4 Non Blondes made their long-awaited return to the stage in May with a set at San Diego's Wonderfront Festival followed by their first show back in the Bay Area, where they began, at BottleRock Napa. We sat down with Linda Perry ahead of their set to talk her relationship with "What's Up?," Expecting the call to get back together, and wanting to revive the San Francisco music scene.
On opening with a snippet of "What's Up?" at their first show back, Perry says "It's like the pied piper calling the mice & that's sort of what happened when we did it. Then we go into some rock & roll". On her relationship with the song now, Perry noted that she still loves the song, "it would be like me not loving my own child. It's given me this incredible opportunity. From it, I was able to go around the world. I have millions of people who still sing that song today. It's still as relevant as it was in the 90s, today. I didn't plan to write that song. It planned me. We just don't have any control over that when we write music. Do I feel like I've written better songs? Yeah, I do. But that's not the case. I wrote a song that lyrically, melodically, just was so relatable. You take that, put it in your pocket, and use it every single time you possibly can.
With the band having so much history in San Francisco, we asked Perry what it was like in the late 80s & early 90s, "Listen, so many people missed out on some incredible moments in time in the 90s because, I mean, we were bands that were a community that, like, if, you know, the Jackson Saints needed a tambourine player, I would jump up and play tambourine. If we needed backgrounds, they would jump up. We would borrow amps, borrow guitars.
Be there for every show for our friends. It was a community of incredible music. And there's the Warfield, the Fillmore, the Nightbreak, Paradise Lounge. I mean, there was, you know, the I-Beam, Slim's, you know, was like the place, you know, you wanted to get to. And then, you know, Great American Music Hall, Hotel Utah.
I mean, great, great places. It didn't matter how big or small you were, we would all support each other. And then all of a sudden, it was gone. And then I remember going to Paradise Lounge, and it was a computer bar. And then Nightbreak, the same thing happened there. And then all the bars started disappearing, and the band started disappearing. And it was like this beautiful moment, just was gone and I know people in San Francisco still and They all feel the same way like there is not much of a scene here anymore so we Want to after this hoo-ha come, you know play some free shows in San Francisco."
On the idea of playing free shows in San Francisco, Perry added: "If there's anything like we can do like with LIVE 105, where we do a free show and we can give out the tickets or VIP packages, all free. To me, stuff like that for San Francisco, there's no money exchange here. It's just like, let's just play the shows and make it a really great experience because I really do feel you're going to be pretty blown away after you see our show. It's pretty good. It's pretty awesome."