• April 15, 1965
• As the lead singer of the alt-rock band 4 Non Blondes, Linda Perry was a distinctive voice on '90s radio thanks to the group's 1993 hit "What's Up." She also embarked on a solo singing career in 1996 with her debut album, In Flight, and became a sought-after pop songwriter for artists like Christina Aguilera and Pink, penning their respective hits "Beautiful" and "Get The Party Started."
• Perry survived a period of homelessness and drug addiction in her youth, which she references in her 2026 song "Balboa Park." While she escaped the homelessness, she struggled with addiction off and on throughout adulthood. During her sober periods, she realized she used drugs as a way to escape the painful memories of her abusive childhood.
• Perry is the subject of the 2026 documentary Let It Die Here, which follows the singer during an intense period in her life as she was navigating a cancer diagnosis and dealing with complicated emotions over the decline and death of her abusive mother. It also explores how her difficult childhood shaped her identity as an artist and made her value honesty in her life and work. That commitment to truth-telling compelled her to include a vulnerable piece of footage in the film, when she recorded herself having an unexpected emotional breakdown in her closet.
  
  "One of the things that is extremely important to me as a creative is that you have to be honest. I don't know how to be any other way," she told Off The Record. "I've been lied to so much in my life… It's just been a very cryptic life I had with my parents and, I guess, I just grew up going, 'You know what? I need truth in my life. I need honesty.' And if anything I've learned, that I'm going to give that, because I wanted it, I needed it so desperately as a kid."
• Perry isn't a fan of hospitals and tries to keep herself as healthy as possible with diet and exercise to avoid them - she gave up alcohol, cigarettes, dairy and caffeine when she turned 40 - but she relented in order to get breast reduction surgery in 2021. That's when the doctors discovered the 59-year-old's triple-negative breast cancer, which led to her getting a double mastectomy.
• When Perry is working with an artist, she encourages them to ad-lib to find the vibe and flow of a song before they ever start thinking about lyrics. "I think people who are writing songs don't even understand what they're doing. They don't even know the song yet. They're just writing it, and then they record it," she told Off The Record. "Phrasing and that melody are extremely important. Way more important than lyrics to me."
• In 2014, Perry married Roseanne actress Sara Gilbert, who gave birth to their son, Rhodes, the following year. Gilbert filed for separation in 2019 and their divorce was finalized in 2024. The former couple still remain close friends as evidenced in the Let It Die Here documentary, where Gilbert praises her former wife's authenticity and acknowledges the heart of gold beneath her rough exterior.
• Aside from releasing her documentary and the companion Let It Die Here album in 2026, Perry also hit the road as a special guest on the Indigo Girls fall tour. Perry was impressed by the folk-rock duo, made up of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, behind songs like "Closer To Fine" because of their way with words - especially the amount of them.
  
  "They've written incredible songs - like, so many words in their songs," Perry said. "I was laughing at Emily the other day. I'm like, 'There are so many words.' It's poetry. And Amy was like, 'That's Emily.'"

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