Linda Ronstadt

Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.

She has earned 11

Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating.[24] She released her final solo album in 2004 and her final collaborative album in 2006 and performed her final live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease but later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy.^[24][a] Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir,^[25] in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.

Early life

Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in

Ronstadt had a Roman Catholic upbringing^[29] and was raised on the family's 10-acre (4 ha) ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's chief of police from 1981 to 1991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.^[30]

Ronstadt family history

Ronstadt's father came from a

Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven.^[37] His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.^[38]

Career summary

Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging

With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade.^{[40][41][42][43]} Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock"^[31][44] and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s.^[31] Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.

In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance,^[45] teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off,^[46] and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love; What's New; Canciones de Mi Padre; and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.^[47] Most of Ronstadt's albums are

Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.^[52]

Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own records – rock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachi – is all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.^[51][53]

Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense."^[55] She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.

She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday".^[31] Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever."^[56] She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".^[57]

A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.^[53]

Beginning of professional career

At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers".^[58] Their repertoire included the music they grew up on – folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican.^[59] But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll,^[43] and in 1964, after a semester at the University of Arizona,^[60] the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.^[61][62][63]

The Stone Poneys

Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson,

Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.^[40] During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.

Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for

Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album.^[66] The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).

Touring

Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band

Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims."^[58] Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.^[71]

In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals.^[72] In these shows she would sing lead vocal on numerous songs including the Eagles' Desperado while singing background and playing tambourine and acoustic guitar on others.^[73]

Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours"^[41] she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit.

Being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. In a 1976

There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided.[76] Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level.^[62] She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band.^[76] According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.^[77]

Collaborations with Peter Asher

Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".^[78]

The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grown – this time hitting the Country Top 20.

With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends,"^[79] which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.^[78]

Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously.^[58] Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio.^[78] Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer^[80] and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with," he said.^[78]

Asher executive produced a tribute CD called

Vocal styles

I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals.

—Linda Ronstadt, on reconciling her musical instincts with rock 'n' roll.^[58]

Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera music – which she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass" – and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots.^[82] Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.^[83]

Interpretive singer

Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times",^[84] and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs.^[85] Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks.^[58] An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.

Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."^[86]

Music is meant to lighten your load. By singing it ... you release (the sadness). And release yourself ... an exercise in exorcism. ... You exorcise that emotion ... and diminish sadness and feel joy.

—Linda Ronstadt^[87]

Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930s – music which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics.^[88] Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."^[89]

In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."^[62]

By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.^[79]

Most successful female singer of the 1970s

Author

Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade.^[91] Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award,^[92] as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.^[31]

Her album covers, posters, magazine covers – her entire rock 'n' roll image – were as famous as her music.

Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."[95]

With the release of Heart Like a Wheel‍—‌named after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigle‍—‌Ronstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart;^[96] it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum^[97] (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.

Heart Like a Wheel's first single release, "

The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award[99] for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.

Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.

In September 1975, Ronstadt's album

, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.

In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboard's Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum^[97] album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.

At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album

Kosh

, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.

Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts.^[102] Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."^[59]

Also in 1977, she was asked by the

U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.^[103]

Time and "rock chick" image

Ronstadt said she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)".[15] Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.^[15]

By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music.^[39] In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants.^[39] In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."^[104]

Her 1977 appearance on the cover Time under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock.^[15][105] At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear,^[106] Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover,^[15] and she noted how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project.^[15] In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning^[107] and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about."^[106] Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold".^[80] Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.^[77]

In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer."^[42] She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies).^[41] The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.

At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).^[108]

Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album^[39] and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.

Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."^[109]

Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice".^{[110][111][112]} On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."^[42]

Highest-paid woman in rock

Rock is the thumping heart of Linda's music, and the rock world is dominated by males. The biggest stars are male, and so are the back-up musicians ... rock beats are ... phallic, and lyrics ... masculine. ... Janis Joplin, the first great white woman rocker, rattled the bars ... but she died. ... Joni Mitchell ... stylish (but can't) compete in drawing power with men ... (however) Linda Ronstadt ... has made herself one of the biggest individual rock draws in the world.

