Linda Perry criticized Green Day for excluding her from the production of the sequel to American Idiot. It happened in recent days during an interview with NME.
In addition to being the frontwoman of 4 Non Blondes, Perry is a singer, producer and founder of a record label, and throughout her career she has signed multi-platinum albums and songs, including Beautiful by Christina Aguilera, What Are You Waiting For? by Gwen Stefani and Get the Party Started by P!nk.
Courtney Love (whom Perry herself defined as “an incredibly intelligent woman” in the same interview) had in fact said some time ago that Perry should also produce the sequel to Green Day's 2004 classic.
When asked if this was true, Perry confirmed that the band had indeed contacted her to produce their next record. “I had a full schedule and I canceled six months of work to do it,” he recalled. «I met Billie Joe [Armstrong] and we talked for three hours […] As happens with every artist, I think he had reached that point where you feel you have nothing left to say and you need help: producing a record also has a therapeutic aspect.”
«Then Courtney started telling people that I was going to produce the record. Suddenly the band started receiving negative reactions from fans, annoyed that they were “calling out Linda Perry, the one who produced Pink and Christina Aguilera”.
“And at that point the kids stopped calling me,” Perry continued. «I was trying to contact them to understand what was happening. Nobody made themselves heard. I lost six months of already scheduled work. It was a very bad thing, all because Billie Joe is a bit of a coward and allowed himself to be overwhelmed by the criticism of the fans, without taking it.”
At the time, Green Day's management had issued a statement denying that Perry should produce the album, assuring fans that the band would remain with producer Rob Cavallo, even if for 21st Century Breakdown of 2009 they chose Butch Vig.
“Okay, I'm fine with that now, but it was harsh and rude behavior,” Perry continued. «All you had to do was call me and say, “Hey, we've decided to go in another direction backlash that we're receiving.” All it took was a little courage. Not calling me back was a cowardly move and I lost a lot of respect for Billie Joe.”
Again, Perry seems to have clear ideas about why it happened: «Because I'm a woman and I wrote pop songs. I was upset about how they behaved and then I was also angry with Courtney, because if she had been silent we would have made that record, he would have come out and spoken for himself. I had a very clear vision and I knew I would rock.”
In the rest of the interview, Perry also talked about something he found strange about Green Day's working method: the fact that they recorded separately. «Billie would record her part, then Mike would come along [Dirnt, bassista]then Tré [Cool]but they never played together,” he explained. «I suggested we get in a circle, all together, and do things in '60s style. I had also prepared a playlist: among the inspirations was the band Love.” As Perry pointed out, the group would actually make a '60s-inspired record shortly thereafter, Stop Drop and Roll!!! from 2008, released under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs.
