Laurie Lindeen was the singer and guitarist for the ‘90s indie rock band Zuzu’s Petals, as well as an author and columnist.
- Died: July 1, 2024 (Who else died on July 1?)
- Details of death: Died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 62.
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Laurie Lindeen’s legacy
Lindeen cofounded Zuzu’s Petals in the late 1980s in Minneapolis. Formed at a promising time for women in rock music, the all-female band seemed poised in the early 1990s to make it big. However, their success was limited mainly to college radio, where singles like “Cinderella’s Daydream” and “Jackals” bubbled under. When the band packed it in after their sophomore 1994 album, Lindeen released a single solo LP before pivoting to a writing career.
In 2007, Atria Books published the Lindeen memoir “Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story,” and it was well received, but perhaps even more people read her columns and essays. Read in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere, Lindeen’s short nonfiction included the widely enjoyed “Johnny Goes to College.” It was a chronicle of driving her son to college for his freshman year alongside her ex-husband, Paul Westerberg, frontman of The Replacements.
In recent years, Lindeen continued writing and became a writing teacher. She had lived with multiple sclerosis since her 20s.
Notable quote
“I didn’t have an internship to learn how to do any of this. There wasn’t a Rock Camp for Girls. We chose to spend our time going to shows; it was the only thing going on at that time that was speaking to us.” — from a 2009 interview for Chicagoist
Tributes to Laurie Lindeen
Full obituary: Star Tribune
