Linda Perry Talks

Part of an interview with Linda Perry. First netcast January 8th, 1997. the full interview can be found at LA live coffee break web site. it is mainly about Linda, last 42 minutes and is available in Real Audio.

I apologize in advance for the transcription, but Linda say's "like" and "Ya know" a lot.

Interviewer: how did you get hooked up with Grace Slick?

"I met her daughter China Kantner, and this was probably about a year ago, actually it was longer than a year ago, I was with a friend who was China's best friend, and they're like, 'Hey do you want to come over to my Mom's house for dinner' and me and my friend were like, 'Ok, yeah sure'. And, you know, it's not hitting me at all. It's 'oh, my Mom, my Mom this, and I'm sitting in the back seat, they're talking about 'my Mom my Mom my Mom my Mom' and it's like I knew it, but it hadn't hit me. So we get to the house, she opens the door, and i'm like, ok. I'm really quiet and I walk in and I see this big picture of her, Grace Slick and Janis Joplin together in one picture. It's really big and hangs in her hallway, and I see this big grand piano, and she's like, 'do you want any coffee?' to me, and I say 'yeah', and she serves me the coffee. And I just went out on the patio and I'm just sitting out there, and my friend comes out and she says 'what's wrong?' and I'm like, it finally hits me. China's Mom is Grace Slick. That was my first meeting of Grace Slick.

And then, a month later I ran into China again, and I asked her if she could get her Mom to come into the studio and you know, sing on one of my songs, and she's 'No, my Mom won't do that, she's really content where she is' and I go 'Can you ask her? please?' It took me two weeks of me calling her, constantly bugging poor China, then finally she called me back and said 'Ok, she'll do it, but with direction, that's all' and i'm like, yeah. So she came down, and I played her my record and she loved it, and I said 'This is the song' she made up her own lyrics, asked me what to do, and i said 'give me a break, you do what you want to do' and she's like 'Ok' I gave her 3 tracks, I put them up and said 'go ahead' I put them together and that was it, she walked out the door. shook my hand.

She's amazing, I mean, I can't even go into the experience, because she's just, the woman is... As soon as she walks in the door you're immediately like a little puppy dog. you're just wagging your tail, and you know, a little scared. She is amazing, and her presence is so strong. She just comes in and she just takes over the place, her energy fills up the whole room, there's no room for anybody else, and you're just against the wall...

I didn't know what to call her. I wanted to call her Grace Slick... but I thought no, I can't call her that. Shall I call her grace, nooo, I can't, that's disrespectful, Miss Slick? I mean, what do you call her? You call her Grace Slick. So I kept slipping on my mouth, and China's, like, 'Don't worry, I just call her "Mom"' Easy for you!

Interviewer: Did she give you any other advice?

All she told me was, like, I walked her to the door, she shook my hand, and she said 'Thanks for letting me do what people haven't let me do in 15 years. My whole career has always been controlled. Ever since Jefferson Starship it was over for me, they made me a back up singer' and she's like, 'but, thanks for letting me do this' and she thanked ME for letting her do that. And she's like 'yeah, great record, I wish you all the luck' and that was it. Cool