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''Do you think the stripper pole should go near the hot tub? or the lounge?'' Linda Perry is playing tour guide inside her palatial ''Hef-style'' recording studio in North Hollywood that is nearly finished — minus a pole or two. At 40, she still has the swagger of the rock star she was over a decade ago, from the top of her scraggly mohawked head to the steel-tipped toes of her platform boots. But career-wise, the former frontwoman of the now-defunct 4 Non Blondes has actually undergone one of the most extreme makeovers in recent music history: from washed-up one-hit wonder to Grammy-nominated songwriter and überproducer who has cranked out myriad hits for some of the world's biggest pop stars, such as Pink, Gwen Stefani, and Christina Aguilera. (In fact, Ms. Aguilera is scheduled to arrive in a few hours to put the finishing touches on the hotly anticipated follow-up to her 2002 smash, Stripped.) • But on Oct. 11, Perry will be stepping back into the spotlight — and back in time — with the rerelease of her solo debut, In Flight, which was recorded and initially released on Interscope, way back in 1996. ''I know what people will say: 'There's Linda trying to reinvent herself,''' says Perry over a pot of yerba maté tea and an assembly line of Camel Lights. ''But I'm not trying to make some desperate comeback. I just want to give this album a chance.'' She bangs her tattooed hands on the table. ''It never got a chance!''
To be 100 percent fair, In Flight did get a chance back then — it just didn't get off the ground. Years before she would rake in millions for major labels with her behind-the-scenes skills, Perry was an unexpectedly tough solo sell to the masses, who had devoured the widemouthed warbler on 4 Non Blondes' maddeningly ubiquitous 1993 hit, ''What's Up.'' That single eventually catapulted the San Francisco band's 1992 debut, Bigger, Better, Faster, More!, into a 1.8-million-album success. ''I listen to that girl singing — I can't even refer to her as me — and I'm just like, 'Shut the f -- - up!''' Perry says with a raspy wail.
For while the wild-eyed, dreadlocked party girl who stumbled into 4NB in the late '80s to make noise on stage was doing just that, bellowing to arenas filled with fans, inside she was freaking out that she would never get the artist cred she craved. ''I wanted to play Carnegie Hall,'' she recalls dreamily. ''I wanted to sing to people who were all dressed up and sitting down — not just drunks sloshing back and forth.'' In late 1994, only a few months into recording their would-be follow-up, Perry split from the band, and Interscope dropped three-fourths of the Non Blondes — keeping Perry to fulfill the group's multi-album contract.
As Perry set out to record In Flight, a moody, mostly acoustic album, she was determined to be about as Non Blonde as Suzanne Somers. ''I sang every vocal with a guitar in my lap, with my cigarettes, a glass of red wine, some pot, some tequila, and recorded it in what seemed like one long breath,'' she recalls. ''It was incredible.''
Label execs, originally thinking they had another Sheryl Crow on their hands, were less intoxicated by the results — as was the record-buying public, who picked up a scant 28,000 copies. The label pressed the singer for another salable song. ''I told [the execs], I'm not going to give you another 'What's Up.' I'd rather kill myself.''
Instead, she bailed out of her recording contract — and her major-label life. An indignant Perry took to the streets, playing tunes from In Flight to half-filled dive bars in her San Francisco neighborhood. ''I was playing to 150 people,'' she recalls. ''I was scratching my head trying to figure out, How did I ever sell 7 million albums [worldwide]? I thought, They were right: I've made a crappy-ass record that nobody wants to hear. I went into a major depression.''
Over the next five years, Perry barreled through an impressive losing streak. ''Everything I touched turned to black,'' she recalls. ''I felt like that 4 Non Blondes money was tainted. I just needed to get rid of it.'' That she did. In 1996, she haplessly put together her own label, Rock Star Records, hurling money at Bay Area bands who wouldn't make it past the Golden Gate Bridge. She also tried her hand at movie producing, blowing a bundle on some straight-to-video fare that never even made it that far. By the time she relocated to Los Angeles in 1998, Perry's bank account had dwindled from millions to 37 bucks.
And then, one sunny California day in 2001, her black touch turned Pink. ''The phone rings and there's this girl on the phone and she's like, 'It's Piiink.' And I'm like, 'Who the hell is Pink?''' The then-21-year-old singer breathlessly explained she was working on a follow-up to her R&B-tinged breakthrough, 2000's Can't Take Me Home. Would Perry perform a song with her? Instead, Perry dug up a dance tune she'd written called ''Get the Party Started,'' a racy, raucous Saturday-night jam that ultimately recast Pink as a Missundaztoodmegastar, and positioned Perry as an It songwriter and producer.
Soon, all the pop divas flocked to Perry like sequin-studded lemmings, and she discovered her hidden talent as a Pop Star Whisperer, capable of tapping into a young artist's tortured psyche and translating those feelings into hits. The experience also got Perry wondering about her sidetracked solo debut. So she managed to wrangle the masters from Interscope (an apparent goodwill gesture from chairman Jimmy Iovine) and took Flight to a tiny new home, indie label Kill Rock Stars, the launching pad for alt-rock artists such as Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, and the late Elliott Smith. It's one last litmus test: ''I'm never going to record another album,'' she says, taking a final swig of tea. ''But I just needed to find out if people would think this album sucked or not. I need closure.''
For what it's worth: In Flight doesn't suck. It's rich, melodious, and spooky — more Pink Floyd than Pink — with Perry's throaty vocals far more intimate and subdued than the singer of ''What's Up'' was. It's still not likely to skyrocket up the Billboard charts this second time around, but it's well worth a listen (perhaps best enjoyed under the conditions in which it was recorded).
Besides, Perry's still got a damn good day job. She recently penned a tune with the Dixie Chicks, is currently revamping the careers of Enrique Iglesias, Vanessa Carlton, and Ben Jelen, and is playing fairy god-mogul to her brand-new label, Custard Records. Her first artist, British balladeer James Blunt, has already sold some 3.4 million albums of his debut in the U.K. and Europe, with a Stateside release on Atlantic Oct. 4. ''She's got this gut instinct. If she feels strongly about something, she goes and does it,'' says Blunt. ''She never thinks about money or the acclaim.''
''If I start doing stuff again that I don't believe in,'' says Perry, stubbing out one last cigarette, ''I'll pack up my bags, sell the studio, and go work at Wal-Mart.''
