Linda Perry
by Margaret Coble

When Linda Perry and her band, whom she later humorously refers to as the Muffdivers, take the stage on a rainy Monday night at New Orleans's House of Blues, I am surprised at what I see. The only visual image I'd had of Perry previous to tonight was from her 4 Non Blondes-era videos and publicity: her wild, animated gestures, her signature dreadlocks, dark lipstick, colorful clothes, and an ever-present top hat I now realize must have made her seem taller than she really is.

What I see before me is markedly different. The mood has been set by the smell of incense, and the glow of candles and Chinese paper lamps atop various pieces of sound equipment illuminates the stage. Perry is shorter and a little stockier than I'd imagined, her hair is long and mildly unkempt, her make-up minimal. The severity of her image has faded, replaced now with a laid-back hippie-rock demeanor and thrift store variety fashion. But-as she is soon to prove through her brilliant performance-the intensity that originally drew fans to her remains intact. She doesn't let the disappointingly small crowd affect her enthusiasm, and she and the Muffdivers launch into what is to be one of the more memorable live shows of the year.

A lot more has changed in Linda Perry's life since her former band's meteoric rise to the top of the alternative rock heap four years ago. In the midst of recording what was to be their big follow-up to Bigger, Better, Faster, More-the disc that sold more than five million copies worldwide and spawned the now classic anthem "What's Up?"-Perry broke from the group in order to follow her own muse.

"They were pretty shocked at first," Perry admits in a phone interview from her Los Angeles recording studio, recounting her abrupt departure from her bandmates. "But they knew it was coming. I was very unhappy with the style of music they wanted to play, the pop-rock commercial sound, and I kept pushing in this other direction. I finally got frustrated and said, I'm sorry, I don't believe in this, and I'm not going to go out and try to sell this. No matter what kind of record we would have put out, it would have sold, and they knew that. They wanted that stability. But I'm not like that, I'm not a stable person. I'm very moody, very spontaneous. I don't stay in relationships forever. I'm a one-night-stand kind of girl," she laughs.

And so on her debut solo album, In Flight (Interscope Records), Perry has toned her sound down several notches to a more mind-journey mixture of classic rock, ethereal folk, and psychedelia that's completely different yet entirely congruent with her work with 4 Non Blondes. "With 4 Non Blondes I did a lot of yelling, always using that high voice, and I got sick of hearing myself sing that way," she explains. "I'm a lot more mellow, more content these days. I don't feel like I have to scream to get my point across. I can be more subtle."

"I wrote this record just for myself," she says about her 1960s-inspired, introspective opus. "If I liked the song, then that's all that mattered. I didn't give a shit. My manager came to me and said there were songs she didn't like, and I said, 'Well, then, you're gonna learn to like them!' The record company did the same thing. They said they were looking for another "What's Up?" and I told them they weren't going to hear that on this record.

This is not a commercial record-it's not that angst-ridden girl rock that's going on right now."

Dubbed a 'concept' album by critics desperate for categories, In Flight plays like more of "an audible, musical diary," in Perry's own words. Obviously inspired by the classic rock of the 1960s and 1970s (Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, Bad Company and even Janis Joplin are noted by Perry as influences), each moody, atmospheric rock number makes way for the next, chronicling her complex emotional journey through this time of much personal growth and change. Acoustic guitars, jangly electric guitars, pianos, violins, and sparse percussion make up this more sedate sound, which deftly moves from the rootsy rock of "Freeway" to the zone-out mellowness of "Success" and "In Flight"-with the notable and excusable exception of the delightfully up-tempo ragtime swing of the album's most whimsical tune, "Fruitloop Daydream."

"It's just me, expressing myself, going through all my feelings," Perry says. "I get depressed, happy, sad, angry. I fall in love. I question. I dwell. I go through all the emotions. And at the end of the record, the last song "In Flight" is just saying, 'Hey, everything you just heard was me learning who I am, going on a journey. Bear with me, but I'm going to be O.K.'

On the subject of her public persona, Perry admits, "I tend to come off very hard, very aggressive. I'm an Aries, I can't help it! But my record is a whole other side of me. I'm also a very emotional person, very sincere, very giving. Not a selfish person at all. And I just want the best for everybody."

Undoubtedly the high point of the album is the powerful "Knock Me Out," Perry's bittersweet love duet with classic rock icon Grace Slick. After two weeks of trying to convince her friend China Kantner's famous mom that Perry wasn't "one of those wimpy girl singers out there," Slick finally gave in, and the pair really hit it off. "She's amazing," Perry gushes about Slick. "That voice, her character, everything about her. You just instantly give her respect."

The album's lesbian content (based on a real-life relationship of Perry's) is overt, marking another change from her work with 4 Non Blondes. But Perry is quick to point out that this openness about her sexuality is nothing new. "I've never not been outspoken about my sexuality. Everyone knew I was gay-I mean, I was on David Letterman with DYKE on my shirt!

"I've never denied being gay. I get really pissed off about that. People tend to think that because I want to talk about my music, that I am denying something. What the fuck are you talking about? Do I have to make out with people in front of the camera to prove it to you? I don't have anything to prove. I just am, and that's all there is to it."

"I don't preach about being gay, or march down the street. I don't believe in gay ways. In fact, I get very discouraged about the gay community. They're full of shit. They're segregated. They bullshit about how we need to be looked at equally in this world, yet they totally put down a straight couple walking through the Castro. What the fuck is that kind of bullshit?"

"I did this thing for Out Magazine," the singer recalls, "and they got pissed off at me because I was putting down the gay community. The woman who was interviewing me got very upset with the things that I said, and her article came out reading like I was a total dick. It just proves to me again that the gay community is full of shit, and they can kiss my fucking ass!"

Considering her future projects, the gay community may want to change its tune about Linda Perry. "I have a lot of stuff going on right now. I'm working on a movie, a feature film called Pink As The Day She Was Born. It's very nasty, very dirty," she teases. "It's a sex comedy about a girl that wants to be a rock star. And there's all kinds of sex-straight sex, girl sex, boy sex, a boy and a dog having sex, a mom filming the boy and the dog having sex. It's a rock and roll sex comedy."

And then there's her new record label, Rock Star Records, based in San Francisco, home to already enormously popular hard rockers Stone Fox and the up and coming Two Lane Blacktop. "It's really starting to take off now," she remarks. "I'm looking for the underdog, the bands that don't have hit songs, but have great albums. I want to help them out--it's just such a wonderful feeling when somebody supports you."

Other ideas are running through her head, like a second movie ("a really good, cheesy horror flick like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), a rock opera, and a live California blues record-but really her deepest wish is very simple.

"I just want to walk into a club, studio, or down the street and have somebody go 'Oh, I know that girl--she's cool.' I just want to be known for being cool, that my heart is in the right place."