Carnie Wilson, daughter of Brian Wilson, has written a beautiful homage to late record producer Richard Perry on Instagram.
Carnie recalls how Perry was key to the beginning of Wilson Phillips, the group she was famously in with sister Wendy and Chynna Phillips.
Richard’s history with The Pointer Sisters encouraged Carnie to take his advice and counsel. What she doesn’t mention is that 20 years earlier, Richard has been the guiding light for the all girl band, Fanny.
“In 1986, Wendy, Chynna, Owen, and I took a chance one night and drove our car to (what was once Ronald Reagan’s home) music producer Richard Perry’s house. We had just formed a “group” and thought that we had a really cool sound. Chy’s Mom Michelle suggested we see her friend Richard Perry & sing for him. I remember the excitement as we drove up Doheny Drive and how nervous we were…but thrilled at the same time .
“We couldn’t believe that a producer of that magnitude agreed to meet with us. When we arrived, Richard rolled a joint and said “OK what do you got for me?” We had been singing a lot of Heart, Stevie Nicks, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac -practicing …so we decided to sing four words from Stevie Nicks’s song “Wild Heart”. We sang “dare my wild heart” and stopped. We said “so what do you think?” He said ” that’s it?… that’s all you’re gonna sing ,four words?” We said “yeah how do you like our sound?” He paused, took a hit off his joint and said “I see the Beatles”. We screamed. Then he said “I think you should name your group “Pretzels With Mustard”. He was clearly high from the joint… lol …we laughed hysterically.
“This was the beginning of our musical career. I’m grateful for a lot of things about Richard. He took us under his wing. He introduced us to a wonderful guy named Jim Tract . Jim was used to working with women because he worked with the The Pointer Sisters who we adored, so we trusted Jim. He taught us how to stand around a microphone together. Richard produced our very first record that we covered in the studio, which was “Mama Said” . I still have the demo on cassette.
“I’ll never forget those moments and those early days of recording. We were young and eager, hopeful and knew that we were on the road to something. He said we needed to write our own songs in order to be respected in this business. If we didn’t- we’d be looked at as spoiled, Beverly Hills children riding on the coat tails of our famous parents. That’s when the miracle happened and he brought us to @glen.ballard. Everything changed and we became a real group with songs we wrote and a vision. I’m forever grateful for u Richard. Rest in Peace and music.”
