Linda Perry is finally ready to write about herself again

When Linda Perry began allowing director Don Hardy to begin filming her daily existence, she didn't realize the cameras would arrive just in time for her life to fall apart. Perry is the singer/songwriter/producer behind 4 Non Blondes' “What's Up,” Pink's “Get This Party Started,” and Christina Aguilera's Beautiful, among other hits—and in the beginning, Hardy was filming the artistic her process as she began to explore the idea of ​​writing for herself again. Then her mother became ill and eventually died, and Perry herself faced a breast cancer diagnosis. All the while, Perry wrestled with her demons—many of which stemmed from childhood trauma—and tried to rediscover her artistic self.

The resulting documentary, Linda Perry: Let it die here, which debuted last week at the Tribeca Film festival, is the most revealing music documentary in years. In his new episode Rolling Stone Music nowPerry gives a brutally honest interview about the film and her entire career.

I am going here for your podcast provider of choice, listen Apple Podcasts the Spotifyor just press play below — here are some highlights from the interviews.

Perry plans to record her first self-titled album since the 90s. “I had no idea how to write about myself anymore,” she says. “I lost that ability. I was so consumed with everyone else that I forgot my own intentions, my own feelings, my own words.” Her mother's death, she adds, opened the door for her again. “The gift he left me helped me find my words and feelings, because I was in a songwriting frenzy. I just wrote and wrote.” She hopes to tour, too, with the idea of ​​opening for her boyfriend Brandi Carlile.

Perry is not a fan of current pop production. “There's an art to recording that's seriously missing from the music industry right now,” he says. “People are trying to fix really beautiful mistakes. And that's the problem I have, it's all the correction that goes into the process. And then they also try to make really bad songs sound good with overproduction and they take really great songs and overproduce them too.”

Courtney Love said she asked to record “Beautiful” before Christina Aguilera did, but Perry refuses. “That's a lie,” says Perry, “Courtney Love never heard the song and she never begged me for the song. I love Courtney but this is just a blatant lie. It never happened.”

Among the few contemporary artists Perry says she respects are Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. “You don't have a lot of these safe artists who are going to do anything, like Beyoncé putting out a country album. That takes a lot of guts, a lot of confidence, and there aren't that many artists out there who are willing to take those kinds of risks because they're afraid of what people will think… Say what you want about Taylor Swift, but she's awesome. This kid has been doing it since he was 12 years old and is a great businessman. If anyone says anything negative about Taylor Swift, it's because they're jealous that she doesn't make the same business decisions. Not only is she able to say what she wants, the girl knows her audience. That is talent in itself. Who cares if you like music? I wonder if she she even likes her own music. But she knows her audience. You know what I mean? It's like she knows her fucking audience. And that's talent.”

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