In another reality, the follow-up to Green Day's pivotal album American Idiot would have been produced by lauded songwriter and 4 Non Blondes vocalist Linda Perry. But in this reality, Perry thinks Armstrong is "a little pussy."
In a recent NME interview, for a segment called Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! where the publication quizzes the musician on their own history, Perry was asked about the celebrity that she allegedly referred to as "a power bottom." The answer was Hole frontwoman Courtney Love.
"Courtney acts like this tough person – and she is. She’s very intimidating, but really she is a bottom. She wants to be kind and wants a hug and she’s very gentle, but she has an armour she puts up," Perry said. Interviewer Gary Ryan then inquired about when Love spilled the beans on Perry working with Green Day in 2007. At the time, Green Day denied Love's claim that they were working with Perry and that they'd continue to work with Rob Cavallo. But for this interview, Perry maintains that there was pushback from Green Day's fans, and that the trio basically ghosted Perry about the project.
“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,'" she said. "And then those guys just stopped calling me. 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.”
She continued:
Whatever! I’m good with it, but it was harsh and rude to do that. Just call me and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to go a different way. I’m not digging this backlash we’re getting.’ Just balls-up, man. Not returning my calls was such a pussy move, and I lost a lot of respect for Billie Joe.
It happened because I was a woman and I’d written pop songs. I was disappointed in those guys, and then I was mad at Courtney because if she would have just shut up, we would have made the record and it would have come out and it would have spoken for itself. I had a vision and knew I was going to kill that record.
It's disappointing that we'll never know what could have been between Perry and Green Day. But both have succeeded without each other. Last week, Perry received the Special International Award at the Ivor Novello Songwriter Awards. Also, 4 Non Blondes' first new album in 33 years is on the way and they even have some tour dates lined up for June.
A few weeks ago Nimrods, the coming-of-age film inspired by Green Day and co-produced by the band, got a release date: August 14. Pussy or not, they're both doing just fine.
