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While speaking to NME recently, Linda Perry hit out at Green Day for dropping her from producing ‘American Idiot’ follow-up ’21st Century Breakdown’.
As well as fronting the legendary ‘90s band 4 Non Blondes, singer, producer and label owner Perry has penned countless platinum-selling albums and songs over the years, including Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’, Gwen Stefani’s ‘What You Waiting For?’ and P!nk’s ‘Get the Party Started’.
Courtney Love – who Perry described as an “incredibly intelligent woman” in her recent Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! interview with NME – once claimed that Perry was also set to produce the follow-up to Green Day’s 2004 classic ‘American Idiot’.
When we asked if there was any truth to that, Perry said the band had indeed reached out and asked her to produce their next record. “I had a full calendar and cancelled six months of work to do it,” she recalled. “I met with Billie Joe [Armstrong], and we talked for three hours […] Like every artist, I think he had got to a point where you feel like I have nothing to say and need help – there’s a therapy aspect to producing too.”
“Then Courtney blabbed her mouth that I was producing. Suddenly they started getting backlash from their fans, upset they were ‘bringing in Linda Perry, who produced Pink and Christina Aguilera’.
“And then those guys just stopped calling me,” Perry continued. “I would reach out to figure out what was going on. Nobody called. I lost six months of scheduled work. That was fucked-up – all because Billie-Joe’s a little pussy and got all this backlash from his fans and didn’t like it.”
At the time, Green Day’s management shared a statement denying claims Perry was meant to produce, and told fans the band was sticking with producer Rob Cavallo, although they ultimately went with Butch Vig.
“Whatever! I’m good with it, but it was harsh and rude to do that,” Perry continued. “Just call me and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to go a different way. I’m not digging this backlash we’re getting.’ Just balls-up, man. Not returning my calls was such a pussy move, and I lost a lot of respect for Billie Joe.
“It happened because I was a woman and I’d written pop songs. I was disappointed in those guys, and then I was mad at Courtney because if she would have just shut up, we would have made the record and it would have come out and it would have spoken for itself. I had a vision and knew I was going to kill that record.”
Elsewhere in her NME interview, Perry said one thing she found strange was that Green Day recorded their albums separately. “Billie would do his part, then Mike [Dirnt, bassist] would come in, and then Tré [Cool] would come in, but they didn’t record together,” she explained.
“I suggested they set up in a little circle and they should go ‘60s, and I put a playlist together. [1960s rock band] Love was one of the inspirations on there.” As Perry pointed out, they later made a ‘60s-inspired record under a different name with 2008’s ‘Stop Drop and Roll!!!’, which was released under the moniker Foxboro Hot Tubs.
Having reunited with the 4 Non Blondes last year and recently announcing their first UK live show in 30 years, Perry caught up with NME at the Ivor Novello Awards, where she was awarded the Special International Award – joining an impressive list of past winners including The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, Bon Jovi and Shakira.
On the red carpet, she shared her gratitude at receiving the honour, and said that after three decades in the music industry, she believes that the secret to making a hit song is creating it from a place of authenticity.
When asked if there are any songs from her own catalogue that she thinks may have been overlooked, she told NME: “Yeah, tonnes… but I’m going to release that as a record! I’m actually planning on releasing an album of all the songs that didn’t make it, so you’ll hear about that more soon.”
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