense to me why she would call me. So when I got together with her my instinct said, 'Don’t go and be an artist again, don’t get another record deal, find out what you can do with her.' My manager freaked out when I called her and said, cancel all the showcases!" Perry co-wrote and produced much of Pink's successful album Missundaztood, which brought Perry back into the spotlight as a music producer. Perry took full writing credits for the songs "Get the Party Started" and "Lonely Girl". Perry next provided Christina Aguilera the hit "Beautiful".

Since then, she has gone on to work with many artists, including Jewel, Courtney Love, Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Blaque, Sugababes, Lillix, Robbie Williams, Melissa Etheridge, Sierra Swan, Solange Knowles, Gavin Rossdale, Juliette and the Licks, Lisa Marie Presley, Fischerspooner, Unwritten Law, L.P., 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 won two ASCAP awards 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 Lo Anglees' Live 103's Birthday Concert. She joined Lisa Marie Presley on stage for songs they wrote together. The year 2004 also saw the release of Courtney Love's solo America's Sweetheart, to which Perry heavily contributed.

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 the southern California punk rock band Unwritten Law.

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 US dance charts. The song plagiarized Visage's 1980 hit "Fade to Grey" and Perry was forced to credit the writers of that song and pay them royalties.

Perry contributed to Christina Aguilera's third studio album, Back to Basics (2006). Perry and Aguilera co-wrote every song.

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. She continued work with Courtney Love, Kelis, Cheap Trick, Ziggy Marley,Ben Jelen, Skin, Enrique Iglesias, The Format on the song "Dead End", and "Darker Side of The Moon" on Bay Area artist Goapele's Change It All album.

In 2007, Perry won 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 or produced by Linda Perry: The Section Quartet, Alicia Keys, Vanessa Carlton, and Gina Gershon.

In 2008, Perry signed the group Little Fish to her label and began producing its album, titled Baffled and Beat, which was released in August 2010.

In 2009, Perry wrote and produced "A Loaded Smile" for the debut album For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert. Aguilera's fourth studio album, Bionic, released in 2010, included another track, written and produced solely by Perry, "Lift Me Up".

In June 2010, Perry announced on her Facebook and Twitter profiles that she was "going to make an album" with her new band Deep Dark Robot, which she founded with Tony Tornay. The album, 8 Songs About a Girl, was promoted with the single "Won't You Be My Girl?". Perry imagined the name Deep Dark Robot as part of an ad-libbed song lyric—"deep dark robot falling in love"—and decided to hang onto the name for her next musical project. The band released the album in March 2011 and began touring. Tour dates included South by Southwest in Austin, TX and Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY. Opening acts have included Cassette Kids and Mother Feather. In 2010 Perry also Worker with Rivers Cuomo and Weezer on their song Brave New World.

In 2010 and 2011, Perry, along with Fox Entertainment Group, was the Presenting Sponsor of the Los Angeles talent show STARFEST, benefiting The L.A.C.E.R. Afterschool Programs.

iPhone sessions [edit]

In July, Perry started to publish a set of acoustic cover songs that she recorded with her iPhone. So far she has uploaded recordings of the following songs:

On her Facebook account, she wrote:

"Iphone sessions are me sitting at my piano an recording song into iphone voice memo. Then I post it. very simple enjoy :)"

Personal life [edit]

She began a relationship with Sara Gilbert in 2011. On April 8, 2013, it was revealed that Perry and Gilbert were engaged.

Awards [edit]