1987–89: early career In San Francisco, Perry lived in a small, windowless room, and would play her guitar and sing her own songs on city streets.
Third Eye Blind frontman
Stephan Jenkins, who at the time was also a struggling musician living in San Francisco, later recalled sitting in a room with Perry, who worked as a waitress down the street, performing their original compositions to one another. The two played each other early versions of "
Semi-Charmed Life" and "
What's Up?", both of which would become massive hits for their respective bands. It would be decades later that Jenkins realized the songs performed in that private session would sell a combined 17 million records. Perry, however, denies that this is true. Perry performed solo at
Bay Area clubs and coffeehouses, including
Nightbreak,
Paradise Lounge,
DNA Lounge, and
The Kennel Club.
1989–95: 4 Non Blondes Perry composed her first professional song, entitled "Down On Your Face," and was recruited into the band
4 Non Blondes by its founder Christa Hillhouse in the middle of 1989. In July 1991, the band was signed to
Interscope Records. In 1992, 4 Non Blondes recorded what would be the band's only album,
Bigger, Better, Faster, More!, including the song "
What's Up?", written by Perry. Unhappy with a re-worked version of the song insisted upon by the album's producer, Perry and the band re-recorded the song like Perry's original demo, with Perry's re-recorded version being used as the final version for the album. In March 1993, "What's Up" was released as the album's second single, reaching number one in 10 countries During the recording of their second album in late 1994, 4 Non Blondes disbanded. Perry cited dissatisfaction with the first album and ongoing creative disagreements between herself and the band.
1996–1999: solo beginnings Interscope retained Perry as a solo artist and assembled a production team for her debut album, including
Kevin Gilbert,
Bill Bottrell, and members of the
Tuesday Night Music Club, who had recently produced
Sheryl Crow's debut. Released in 1996,
In Flight received positive reviews, but was a poor seller. Perry joined Red Fish, Blue Fish for her world tour, supporting such acts as The Who. She promoted her CD with an appearance on
The Howard Stern Show, during which she participated in "
lesbian dial-a-date" and performed her former band's only hit single, "What's Up?" Perry also hosted the 1997 and 1998
Bay Area Music Awards, or "Bammies". In 1999, she released her second solo album,
After Hours, on Rockstar Records, and performed as an opening act for
Bryan Adams.
2000–2013: production and songwriting Perry had begun acquiring recording equipment, including a
TASCAM DA-88 recorder,
Neumann U 67 microphone, and
Fairchild 670 compressor. Curious about the new musical technology behind music she was hearing on the radio, she asked a friend. Based on their input, Perry purchased an
Akai MPC sampler, and
Roland and
Korg Triton synthesizers, and taught herself to use them, writing her first
dance song, "
Get the Party Started", in the process. She sent the song to
Madonna's manager
Guy Oseary, who turned it down. Perry co-wrote and produced much of the album, including full writing credits for the songs "Lonely Girl" and "Get the Party Started", which was released as the album's
lead single and became Pink's biggest hit to date. The album's worldwide commercial and critical success brought Perry back into the spotlight as a music producer and songwriter. The following year, Perry produced for
Christina Aguilera another song she had written, "
Beautiful", another worldwide commercial success. The year ended with Perry co-writing "Save Me" for the southern California punk rock band
Unwritten Law. In 2005, Perry re-released her solo album
In Flight. The same year, she began working with Christina Aguilera on her third studio album,
Back to Basics (2006), co-writing with Aguilera every song on the album's second disc. In late 2006 and early 2007, Perry contributed production and songwriting to
Vanessa Carlton's third studio album,
Heroes and Thieves. Perry won an award from the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy for her contribution to the world of music. Perry signed the group
Little Fish to her label in 2008 and began producing its album,
Baffled and Beat, which was released in August 2010. Also in that same year, she collaborated with
Daniel Powter to produce his third studio album
Under the Radar. She wrote and produced "
A Loaded Smile" for
Adam Lambert's debut studio album
For Your Entertainment (2009). Aguilera's sixth studio album,
Bionic, released in 2010, included "Lift Me Up", written and produced solely by Perry. On November 5, 2010, Perry appeared live in San Francisco with 4 Non Blondes guitar player Roger Rocha at TwentyFifty (formerly CELLSpace). The appearance celebrated the release of Rocha's album with his band The Golden Hearts. Perry performed a solo set of cover tunes, including
Radiohead's "
Creep" and
Soundgarden's "
Black Hole Sun". Perry and Roger Rocha performed one song together, Led Zeppelin's "
Since I've Been Loving You". In June 2010, Perry announced on her Facebook and Twitter profiles that she was "going to make an album" with her new band
Deep Dark Robot, which she founded with Tony Tornay. The album,
8 Songs About a Girl, was promoted with the single "
Won't You Be My Girl?" Perry imagined the name Deep Dark Robot as part of an ad-libbed song lyric—"deep dark robot falling in love"—and decided to hang onto the name for her next musical project. The band released the album in March 2011 and began touring. In July 2011, Perry started to publish a set of acoustic cover songs that she recorded with her iPhone, including "
Mad World" by
Tears for Fears, "
Just What I Needed" by
the Cars, and "
Creep" by
Radiohead, among many others. On her
Facebook account, she wrote: "
iPhone sessions are me sitting at my piano an recording song into iPhone voice memo. Then I post it. Very simple enjoy :)"
2014–present: recent career In 2014, Perry appeared in the
VH1 reality television show
Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project, in which she worked with up-and-coming musicians, like
VanJess and winner Hemming. Perry was scheduled to appear as the
house band in a special series of late night editions of
The Talk airing the week of January 12, 2015 in the 12:34 am time slot of
The Late Late Show. Perry co-wrote a song with
Adele for her 2015 album
25 titled "Can't Let Go" which was included as a bonus track on the
Target and Japanese editions. Perry played piano, produced and engineered the track. She also wrote the theme song for the film
Freeheld titled "Hands of Love," performed by
Miley Cyrus. In June 2015, Perry was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York. In 2018, Perry collaborated with
Dolly Parton, writing the Golden Globe-nominated "Girl In The Movies" for the Netflix film ''
Dumplin'''.
We Are Hear In 2017, Perry partnered with
Kerry Brown to launch
We Are Hear, a
record label,
music publisher, and
artist management company based in
Los Angeles. Under their leadership, the company has signed
recording artists Natasha Bedingfield,
Imogen Heap,
Dorothy, and Willa Amai among others, and collaborated with artist
Kii Arens. Perry has also co-curated events with We Are Hear such as One Love Malibu festival in 2018, which raised $1 million in relief funds for damage caused by the
Woolsey Fire, and
The Art of Elysium fundraiser Heaven Is Rock & Roll in 2020, featuring the surviving members of
Nirvana (
Dave Grohl,
Pat Smear, and
Krist Novoselic) performing alongside
Beck and
St. Vincent, in addition to performances from
Cheap Trick,
L7, and
Marilyn Manson. ==Personal life==