Interview with Linda Perry
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Linda Perry
Singer, songwriter and producer from Springfield, Massachusetts. She led 4 Non Blondes on What's Up?, wrote Beautiful for Christina Aguilera and wrote songs for the film Dumplin' (2018).
Source: scott cowie on YouTube
These answers are taken from Talk Music Podcast - Scott Cowie interviews Linda Perry EP 118 on scott cowie's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was a great moment for you as a musician?
Bruce Sugar, who is Ringo's producer, reached out and said that him and Ringo were talking about me, and felt that I'm one of the best songwriters out there and that we should get a song from me. And I was like, first of all, back up: you and Ringo were talking about me? So of course I said yes. One day I was leaving work, and I started walking out my door, and I went back in. I just literally wrote this whole song, demoed it down really quick, played bass, put guitars, super fast. Sent it along, and then I get a phone call back from Ringo a few days later saying, you speak my words, that's exactly who I am. The song's called Coming Undone.
And this was the best compliment ever. They're like, "This song is amazing. First of all, who's playing bass? Because that is incredible feel. Whoever's playing bass, we want to keep that." And I started laughing and go, "That was me, just getting the song down." Mind you, Paul McCartney is the best bass player ever, and to get Ringo Starr, who played with the best bass player ever, to say that about my feel, that was it. They kept everything I did. I didn't just write the song. I got to sing with Ringo and play bass with Ringo.
What advice do you have for new musicians?
Get in front of that microphone and just not know what you're doing. Whatever's at the top of your head, whether it's good or not, it doesn't matter. It's getting the comfort of exploring the possibilities of what you're capable of doing without knowing what you're doing. The most brilliant people in the world, the biggest scholars, the best poets, the best storytellers in the world, cannot sit down and create something more genius than what's going to come out of your unconscious mind.
This business incubates doubt. Labels don't know what they're doing or talking about, but because they're the label, they act like they know everything, and it creates doubt in the artist: wait, they're the label, they've been doing this forever, they must know what they're talking about. And the truth is they don't, half the time. Every artist needs to be catered to differently.
How do you keep communication clear with the band and the people you record with?
I don't allow management. I don't allow posses. Those people are not allowed in my studio. All that is distraction.
It goes back to my honesty. I'm not a bulls***ter. I don't care who walks through the door. I'm not an ass kisser. I'm not going to tell people what they want to hear. I'm going to tell them what I feel they need to hear. So it makes me safe, because I don't have an agenda. My intention is just to make people feel comfortable and creative, and in order to be creative and comfortable, you have to feel safe in your environment. I just supply that safety.
And I talk to them. I don't just whip out, here's the song by Linda Perry, sing it exactly like this. I'm not Dr. Luke. I don't sit there and formulate music: here's the BPM. He's great at doing that stuff, but that's not who I am. I start from scratch. I want to know about the artist. I want to hear what's on their mind. I want to know what's troubling them. And then as they're talking, I'll pick up a guitar, and there's something in their tone, and I'm like, it's time, the song is here. I put the microphone in front of them and get them to ad-lib.
Who is your favorite musician, and why?
Help, still today, when I hear that melody and hear that song, it emotionally triggers something in me. When I really discovered the Beatles, I was five, six years old, and I had a hard upbringing. For some reason that song just hit me, because of the word help, because I felt like inside I'm screaming that. And melodically, just how simple. That's the beautiful thing about the Beatles. A lot of the songs were super simple but melodically complicated, and lyrically very adventurous about taking you somewhere different than the obvious.
The Joker soundtrack is my favorite ever. Hildur nailed it, because what she did I rarely see in films. She nailed his theme, his character. When he evolved, the music evolved with the character. It was so eerie and powerful and beautiful, every single time he had a transformation. That was a true collaboration. She didn't just earn best composer. That was best supporting actor. That's what a supporting actor is supposed to do with the main character, but she played that part.
Describe your style.
I don't plan a song. They all come that way. I've never pre-written a lyric. I've never said, okay, today I'm going to do F, A, G minor, and then I'm going to switch to F. I don't do that. I just go, oh, that sounds weird, whatever, I'm still gonna do it. I just go with it. If the chords feel right, I just start singing, and then the lyrics, the melody, everything, the arrangement, it all comes at the same time.
This whole conversation we've been having has been ad-libbed. Did you plan on having this conversation? No. All my answers are just coming from the top of my head, from my heart. So to me, that's what music is. Music is exactly that.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
Christina had a booming career with Genie in a Bottle and What a Girl Wants. It was light-hearted, it wasn't deep, but she had this really incredible voice. When I met her, I said, "You should use your depression and darkness on your next album." She looked at me like, who the f*** are you? I'm like, "Listen, everybody knows you can sing, but nobody knows that you can feel what you're actually singing." Her people reached out a week later, and she came over by herself, and she was nervous. She said, "Do you think you can play me something to break the ice?" I had just written Beautiful and done the finishing touches on it, so I played that to her. When I was done, she was like, "Can I get a demo of that? I would like to have that song on my album." That wasn't up for grabs at the time.
I let her sing it, and as soon as she started I could tell she was nervous, she was vulnerable, and her emotion was on point. At the very beginning, you can hear on the microphone she's whispering to her friend. I knew right there: this girl's vulnerable, I'm keeping that, and this song is definitely hers. Eighty percent of that vocal is her first take.
Linda Perry's Full Biography
Linda Perry was born on 15 April 1965 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. She is a music artist and composer, known for Dumplin' (2018), Luckiest Girl Alive (2022) and Madame Web (2024). She was previously married to Sara Gilbert.