She's written hits for everyone else. Now, at 62, Linda Perry is ready for herself

13 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. “I’m such a weirdo, anxiety-ridden, stressed-out control freak. I don’t know how to have fun, so I’m doing my best,” Linda Perry told the crowd at a sold-out Roxy Theatre last December. It was a surprising confession. Minutes earlier, the charismatic frontwoman of 4 Non Blondes had been laughing and smiling with her bandmates, performing new material and a pair of favorites including their 1993 hit “What’s Up?” The group’s reunion, more than three decades in the making, coincides with a new chapter for Perry: her first solo effort since 1996, the self-produced album “Let It Die Here,” and a documentary, “Linda Perry: Let It Die Here.” Today, Perry sits in the control room of her Sherman Oaks recording studio, an eclectic blend of rock and roll and zen. A console features a Daruma doll, a miniature vintage sports car and a tiny replica of Perry holding her child, Rhodes. The main space is filled with musical instruments, a Buddha statue, a Yoda doll, a skull, and glam platform boots perched atop a piano. Photographs of icons like David Bowie, Stevie Nicks and Mick Jagger line the walls. Wearing one of her signature 10-gallon hats, layers of gold chains, a black Depeche Mode T-shirt, baggy faded jeans and brown suede platform boots, Perry exudes the magnetism of a rock star suited for center stage. It feels inevitable that she is stepping back into the spotlight after decades spent writing, co-writing and producing music for others and composing for film and television. Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes at her studio. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Yet Perry, 62, has never truly been in the shadows. Her portfolio spans an exceptional range of some of the biggest names in music — from Christina Aguilera, Dolly Parton and Pink to Ringo Starr, Alicia Keys and Gwen Stefani. She’s written hit songs, received Grammy and Golden Globe nominations and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015. Even so, Perry remains her own harshest critic. Explaining her onstage remarks at the Roxy show last year, she says, “It’s hard to have fun, because I’m controlling and I want to be great at what I do, so I overthink. There’s a lot going on in my head while I’m up there.” “But music is fun. It’s a release,” she continues. “It’s great when I hit that area where I can stop worrying and disappear into the craft.” Release has become a through line for Perry, reflected in the shared title of her forthcoming projects, drawn from her song “Let It Die Here.” She wrote it while caring for her dying mother — with whom she had a fraught relationship — and reflecting on their past. “I was thinking about how you can choose to be set free, or you can still carry all the s—: the trauma, the shame, the guilt, the anger,” Perry says. “It was my hope to just let it go, to let it die here so I can move on.” At the time, Perry had written a couple of songs, but wasn’t planning a full-length record. However, weeks before the documentary premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, she was asked to play a set after the screening. “I was like, what the f— am I gonna perform?” she says. “So I was like, ‘OK, I’ll just write a record. … The whole album is about my mom.’” Across 17 tracks, including several instrumentals drawn from the documentary’s score, the album unfolds almost like a rock opera, building an immersive arc. Perry reveals different facets of herself as she navigates a gauntlet of emotions, her voice shifting across songs, at times sounding like distinct characters, as she explores her relationship with her mother — and, in doing so, herself — across her life and after her death. One of the turning points comes midway through. After “The Suitcase,” in which Perry expresses feeling stuck with the baggage left by her mother — too guilty to empty it and reluctant to let go of the comfort it offers — she finally clears it out, making space for her own life in the next track, a reimagining of “Beautiful.” By the time Perry sings “Albatross,” the final song, all the layers have been peeled away. Distilled to vocals, guitar, bass, piano and drums as Perry sheds a lifetime of weight, the song ends on a single, resonant power chord — a sonic declaration of liberation. Fittingly, Perry chose “Beautiful” as the lead single. Originally written decades ago for a shelved comeback record, the song instead became a hit for Christina Aguilera. Perry never expected to revisit it, but did so after someone suggested it. A full-circle moment, it was the final track recorded for the album that now reintroduces her to the public. “Music is fun. It’s a release,” Perry said. “It’s great when I hit that area where I can stop worrying and disappear into the craft.” (Robert Gauthier / L

She's written hits for everyone else. Now, at 62, Linda Perry is ready for herself

Key takeaways

More in local