Linda Perry has spoken to NME about the time she almost produced the follow-up to Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’. In fact, as she tells it, she was chosen for the job, but her past as a producer of pop hits did not play a positive role. Perry blames Green Day’s frontman: “Billie Joe is a coward.”
Perry, frontwoman of 4 Non Blondes, is behind the composition of bangers such as ‘Beautiful’ by Christina Aguilera or ‘Get The Party Started’ by Pink. When asked about the words of Courtney Love, who once told how Perry was initially going to be in charge of producing the successor to ‘American Idiot’ for Billie Joe Armstrong’s band, Perry confirmed the rumors.
«I canceled six months of my calendar to work on the album. I met up with Billie Joe and we talked for three hours. “Like all artists, I think I had reached the point where you feel like you have nothing to say and you need help,” says Perry.
The problem came when Courtney spilled the beans and revealed Perry’s plans with Green Day: “They started to receive a very negative reaction from their fans, angry because they were going to bring Linda Perry, who had produced for Pink and Christina Aguilera,” she says. The members of Green Day were never expected to call her again.
«I would have contacted them to find out what was happening. Nobody called me. I lost six months of scheduled work. “It was a bitch, all because Billie Joe is a little coward and he didn’t like the reaction of his fans,” explains Perry. At the time, the Green Day team published a statement in which they denied Perry’s involvement in the project, finally staying with Butch Vig for the production of ’21st Century Breakdown’.
«It happened because I am a woman who had written pop songs. “I was disappointed in the guys, and then I was angry with Courtney because if she had kept quiet we would have made the record, she would have come out and spoken for herself,” Perry concludes.
