While speaking to NME recently, Linda Perry revealed that she once had to tell Billy Corgan to leave the studio while working with Courtney Love.
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’.
In her recent Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! interview with NME, Perry opened up about working with Love in particular, with whom she collaborated on her 2004 solo album ‘America’s Sweetheart’ and Hole’s 2010 LP ‘Nobody’s Daughter’.
Describing Love as an “incredibly intelligent woman”, Perry recalled: “We were working on a record once when Billy Corgan came in and he was a Debbie Downer and ruining the vibe.
“Courtney and Billy have incredible history together, but my band said, ‘We can’t continue with this guy’. Finally, I went into the control room, looked at Billy and said: ‘You gotta go, man’,” she continued.
Perry went on to say: “As Courtney’s eyes bulged, I said: ‘You’re walking around like you’re God’s gift to fucking rock’n’roll. You’ve got bad energy. I want you out of my studio’. Billy was shocked and left.”
Perry added that Courtney “couldn’t believe” she had kicked him out and thought it was “ballsy”.
“Then I realised: ‘Oh, she’s a pussy!’ Courtney acts like this tough person – and she is. She’s very intimidating, but really she is a bottom,” Perry continued. “She wants to be kind and wants a hug and she’s very gentle, but she has an armour she puts up.
“I love her and have had amazing experiences with her. The world needs Courtney Love back and I can’t wait for her new record because there isn’t anyone else like her.”
Elsewhere in her interview with NME, Perry hit out at Green Day for dropping her from producing the follow-up to the seminal ‘American Idiot’.
The revelation came from Love, who had once claimed that Perry was set to produce the album. “Then Courtney blabbed her mouth that I was producing,” Perry told us. “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.”
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.”
That interview also saw her speak about the return of the hit ’90s band, and reveal that they have a new album on the way –their first in over three decades – called ‘1994’.