—Time magazine, in 1977^[94]

New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum, August 16, 1978^[113]

By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans,[31] Ronstadt became the "highest-paid woman in rock".^[41] She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charting pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million^[31] (equivalent to $56,000,000 in 2023)^[114] and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 million – grossing over $60 million^[115] (equivalent to $280,000,000 in 2023).^[114]

As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus",

RIAA for seven-times platinum in 2001^[97] (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.^[97]

In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the

the Forum

, in Los Angeles.

By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPs – Hasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them.[116] Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock"^[115] and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."^[115]

She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting

The Great American Songbook – made famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald

 – and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.

From rock to operetta

Rampant eclecticism is my middle name.

—Linda Ronstadt[67]

In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.^[117]

She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "

Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"^[118]

In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals.

Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.^[52]

The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival

.

As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera

Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.^[121]

In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When" – a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royal – while the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.

Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the

NBC radio stations in the United States.^[122]

In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi Padre – A Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.[123]

Artistic aspirations

Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since."^[124] By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million^[125] mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.

In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid.^{[126][127][128]} At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere".^[129] Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."^[130]

Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas.^[131] She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture" – a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.^[132]

Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.^[49]

Jazz/pop trilogy

In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview.^[133] But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told DownBeat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her.^[134] Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.^[135]

By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983‍—‌U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984‍—‌U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986‍—‌U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.

I now realize I was taking a tremendous risk, and that Joe Smith (the head of Elektra Records, and strongly opposed) was looking out for himself, and for me. When it became apparent I wouldn't change my mind, he said: "I love Nelson so much! Can I please come to the sessions." I said "Yes." When the albums ... were successful, Joe congratulated me, and I never said "I told you so."

—Linda Ronstadt^[136]

The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a

Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."^[137]

Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Rain – a Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience.^[135] Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.

What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra,^[138] which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life.^[138] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print."^[139] What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.^[139]

In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in

concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob

.

In 2004, Ronstadt released

traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.^[23]

"Trio" recordings

When (we) sang, it was a beautiful and different sound I've never heard before. We (recorded the vocals) as individual parts, because we didn't have the luxury of spending a lot of time together on a tour bus ... and knowing each other's (vocal) moves ... takes years.

—Linda Ronstadt[58]

In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.

In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.

In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio time‍—‌and owed her record company a finished album‍—‌removed Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.

However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the

After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album

.

Canciones de Mi Padre

Main article: Canciones de Mi Padre

At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.

These

canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre.^[140] Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American.^[141] Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family.^[142] In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida" – a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.^[52]

Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.

(I obtained) enough clout and ... after years and years of making commercial records, I was entitled to experiment ... the success of the (Nelson Riddle albums) ... entitled me to try the Mexican stuff.

—Linda Ronstadt^[67]

Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement.

Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program

.

Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released

Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album

.

In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.

In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[143]

Returning to the contemporary music scene

By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "

Dreams to Dream

". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.

In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles.

Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albums – in production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum^[97] (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations.^[144]

Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.

Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989^[98]) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast.^[57] ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")^[145]

In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.^[146]

Return to roots music

Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboard's Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.^[147]

In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.

In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.

Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album

Nielsen SoundScan.^{[citation needed}

]

Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at

Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."^[148]

In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".

Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.

Your musical soul is like facets of a jewel, and you stick out one facet at a time ... (and) I tend to work real hard on whatever it is I do, to get it up to speed, up to a professional level. I tend to bury myself in one thing for years at a time.

—Linda Ronstadt^[39]

In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar

the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

.

In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song – a tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artist – on the track "Miss Otis Regrets".^[149]

In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.

In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.

Retirement

In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement.^[47] In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she had Parkinson's disease and could "no longer sing a note."^[150] Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.^[24] Her memoir Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands was published in 2022.^[151]

Selected career achievements

On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[152] In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.^[153] On May 7, 2022, during the International Mariachi Conference, the Tucson Music Hall at the Tucson Convention Center was officially renamed as The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.^[154]

As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number-one pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums, and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number one. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number-one hit and three number-two hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number-one hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote that a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."^[86]

She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies". In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away", with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.

Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris,

the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman

.

Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release

Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold as of 2001.^[97] Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s.^[41] She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade".^[31] "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324.^[155]

The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.

Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million.

Canciones De Mi Padre

, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 21⁄2 million U.S. copies.

Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin,

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks.

CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Ronstadt at No. 47 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.^[160]

Personal life

In the early 1970s, Ronstadt briefly dated fellow musician

presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979,^[161] as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People

magazine.

In 1983, Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months.^[162] From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director and creator George Lucas.^[163]

In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt.

Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"^[167]

In the late 1980s, after living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California.[165] "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me."^[56] In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children.^[165] In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.

In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the

Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.^[168]

In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography,^[169][170] Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños Sencillos – Memorias Musicales.^[171]

In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite.^[172][173] In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.^[24]

Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual

atheist".^[174]

Political activism

Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the

Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore.^[175] Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."^[175]

Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises.[176] Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.^[177]

The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times.^[178] Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin.^[57] Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.

At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have died‍—‌it's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".^[179]

In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in

Tucson.^[180] That same year, she drew criticism and praise^[181] from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.^[182]

In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to

PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."^[183]

On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight" – as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement family – was the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.^[184]

On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit,

SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.^[186]

Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)",^[163] and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.^[187]

National arts advocacy

In the United States we spend millions of dollars on sports because it promotes teamwork, discipline, and the experience of learning to make great progress in small increments. Learning to play music together does all this and more.

—Congressional testimony from Linda Ronstadt^[188]

In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music,^[189] and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.^[190]

Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with

ALMA Awards,^[192] a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC

.

In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed artistic director of the

National Endowment of the Arts.^[194]

In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture.^[196] Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".^[58]

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1971	Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female	"Long, Long Time"	Nominated	[197]
1976	Album of the Year	Heart Like a Wheel	Nominated
	Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female		Nominated
	Best Country Vocal Performance, Female	"I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)"	Won
1977	Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female	Hasten Down the Wind	Won
1978		"Blue Bayou"	Nominated
	Record of the Year		Nominated
1981	Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female	"How Do I Make You"	Nominated
1983		"Get Closer"	Nominated
	Best Female Vocal Pop Performance	Get Closer	Nominated
1984		What's New	Nominated
1986		Lush Life	Nominated
1988	Album of the Year	Trio (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris)	Nominated
	Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal		Won
	Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals	"Somewhere Out There" (with James Ingram)	Nominated
1989	Best Mexican-American Performance	Canciones de Mi Padre	Won
1990	Best Female Vocal Pop Performance	Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind	Nominated
	Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals	"Don't Know Much" (with Aaron Neville)	Won
1991		"All My Life" (with Aaron Neville)	Won
1993	Best Tropical Latin Album	Frenesí	Won
	Best Mexican-American Album	Mas Canciones	Won
1997	Best Musical Album for Children	Dedicated to the One I Love	Won
2000	Best Country Album	Trio II (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris)	Nominated
	Best Contemporary Folk Album	Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (with Emmylou Harris)	Nominated
	Best Country Collaboration with Vocals	"After the Gold Rush" (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris)	Won
2007	Best Traditional Folk Album	Adieu False Heart (with Ann Savoy)	Nominated
2016	Lifetime Achievement Award		Won
2021	Best Music Film	Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice	Won

• In
  Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon
  .

Latin Grammy Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
2011	Lifetime Achievement Award		Won	[198]

Primetime Emmy Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1989	Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program	Canciones de Mi Padre (Great Performances)	Won	[199]

Tony Awards

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1981	Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical	The Pirates of Penzance	Nominated

Golden Globe Awards

• 1983 – Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1983	Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical	The Pirates of Penzance	Nominated

Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame

• 2007 – Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona

Academy of Country Music

• 1974 – Best New Female Artist
• 1987 – Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris

Country Music Association

• 1988 – Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris

American Latino Media Arts

• 2008 – Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music[200]

Lo Nuestro nominations

• 1989 – Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist^[201]
• 1992 – Regional Mexican Female Artist^[202]
• 1993 – Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").^[203]

Kennedy Center

• 2019 Kennedy Center Honoree

Discography

Main articles: Linda Ronstadt albums discography and Linda Ronstadt singles discography

