Linda Perry bashes Green Day for something that didn't happen
Music sites around the web picked up drama this last week when Linda Perry, founder of 4 Non Blondes, while promoting a new book, went after Billie Joe and Green Day for not selecting her as producer for the follow-up to 'American Idiot'.
From NME:
Perry went on to say in the NME interview that she also learned that Green Day didn't record in studio together:
This statement is where the red flags first started going off in my head. I don't know where that information came from, but as documented in Heart Like A Hand Grenade, Green Day spent a whole lot of time working together in the studio during the 'American Idiot' sessions. The idea that the band simply came in one at a time and didn't record together doesn't really match what has been publicly documented over the years. They might have recorded their own instruments individually, but they were still collaborating together on it.
The original rumor Perry is referring to came from Courtney Love in June 2007 during an interview with the BBC. PunkNews reported at the time that Love claimed Perry would be producing Green Day's next album because the band liked what she had done on Courtney's own record.
A couple of days later, PunkNews followed up with a link to GDA, where we confirmed with Green Day's management that the story was simply "Not true."
That's the part of Perry's story that doesn't really line up with the timeline.
The BBC interview was published on June 2, 2007. We spoke with Green Day's management and received a denial two days later. Not weeks later. Not months later. There was never a period where this rumor was widely accepted before fan backlash supposedly killed it.
As someone who was following every rumor, interview, and scrap of information about the band during that era, I don't remember any meaningful backlash from fans over the possibility of Perry producing the next album. Most fans didn't know who Linda Perry was (that's not a dig, just not something most casual fans are not in the loop on), and most people treated Courtney Love's claim with exactly the amount of skepticism you'd expect.
It's also worth remembering that this was nearly two years before 21st Century Breakdown was released. The band eventually ended up working with Butch Vig, not Perry and not Rob Cavallo. Looking back, it seems much more likely that Green Day were exploring different creative directions and meeting with various producers before deciding what they wanted the next album to be.
To me, Perry's version sounds less like a producer being hired and then fired because of fan complaints, and more like preliminary conversations that never developed into an actual commitment. If the band ultimately decided to go in another direction, that may have later been interpreted as something it wasn't.
One thing I do feel comfortable saying is that Green Day don't make major creative decisions based on fan backlash. They never have. Whether fans love or hate an idea, the band has consistently worked with the producers, collaborators, and creative partners they felt were right for whatever record they were making at the time. That's been true throughout their career, and there's little reason to believe this situation was any different.
[Photo by DiegoVigueras on Wikimedia Commons]
From NME:
"Courtney Love [...] once claimed that Perry was also set to produce the follow-up to Green Day's 2004 classic 'American Idiot'.
When asked if there was any truth to that, Perry said the band had indeed reached out and asked her to produce their next record. "I had a full calendar and cancelled six months of work to do it," she recalled. "I met with Billie Joe [Armstrong], and we talked for three hours [...] Like every artist, I think he had got to a point where you feel like I have nothing to say and need help - there's a therapy aspect to producing too.
"Then Courtney blabbed her mouth that I was producing. Suddenly they started getting backlash from their fans, upset they were 'bringing in Linda Perry, who produced Pink and Christina Aguilera'.
"And then those guys just stopped calling me," Perry continued. "I would reach out to figure out what was going on. Nobody called. I lost six months of scheduled work. That was fucked-up - all because Billie-Joe's a little pussy and got all this backlash from his fans and didn't like it.""
When asked if there was any truth to that, Perry said the band had indeed reached out and asked her to produce their next record. "I had a full calendar and cancelled six months of work to do it," she recalled. "I met with Billie Joe [Armstrong], and we talked for three hours [...] Like every artist, I think he had got to a point where you feel like I have nothing to say and need help - there's a therapy aspect to producing too.
"Then Courtney blabbed her mouth that I was producing. Suddenly they started getting backlash from their fans, upset they were 'bringing in Linda Perry, who produced Pink and Christina Aguilera'.
"And then those guys just stopped calling me," Perry continued. "I would reach out to figure out what was going on. Nobody called. I lost six months of scheduled work. That was fucked-up - all because Billie-Joe's a little pussy and got all this backlash from his fans and didn't like it.""
Perry went on to say in the NME interview that she also learned that Green Day didn't record in studio together:
"Elsewhere in her NME interview, Perry said one thing she found strange was that Green Day recorded their albums separately. "Billie would do his part, then Mike [Dirnt, bassist] would come in, and then Tré [Cool] would come in, but they didn't record together," she explained."
This statement is where the red flags first started going off in my head. I don't know where that information came from, but as documented in Heart Like A Hand Grenade, Green Day spent a whole lot of time working together in the studio during the 'American Idiot' sessions. The idea that the band simply came in one at a time and didn't record together doesn't really match what has been publicly documented over the years. They might have recorded their own instruments individually, but they were still collaborating together on it.
The original rumor Perry is referring to came from Courtney Love in June 2007 during an interview with the BBC. PunkNews reported at the time that Love claimed Perry would be producing Green Day's next album because the band liked what she had done on Courtney's own record.
A couple of days later, PunkNews followed up with a link to GDA, where we confirmed with Green Day's management that the story was simply "Not true."
That's the part of Perry's story that doesn't really line up with the timeline.
The BBC interview was published on June 2, 2007. We spoke with Green Day's management and received a denial two days later. Not weeks later. Not months later. There was never a period where this rumor was widely accepted before fan backlash supposedly killed it.
As someone who was following every rumor, interview, and scrap of information about the band during that era, I don't remember any meaningful backlash from fans over the possibility of Perry producing the next album. Most fans didn't know who Linda Perry was (that's not a dig, just not something most casual fans are not in the loop on), and most people treated Courtney Love's claim with exactly the amount of skepticism you'd expect.
It's also worth remembering that this was nearly two years before 21st Century Breakdown was released. The band eventually ended up working with Butch Vig, not Perry and not Rob Cavallo. Looking back, it seems much more likely that Green Day were exploring different creative directions and meeting with various producers before deciding what they wanted the next album to be.
To me, Perry's version sounds less like a producer being hired and then fired because of fan complaints, and more like preliminary conversations that never developed into an actual commitment. If the band ultimately decided to go in another direction, that may have later been interpreted as something it wasn't.
One thing I do feel comfortable saying is that Green Day don't make major creative decisions based on fan backlash. They never have. Whether fans love or hate an idea, the band has consistently worked with the producers, collaborators, and creative partners they felt were right for whatever record they were making at the time. That's been true throughout their career, and there's little reason to believe this situation was any different.
[Photo by DiegoVigueras on Wikimedia Commons]
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