I was a 4 Non Blondes fan and Linda Perry was one of the voices I connected with in my darkest moments as an adolescent. We went into her little studio and she said, ‘OK, how are you feeling today?’ and gave me a microphone and hit record. I got my little journals out and she said, ‘Put that away, just tell me how you’re feeling today.’ Literally 10 minutes later, a song was written. I didn’t know that was in me. I didn’t know I had anything to say that day, and I never would have known. That’s how it started for me. That’s how people started knowing who I really was. She sat me down and said, ‘You’re a survivor, you’ve been through a lot, and you’re a tough girl. You’ve got a big wall that you’ve spent your entire life building around you, and my job is to break it down. Your job is to never be defensive again, because you have pain in you that other people could learn from.’ I don’t think I’ve been defensive since. [From Issue 118, June 2009]