Studio albums

• Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (1968) (with the Stone Poneys)
• Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969)
• Silk Purse (1970)
• Linda Ronstadt (1972)
• Don't Cry Now (1973)
• Heart Like a Wheel (1974)
• Prisoner in Disguise (1975)
• Hasten Down the Wind (1976)
• Simple Dreams (1977)
• Living in the USA (1978)
• Mad Love (1980)
• Get Closer (1982)
• What's New (1983)
• Lush Life (1984)
• For Sentimental Reasons (1986)
• Trio (1987) (with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton)
• Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
• Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)
• Mas Canciones (1991)
• Frenesí (1992)
• Winter Light (1993)
• Feels Like Home (1995)
• Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)
• We Ran (1998)
• Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton)
• Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)
• A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
• Hummin' to Myself (2004)
• Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)

Videography, filmography and stage appearances

Main article: List of Linda Ronstadt performances

Books

• Ronstadt, Linda (2013). Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir (First Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.). New York:
  OCLC 829743967
  .
• Ronstadt, Linda (2022). Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands. New York:
  OCLC 1290245461
  .

Explanatory notes

1. ^ Ronstadt was initially diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which she publicly revealed in 2013. However, it was reported in late 2019 that doctors have revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, which is commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of symptoms.

References

1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Linda Ronstadt > Biography". AllMusic. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
2. ^ Manheim, James. "Gary Morris Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved July 22, 2023. he appeared with another former progressive country singer, Linda Ronstadt, in the Broadway adaptation of Puccini's opera La Bohème
3. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Grammys.com. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
4. ^ "2014 Induction Ceremony The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. October 16, 2013. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
5. Daily News. New York. Associated Press. July 28, 2014. Archived
   from the original on November 25, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
6. ^ Silverman, Stephen M. (July 20, 2004). "Ronstadt Booted After Pro-Moore Comment". People. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
7. ^ "Interview: Linda Ronstadt defends her politics". Edmonton Sun. August 10, 2006. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
8. ^ Kruger, Debbie (July 19, 1998). "Everlasting Linda". The Weekend Australian. Archived from the original on October 31, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
9. ^ "Linda Ronstadt: Female Rocker". Fusion. December 26, 1969. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
10. ^ "A Heart To Heart with Linda Ronstadt". Creem. December 1976. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
11. ^ "Interview". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
12. ^ "Linda Ronstadt rocks with jazz sophistication". August 4, 2007. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
13. ^ "Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes". The Honolulu Advertiser. March 31, 2006. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
14. ^ "Linda Ronstadt: Melancholy Baby". Esquire. October 1985. Archived from the original on March 16, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
15. ^
    Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!. NPR. April 28, 2007. Archived
    from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
16. ^ Some of the content of the lead section is supported by these news items:^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]}
17. ^ Hermanson, Wendy (June 26, 2018). "Faith Hill, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt Getting Stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame". Taste of Country. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
18. ^ "Powerful Country Women Getting Stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame". Taste of Country. June 27, 2018. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
19. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
20. ^ "Don't Know Much". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on June 3, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
21. ^ "Disc 2, October 1969: Featuring Linda Ronstadt, Joe Cocker, Billy Eckstine, Mort Sahl, and Sid Caesar, God Bless the Child Linda Ronstadt and Billy Eckstine Duet". Playboy After Dark DVD Collection. Archived from the original on August 21, 2006. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
22. ^ Partridge, Tony (September 12, 2006). "Linda Ronstadt Guest Appearances and Unique Recordings" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 9, 2008. Retrieved August 30, 2007.http://lyricswww.ronstadt-linda.com/guestapp.doc Archived November 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
