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I was scared of failure, of being a one-hit wonder, never being able to write another song again, never being able to sing again. Maybe everything that I think I am and who I want to be never will happen.
Linda Perry
I don't feel the need to be in the spotlight whatsoever.
'American Idol' is a machine. It's a machine that's making a lot of money, that's selling a lot of product. It's 'American Marketing.'
You need a big team to support a career.
I love just helping people; that's what I'm good at.
I nurture people's talents because, at the end of it, that's what they're left with. They're left with themselves.
Rock&Roll doesn't belong on a grid. It belongs on a pulse - a natural pulse.
In no way am I a spiritual person. I'm not some guru geek.
Record companies don't think creatively about what something could possibly be because they are not filled with creative people. Nobody's looking at the future of music because they're concentrating so hard on what they can get from it right this second. It's really hard to see an artist; it's a lot easier to see money.
I've lived out in a park sleeping on the grass with no place to go; I've not eaten. I've been there.
I don't ever get too literal.
I get to do all the styles of music that I love. There's no boundaries; there's nobody holding on to me saying I can't do that.
I'm able to switch gears at any moment.
I don't care if I go broke. I don't care about all that stuff. I just want to know that I did everything I wanted to do.
I have a lot of songs that I kind of put away, and I don't let anybody else hear them, and those are my songs.
For me, Heaven is evoking emotions through sound.
Pink is an extremely secure person. She knows who she is. When she's going to make a change, she's going to make the change. She just needs someone to help her with the vision.
I'm a horrible producer when it comes to me, but for other artists, I don't know what it is, but something happens, and I'm just really good at it.
If you're not confident, people push you around. That's it. It's super-simple.
There's nothing you could do to me, nothing you could take away from me that would make me feel like I wasn't going to be all right.
A lot of people call me a 'machine', and I don't think a lot of men or women operate the way I do.
I love Pink, and I love Christina Aguilera. Something about Christina always inspires me to do things that are really different.
I don't think I'm the world's greatest producer or songwriter or anything.
Food is supposed to be vibrant, fresh, filled with color.
It's a humbling and amazing journey when you write a song in your bedroom, and you've got no money, and you're trying to write a song based on where you're at right at this moment.
To me, I feel like everything I touch will do good. Because my heart and my passion is all in the right spot. And you can't go wrong with that. But maybe I'm naive.
It'll never get old to hear a song that I wrote on the radio or to hear what someone experienced when they heard a song I wrote.
When making any record, a producer has a list of things you hope an artist brings to the studio. Songs that are strong even without the bells and whistles.
I want to be perceived - or maybe I perceive myself - as this really easygoing, honest person that's just giving. Realistically, I have those qualities, but I'm very aggressive. I can be very harsh. It comes off almost mean, you know?
It's not a 'sexy' position, being the producer. You have to be very bossy. You have to be very aggressive.
I'm just in tune to myself and what I need from the universe.
I did love 'What's Up?' but I hated the production.
People are gonna get tired of Linda Perry the producer, but I will always be in the music business. And I will always be successful in it.
I have to meet everybody I work with before I work with them. Before I say yes, I have to meet them, and then I take it from there. I don't care if you've had the best record or the worst. That doesn't matter to me. I don't care about that stuff.
I don't think I could make a pop album.
Sometimes I'll look back at old pictures where I'm a little heavy and dressed funny and think, 'How did I get chicks all the time?'
People come to me to write songs that will be successful for them, and they allow me the freedom to do so.
I'm a fast learner, and I believe in change, and I believe in growing, and I believe in moving forward and not staying in the same place.
My process of songwriting comes from a very real place: a place that when you watch 'American Idol' - God bless it, it's probably an awesome experience that these people are having, but it's not a real one.
One day, it hit me that music is my calling. I just started playing and writing music. How, I don't know. I just started doing it, and then this big voice came out of my mouth. And it felt like I was releasing something.
My family, they are definitely not an ordinary family.
I wanted to go back to writing for myself and my fans. I built my own recording studio, started my own label, and decided to use the Internet to sell my records.
My number one goal is to take over the music business and run a really great record company.
Rick Rubin's amazing, by the way. I just need to say that.
I'm great at working with people and collaborating. And if my biggest gift of all is that I'm really good at pulling things from people and helping them become better at what they're doing, I'm here, as I believe all of us are, to be of service.
The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center has this wonderful program where they take in the youth, feed them, help them learn how to cook, clean, they help them get jobs, help them learn how to save their money, and they have shelters all over the city.
I don't want to be a rock star. I had my 15 minutes of fame.
I'm extremely hard to work with.
I'm really good at bringing out greatness - in anybody. I don't even have to be in the studio. What a gift to be able to help people bring out the best qualities in them.
For me, to have had an impact with anything that you've done, whether it's a painting, a photo, a poem, or something that you've created, just that experience is enormous. You don't get that all the time.