Minneapolis musician-turned-writer Laurie Lindeen of Zuzu’s Petals dies at 62

When her memoir hit bookstores in 2007, Laurie Lindeen couldn’t complain about the reviews or reception, both glowing.

The singer/guitarist in the Twin Cities’ pioneering all-female rock band Zuzu’s Petals did have one gripe, though: Her life’s story was filed on bookshelves among music biographies and not with women’s books or general autobiographies.

“It’s shelved in between John Lennon and Marilyn Manson,” she groaned in a Star Tribune interview at the time. “It’s driving me crazy. I go in one store a day and go: `No woman is going to come back here!’”

Seventeen years after the publication of “Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story” — and 30 years since the band it was based on packed it in — Lindeen died unexpectedly Monday of a brain aneurysm at age 62, according to friends.

She had moved to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., two years ago and she is said to have visited the beach that day.

Close friend and fellow Minneapolis musician John Eller saw her East Coast move as the last in a steady line of bold moves.

Other gambits on Lindeen’s list included becoming an author, a New York Times-published essayist, a college and grammar school writing teacher, a mother, and a wife to a rock star, Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg — all after her own 1990s-era music career with Zuzu’s Petals.

“She announced to all of us she was moving to Martha’s Vineyard, and we thought, ‘How are you going to swing that?’” Eller recounted. “She did it, of course, and loved it.”

Lindeen showed similar gumption when she left her native Madison, Wis., for Minneapolis in 1987 with the goal of starting a band. Never mind that she had recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and that she and her bandmate, Coleen Elwood, were both music novices.

“She told me: ‘All my friends are here, all the best bands are here, you gotta move here,’” recalled Elwood, emphasizing another friend’s description of her as “a joyful instigator.”

“She was just so fun. How could I not come here to start a band with her?”

Named after the rose petals carried by James Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Zuzu’s Petals quickly became a fan favorite at venues including the 400 Bar, 7th St. Entry and Uptown Bar & Grill. The trio recorded a debut four-song cassette with help from Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum and Gary Louris of the Jayhawks while Lindeen also worked as a waitress at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown.

After recruiting second drummer Linda Pitmon — who’s returning to the Twin Cities this weekend with members of R.E.M. in the Baseball Project — Zuzu’s Petals got more serious, hit the road (and Europe) and released two full-length albums for Twin/Tone Records, 1992′s “When No One’s Looking” and 1994′s “The Music of Your Life.”

“They just ripped,” recounted former Pioneer Press and City Pages music scribe Jim Walsh, who later served as a witness at Lindeen and Westerberg’s courthouse wedding.

“When you talk about the ‘90s grunge thing and bands making all that wonderful guitar noise of that era, you have to save a place for Zuzu’s Petals.”

American Public Media Group operations director Ali Lozoff, who was recruited at age 20 to help manage Zuzu’s Petals, remembered the difficulty the band sometimes faced getting gigs despite being on a reputable record label.

“As much as we all loved the other all-female bands in town,” Lozoff said, ticking off a list that included Babes in Toyland and Smut, “a lot of clubs still didn’t want to book more than one of those bands on a bill.”

Zuzu’s Petals’ successes and foils alongside Lindeen’s steadfast feminism were humorously and bluntly covered in “Petal Pusher,” a book that Publishers Weekly called “sharp and sensitive, stoned silly and serious, all in the right places.” Lindeen wrote the memoir after earning a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Minnesota while also raising her son with Westerberg, Johnny.

“She loved her years in the band,” ex-bandmate Pitmon noted, “but when she walked away from it she was very done. And I don’t think she regretted it because it allowed her to become a mother and write her memoir, which were the two accomplishments she was most proud of.”

One of her best-loved writing pieces was a 2017 essay for the New York Times, “Johnny Goes to College,” which tearfully and humorously recounted driving her son to college in Colorado with her “professional rebel” ex-husband.

“At IHOP he ordered pancakes slathered in whipped cream and strawberries,” Lindeen wrote of her son. “This kid is clearly too young to be on his own.”

Lindeen still performed occasionally onstage, including at the annual David Bowie feline-rescue fundraiser tribute at First Avenue, shows that were co-led by Eller with Lindeen’s former sister-in-law, ex-Current DJ Mary Lucia. First Ave posted a tribute to Lindeen on Tuesday calling her “a dominant force in the ‘80s and ‘90s female rock movement in Minneapolis.”

She mostly focused on teaching in recent years, offering writing and literature lessons at the University of St. Thomas, St. Cloud State University, the Loft Literary Center and grammar schools. She also led writing retreats at Madeline Island in Wisconsin and other locations and worked as a coach-for-hire helping kids write college entrance essays.

One of her most recent writings, titled “My Third Act” and published by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, detailed her move to Martha’s Vineyard with her new partner, Jim Diem.

“After COVID, online teaching, losing my best friend suddenly to heart failure, followed by the decline and deaths of my mother and my best dog,” Lindeen wrote, “I decided to take a leap of faith and move toward a meaningful and courageous Act Three of my life.”

Said Elwood, “I’d never seen her more happy or more fulfilled. She loved teaching. She loved living on Martha’s Vineyard. She had a great boyfriend. That’s what makes this so much harder.”

Family memorial information has not yet been issued for Lindeen. She is also survived by her father, Lance Lindeen of Northville, Mich., and three siblings, Megan Lindeen of Madison, Hillary Benson of Hilton Head, S.C., and Chris Lindeen of Santa Fe, N.M.