23. ^ ^{a b} Loudon, Christopher (December 2004). "Linda Ronstadt: Hummin' to Myself (Verve)". JazzTimes. Archived from the original on April 13, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2007.
24. ^ ^{a b c d} McCarthy, Ellen (December 3, 2019). "Linda Ronstadt never stopped singing". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 4, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
25. OCLC 829743967
    .
26. ISBN 978-0-199-84044-1
    .
27. ^ "Borderman: Memoirs of Federico José María Ronstadt". University of Arizona Press. 2003. Archived from the original on February 10, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
28. ISBN 0-89015-775-8
    .
29. ^ Gross, Terry (October 22, 2022). "Linda Ronstadt: The 'Fresh Air' interview". WWNO. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023.
30. ^ Ronstadt, Deborah J. (1953). "Gilbert Ronstadt Was Born in 1911". Family Circle. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved May 17, 2007.
31. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Vallely, Jean (April 1980). "Playboy Interview: Linda Ronstadt". Playboy. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
32. ^ "Tucson's Ronstadt Family". Through Our Parents' Eyes: History and Culture of Southern Arizona. Arizona Library. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
33. ^ "The Ronstadt Family". The University of Arizona Archives. Archived from the original on September 4, 2006. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
34. ^ "The People". Early Pioneers of Tucson. September 2011. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2007.
35. ^ McLeese, Don (June 1992). "Songs from Her Heart". Ford Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2006.http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/ford_times.html Archived March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
36. ^ Bluestein, T (August 1991). "Tucson Opens Ronstadt Transit Center". Bus World. Vol. 13, no. 4. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
37. ISBN 978-1-4516-6872-8
    .
38. ^ "LloydCopeman.com Prolific U.S. Inventor". LloydCopeman.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
39. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} DeYoung, Bill (February 21, 2003). "Home at Last: The Journey of Linda Ronstadt". Goldmine. No. 589. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
40. ^ ^{a b c d e} McGrath, T. J. (June–July 2003). "Linda Ronstadt Silver Threads & Golden Needles". Dirty Linen Issue No. 106. Archived from the original on July 17, 2004. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
41. ^
    ISBN 9780802138996. Archived
    from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
42. ^
    ISBN 9780312034863. Archived
    from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2012 – via Google Books.
43. ^ ^{a b} Hamill, Pete (July 21, 1980). Linda Ronstadt, Pirate Queen. p. 23. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
44. ^ Connelly, Christopher (October 13, 1983). "What's New – Album Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
45. ^ Gioia, Michael (August 26, 2013). "Tony Nominee and Grammy Winner Linda Ronstadt Diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and Is Unable to Sing". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
46. ^ Bruns, Mary Ellin (January 8, 1984). "Ronstadt: The Gamble Pays Off Big". Family Weekly. Archived from the original on January 5, 2008. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
47. ^ ^{a b} Burch, Cathalena E. (April 22, 2011). "Ronstadt: Legacy 'Belongs 100 Percent to Nelson'". Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on July 22, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
48. ^ "RIAA – Gold & Platinum Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on January 4, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2012. (Search for "Ronstadt, Linda")
49. ^ ^{a b c} "Linda Ronstadt Top Pop Albums". Joel Whitburn presents the Billboard Albums 6th ed. (2007). ronstadt-linda.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2007.
50. ^ "Linda Ronstadt Record Sales Page". lindaronstadt.de. Linda Ronstadt (DE) fan site. Archived from the original on November 8, 2010. Retrieved November 15, 2010.^{[dubious – discuss]}
51. ^ ^{a b c} Kruger, Debbie (June 17, 1998). "Linda Ronstadt Interview 17 June 1998 at Linda's home in Tucson, Arizona". debbiekruger.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
52. ^ ^{a b c} Leach, Anita Mabante (August 2007). "Linda Ronstadt : The music legend opens up to AARP Segunda Juventud Online". Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
53. ^ ^{a b} Burlingame, Burl. "Silver threads golden moments: After 35 years, Linda Ronstadt returns to sing in Diamond Head Crater". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Archived from the original on August 8, 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
54. ^ McGrath, T.J. "Linda Ronstadt: Silver Threads & Golden Needles". No. #106 – June/July 2003. Dirty Linen. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
