Linda Perhacs, the revered folk singer-songwriter whose 1970 debut album Parallelograms eventually garnered a devoted cult following, has been reported missing. A coalition of her longtime friends and artistic collaborators—including former manager Laurel Stearns, Julia Holter, and DubLab co-founder Mark “Frosty” McNeill—have launched a public appeal to locate the 82-year-old musician. The group notes that they have not had contact with Perhacs for eight months and are urging anyone with information regarding her current location or well-being to reach out to Stearns directly.
Perhacs had been residing at an assisted living facility in California’s San Fernando Valley for the past eight years. According to reports, she was eventually discharged from the facility under the supervision of her caregivers. Since that time, however, both the musician and her legal guardians have remained unreachable despite repeated attempts by her friends to establish contact.
Laurel Stearns, who managed Perhacs from 2013 to 2016 and worked closely on the 2014 release of The Soul of All Natural Things, emphasized the urgency of the situation. “The most important thing is to make sure that she’s safe and she’s comfortable,” Stearns stated. Stearns officially filed a missing persons report with the Los Angeles Police Department on June 6. While the department conducted an investigation, they were unable to provide updates on Perhacs’ status to her friends, citing legal privacy restrictions regarding her guardianship.
The disappearance of the folk icon has sent ripples through the music community, where she is celebrated for her profound influence on the freak-folk movement. After her debut LP was rediscovered in the 2000s, her work was sampled by artists ranging from Daft Punk to Nas, and she became a significant inspiration for figures such as Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, and Devendra Banhart. Perhacs released her most recent studio album, I’m a Harmony, in 2017, which continued her legacy of collaborative, boundary-pushing sound.