That was kind of a joke, to be quite honest. When I moved to Los Angeles, I called up a friend and said, “Hey, what’s that sound on the radio right now that’s going on? What’s that on MTV? What’s this hip thing going on?” To me it was godawful, just ridiculous.
He said, “Oh, it’s pretty much what everybody’s using.” So I got ProTools and set it all up. “Get the Party Started” was just me figuring out what all this stuff does. I came up with that beat, laid it down, found all these weird chords and sounds and put the horns. Then I went back to my guitar for the wah-wahs. I was just having fun. I picked up a microphone and said, “I’m just going to say every clichéd line I can think of.” And I came up with, “Get the party started on a Saturday night” and wrote a bunch of stuff down. I called up my manager afterwards and said, “I just wrote a damn hit.” It was too easy.
I sent it to Madonna and she passed, but a week later, Alecia [a.k.a. Pink] called. She left me this really crazy message how she would come find me if I didn’t call her back. I saw what she looked like — she was a bling-bling girl — and I said, “I think you have the wrong Linda Perry.” She’s like, “Is this the Linda Perry who sang ‘Dear Mister President’ in 4 Non Blondes?” I’m like, “Yeah.” She’s like, “Well, I have the right person.” I had just written “Get the Party Started” and I go, “Well, I’ve got something I wrote last week,” and sent it to her. I guess she sent it to LA Reid and they said, “Okay we have our first single.”
(From Linda Perry: My life in 15 songs / Pop hitmaker looks back at a career in music that’s included collaborations with Christina Aguilera, Pink, Courtney Love and many more)
Full article on Rolling Stone website HERE