55. ^ "Sanity on the Line Every Show". Hit Parader. February 1971. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
56. ^ ^{a b} Holden, Stephen (April 19, 1995). "At Lunch With: Linda Ronstadt; And This Is What 48 Looks Like". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
57. ^ ^{a b c} "Linda Ronstadt: Forum with Michael Krasny" (MP3, transcript). KQED-FM radio. July 19, 2006. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
58. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Daley, Dan (December 1, 2000). "Linda Ronstadt". Mix. Archived from the original on November 13, 2005. Retrieved May 7, 2007.http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/linda-ronstadt/365380 Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
59. ^ ^{a b} Barnard, Russ (October 1978). "Linda Ronstadt: The Queen of Rock & Roll is also a Queen of Country Music". Country Music. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
60. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". University of Arizona Alumni. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
61. ^ ^{a b} Lewis, Randy (August 20, 2010). "Linda Ronstadt remembers Kenny Edwards: 'A beacon to me'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 23, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
62. ^ ^{a b c d} Orloff, Katherine (1974). Rock 'n' Roll Woman. Nash Pub. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
63. ISBN 0-8256-3918-2
    .
64. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Rhapsody. Archived from the original on July 4, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2009.
65. ^ "Remington Electric Razor". The Linda Ronstadt Download Center. westhamptonpg personal webpage. Archived from the original on December 17, 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2007.
66. ^ "Linda Ronstadt's 1969–1974 Capitol Records Solo Output Presented in New 2-CD Collection, 'The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years'" (Press release). PR Newswire. November 8, 2005. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved September 30, 2007.
67. ^ ^{a b c} Shapiro, Gregg (February 1, 2003). "The Very Best: Linda Ronstadt". Windy City Times. Archived from the original on November 21, 2006. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
68. ^ jason (May 20, 2007). "Swampwater "Swampwater"". The Rising Storm. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
69. ^ Roberts, John (May 2003). "John Beland". The Barking Spider. Archived from the original on August 3, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
70. ^ "Gib Guilbeau, 1970–1972". Swampwater. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
71. ^ See generally Tom King, The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood, p. 159, 173, Broadway Books (New York 2001).
72. ISBN 978-0-306-81398-6. Retrieved December 15, 2016.^{[permanent dead link}
    ]
73. ^ "The Eagles Long Run Live | Full Music Documentary Movie | Don Henley | Linda Ronstadt". YouTube. Archived from the original on March 1, 2023. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
74. ^ Crowe, Cameron (December 2, 1976). "Linda Ronstadt: The Million-Dollar Woman". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
75. Crawdaddy
    , June 1974.
76. ^ ^{a b} Senoff, Pete (December 26, 1969). "Female Rocker Roundup: Linda Ronstadt, Lynn Carey, Lydia Pense, Nansi Nevins – Part 1". Fusion. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
77. ^ ^{a b} Senoff, Pete (December 26, 1969). "Female Rocker Roundup: Linda Ronstadt, Lynn Carey, Lydia Pense, Nansi Nevins – Part 2". Fusion Magazine. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012. (Part 1 Archived March 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine)
78. ^
    ISBN 978-0-87930-590-1. Archived
    from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
79. ^ ^{a b} "And then there were two ... Linda Ronstadt talks about her friend Emmylou Harris, and about the unhappy end of the Trio project". Goldmine. August 2, 1996. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
80. ^ ^{a b} Ryder, Caroline (October 2007). "Peter Asher Interview". Swindle. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
81. ^ "Listen To Me: Buddy Holly Tribute CD Out Sept. 6th". AltSounds.com. July 26, 2011. Archived from the original on October 3, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
82. ^ "Gypsy Eyes, Interview 1968". Cleveland Scene. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
83. ^ "Sexy new sweetheart for country western". Country Western Stars. March 1970. Archived from the original on January 9, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2008.
84. ^ Varga, George (November 21, 2004). "A 'song interpreter' for her times: Linda Ronstadt is ready to give jazz another whirl". U-T San Diego. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
85. ^ ^{a b} "'Courageous' singer plunges back into pop-music mainstream". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
86. ^ ^{a b} "Artists: Linda Ronstadt Bio, Pictures, Video". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 2, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
87. ^ "Linda Ronstadt's New Old Flame- Mexican Music 1. "I'm Not Good at Doing What I'm Told"". American Way. April 1, 1988. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
