Perry was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on April 15, 1965.[1] Her father was Alfred Xavier Perry, a musician and engineer of Portuguese descent. Her mother is Marluce Martins Perry, a model and designer of Brazilian descent. Growing up in an artistic and musical household, Perry displayed an interest in music from an early age.[1]
She spent her teenage years in San Diego before moving to San Francisco in 1986 at the age of 21.[2]
Career
1987–89: early career
In San Francisco, Perry lived in a small, windowless room, and would play her guitar and sing her own songs on city streets.[3]Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins, who at the time was also a struggling musician living in San Francisco, later recalled sitting in a room with Perry, who worked as a waitress down the street, performing their original compositions to one another. The two played each other early versions of "Semi-Charmed Life" and "What's Up?", both of which would become massive hits for their respective bands. It would be decades later that Jenkins realized the songs performed in that private session would sell a combined 17 million records.[4]
Perry performed solo at Bay Area clubs and coffeehouses, including Nightbreak,[5] Paradise Lounge,[6][7] DNA Lounge, and The Kennel Club.[8][9][10]
1989–95: 4 Non Blondes
Perry composed her first professional song, entitled "Down On Your Face," and was recruited into the band 4 Non Blondes by its founder Christa Hillhouse in the middle of 1989.[11][2] The band established itself in the San Francisco bar scene, especially lesbian bars, gaining a significant lesbian following.[12][13] In July 1991, the band was signed to Interscope Records.[14]
In 1992, 4 Non Blondes recorded what would be the band's only album, Bigger, Better, Faster, More!, including the song "What's Up?", written by Perry. Unhappy with a re-worked version of the song insisted upon by the album's producer, Perry and the band re-recorded the song like Perry's original demo, with Perry's re-recorded version being used as the final version for the album.[2][15] In March 1993, "What's Up" was released as the album's second single, reaching number one in 10 countries[2] and driving the success of the album, which spent 59 weeks on the Billboard 200 and sold 1.5 million copies between 1992 and 1994.[16]
In late 1994 during the recording of their second album, 4 Non Blondes disbanded. Perry cited dissatisfaction with the first album[12][17] and ongoing creative disagreements between herself and the band.[2] She has also explained that her sexuality had a part to play in her tensions with the group.[16]
1996–1999: solo beginnings
Linda Perry in May 2008
Interscope retained Perry as a solo artist and assembled a production team for her debut album, including Kevin Gilbert,[18]Bill Bottrell, and members of the Tuesday Night Music Club, who had recently produced Sheryl Crow's debut. Released in 1996, In Flight received positive reviews, but was a poor seller. Perry joined Red Fish, Blue Fish for her world tour, supporting such acts as The Who.[citation needed] She promoted her CD with 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[19] and 1998 Bay Area Music Awards, or "Bammies".[citation needed]
In 1999, she released her second solo album, After Hours, on Rockstar Records, and performed as an opening act for Bryan Adams.[citation needed]
2000–2013: production and songwriting
Perry had begun acquiring recording equipment, including a TASCAMDA-88 recorder, Neumann U 67 microphone, and Fairchild 670 compressor. Curious about the new musical technology behind music she was hearing on the radio, she asked a friend. Based on their input, Perry purchased an Akai MPC sampler, and Roland and Korg Tritonsynthesizers, and taught herself to use them, writing her first dance song, "Get the Party Started", in the process. She sent the song to Madonna's manager Guy Oseary, who turned it down.[2]
In 2000, Perry was contacted by pop rock singer Pink, seeking production and songwriting assistance on her second album, Missundaztood.[20]
Perry co-wrote and produced much of the album, including full writing credits for the songs "Lonely Girl" and "Get the Party Started", which was released as the album's lead single and became Pink's biggest hit to date. The album's worldwide commercial and critical success brought Perry back into the spotlight as a music producer and songwriter. The following year, Perry produced for Christina Aguilera another song she had written, "Beautiful", another worldwide commercial success.[2]
In 2005, Perry re-released her solo album In Flight. The same year, she began working with Christina Aguilera on her third studio album, Back to Basics (2006), co-writing with Aguilera every song on the album's second disc. In late 2006 and early 2007, Perry contributed production and songwriting to Vanessa Carlton's third studio album, Heroes and Thieves.[citation needed]
Perry won an award from the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy for her contribution to the world of music.[citation needed]
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. 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".[27]
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.[28][29][30] 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.[31] The band released the album in March 2011 and began touring.
In July 2011, Perry started to publish a set of acoustic cover songs that she recorded with her iPhone, including "Mad World" by Tears for Fears, "Just What I Needed" by the Cars, and "Creep" by Radiohead, among many others. 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 :)"[32]
2014–present: recent career
In 2014, Perry appeared in the VH1 reality television show Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project, in which she worked with up-and-coming musicians, like VanJess and winner Hemming.[33]
Perry was scheduled to appear as the house band in a special series of late night editions of The Talk airing the week of January 12, 2015 in the 12:34 am time slot of The Late Late Show.[34]
Perry co-wrote a song with Adele for her 2015 album 25 titled "Can't Let Go" which was included as a bonus track on the Target and Japanese editions. Perry played piano, produced and engineered the track.[35] She also wrote the theme song for the film Freeheld titled "Hands of Love," performed by Miley Cyrus.
Perry with her now ex-wife Sara Gilbert at the Los Angeles LGBT Center's An Evening with Women event in 2014
Perry moved from San Diego to San Francisco and lived there until 1997, moving to Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles.[46]
Perry is a lesbian. In 1995, she told a journalist from The Advocate, "All my life I've loved women, and that's it. I've never been any other way."[47] Earlier at the 1994 Billboard Music Awards she displayed the slang word "dyke" on her guitar for a performance with 4 Non Blondes.[48]
Perry began a relationship with actress Sara Gilbert in 2011.[52][53] They announced their engagement in April 2013 and married on March 30, 2014.[54] Gilbert gave birth to their son on February 28, 2015. Perry was the stepmother of Gilbert's son and daughter from a previous relationship with television producer Ali Adler.[55][56] In December 2019, Gilbert filed for legal separation from Perry.[57][58]
Discography
Solo works
Albums
List of albums, with selected details and chart positions
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