88. ^ Caffery, Joshua Clegg (July 26, 2006). "Songbird Sisters: South Louisiana's Ann Savoy teams up with pop icon Linda Ronstadt for their new CD, Adieu False Heart". The Independent Weekly. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2007.
89. ^ "Everlasting Linda (Interview 17 June 1998 in Tucson, AZ)". Linda Ronstadt. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
90. ISBN 978-0-88347-234-7
    . Retrieved November 25, 2012.
91. ^ "The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, September 24, 2002". Official Amazon Review. Archived from the original on December 18, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2007.
92. ^ "Cashbox". Special Decade Award. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2007.
93. ^ Kaye, Elizabeth. "Linda Ronstadt: Why Is She the Queen of Lonely?". Redbook. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
94. ^ ^{a b} "Linda Down The Wind". Time (subscription required). February 28, 1977. Archived from the original on September 28, 2008. Retrieved August 2, 2008.
95. ^ ^{a b} Windeler, Robert (November 17, 1975). "When Will She Be Loved? Linda Ronstadt Finds the Time, at Last, Is Now". People. Archived from the original on January 7, 2007. Retrieved May 18, 2007.
96. ^ Caulfield, Keith (April 18, 2014). "Linda Ronstadt Rocks Highest-Charting Album in 24 Years". Billboard. Archived from the original on August 27, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
97. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} RIAA. "RIAA – Gold & Platinum". Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
98. ^
    ISBN 0-8230-7677-6
99. ^ "The GRAMMYs: Past Winners Search". Archived from the original on December 25, 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
100. ^ "Billboard Dec 3, 1977". Billboard. Vol. 121, no. 2. December 3, 1977. p. 65. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
101. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived
     from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
102. ^ "Ronstadt Facts, Investigative International Sales". Linda Ronstadt Record Sales Information Page (German Site). Archived from the original on November 8, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
103. ^ "Linda Ronstadt Singing the National Anthem at Game three of World Series". Archived from the original on July 22, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2007 – via YouTube.
104. ^ Rockwell, John (October 14, 1977). "Linda Ronstadt: Her Soft-Core Charms". New Times. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
105. ^ Rockwell, John. "Living in the USA". In Greil Marcus (ed.). Stranded – Rock and Roll for a Desert Island. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
106. ^ ^{a b} "Homecoming Queen, April 1995". Mojo. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
107. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". CBS News. December 5, 2004. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
108. ^ "Congratulations". Billboard. December 23, 1978. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2007.
109. ^ "Tour Reflections and Simple Dreams". The Hit Parader Interview. March 1978. Archived from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
110. ^ "Ronstadt and Rolling Stones, July 21, 1978". Photos. iorr.org forum. Archived from the original on June 13, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
111. ^ "Why Linda Ronstadt Still Matters to Tucson". September 12, 2013. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
112. ^ "Rolling Stones U.S. Tour 1978". MyEtymology.com/SpeedyLook. July 21, 1978. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
113. ^ "Linda Ronstadt: Black & White Photo Aug 16, 1978 New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum (New Haven, CT)" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, wolfgangsvault.com
114. ^ ^{a b} "The Inflation Calculator". The following form adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index. Archived from the original on May 29, 2008. Retrieved August 10, 2009.
115. ^ ^{a b c} Ward, Ed (February 21, 1978). "The Queens of Rock: Ronstadt, Mitchell, Simon and Nicks talk of their men, music and life on the road". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
116. ^ "On the Charts and in Men's Hearts Linda Ronstadt is No. 1 With a Bullet". People. October 24, 1977. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
117. ^ "Years after giving up singing, Linda Ronstadt is back on the charts with 'Live in Hollywood'". Los Angeles Times. February 9, 2019. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
118. ^ "Pat Benatar: Rock's Reluctant Sex Symbol". Record Review, December 1980. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2007.
119. ^ "Rock Queen Conquers Broadway and Lives Happily Ever After". Hit Parader. September 1981. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
120. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.http://www.ibdb.com/Person/View/58306 Archived March 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
121. ^ Kroll, Jack (December 10, 1984). "A Pop Star Goes Puccini". Newsweek. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
122. ^ "Linda Ronstadt Live. On Radio [advertisement]". Billboard. The Source (NBC). 1982. Archived from the original on November 28, 2007. Retrieved November 4, 2007.
123. ^ "Linda Ronstadt's Canciones". Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.http://www.ibdb.com/Person/View/58306 Archived March 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
124. ^ Saitowitz, Paul (May 31, 2007). "Linda Ronstadt to Play at Fantasy Springs". Press-Enterprise. Riverside, California. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2007.
125. ^ "What's New with Linda Ronstadt? She's Singing Her Love Songs to Star Wars Czar George Lucas". People. March 26, 1984. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
126. ^ Latham, Aaron (August 18, 1983). "Linda Ronstadt: Snow White in South Africa". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 29, 2013. (subscription required)
127. ISBN 0-679-73015-X
     (via robertchristgau.com). Retrieved January 29, 2013.
128. ^ Santoro, Gene (March 12, 1988). "Miriam Makeba. (Music) (column)"^{[dead link]}. The Nation
129. ^ Wilson, John M. (May 19, 1985). "UN`s `Register` Of Performers Raises Blacklist Spectre In S. Africa Boycott" Archived April 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
130. ^ Fricke, David (October 23, 1986). "Paul Simon: African Odyssey". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
131. ^ DeYoung, Bill. "Goldmine, #589, February 21, 2003". Home at Last: The Journey of Linda Ronstadt. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
132. ^ Boone, M. (July 18, 2007). "Great Musicians and Their Legions of Paying Fans Deserve a Great Venue". Gazette (Montreal). Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
133. ^ Cocks, Jay; Worrell, Denise (September 26, 1983). "Linda Leads the Band". Time. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2009.
134. ^ Bloom, Steve (July 1985). "An Intimate Conversation with Linda Ronstadt". DownBeat. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
135. ^ ^{a b} "The Peter Levinson Interview". Jerry Jazz Musician. April 20, 2002. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
136. ^ Varga, George (November 2004). "A 'song interpreter' for her times". U-T San Diego. Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
137. ^ "Music: Linda Leads the Band". Time (subscription required). September 26, 1983. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2007.
138. ^ ^{a b} "Peter Levinson (Interview)". jerryjazzmusician.com. April 20, 2002. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
139. ^ ^{a b} Holden, Stephen (September 4, 1983). "Linda Ronstadt Celebrate the Golden Age of Pop". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2007.
140. ^ Griffith, James S. "The Singing Ronstadts and Canciones de mi Padre – A Musical Family". Tucson'sRonstadtFamily. Archived from the original on June 15, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
141. ^ "American Way". Linda Ronstadt's New Old Flame- Mexican Music. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
142. ^ Herbst, Peter. "The Rolling Stone Interview". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 22, 2006. Retrieved October 19, 2006.
143. ^ "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Welcomes 2021 Inductions: A Tribe Called Quest, Billie Holiday, Journey, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen And More". Recording Academy. December 21, 2020. Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
144. ^ "Artist Linda Ronstadt". Recording Academy Grammy Awards. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
145. The Times-Picayune
     .
146. ^ Suzuki, Hisataka; MacKenzie, Shiona (November 9, 2001). "John Lennon Super Live – Japan". Dream Power. Archived from the original on May 28, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
147. ^ Lannert, John (March 30, 1993). "Secada Lead Latin Noms Following Grammy Win". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 10. p. 10. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
148. ^ "The Eagles to Perform at Staples Center". Staples Center. May 6, 1999. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
149. ^ Linda Ronstadt Archived October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Rock on the Net.
150. ^ Mansfield, Brian (August 23, 2013). "Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's Disease – The Grammy-Winning Singer Revealed Her Condition to AARP Friday" Archived August 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. USA Today. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
151. ^ Brown, Jeffrey; Jackson, Lena I. (October 5, 2022). "Singer Linda Ronstadt reflects on her roots in new book". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
152. ^ " Linda Ronstadt Archived August 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. "Linda Ronstadt : inducted in 2014 | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum".
153. ^ "Sally Field, Linda Ronstadt and 'Sesame Street' Among 2019 Kennedy Center Honorees". Variety. July 18, 2019. Archived from the original on July 24, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
154. ^ Kelly Presnell (May 8, 2022). "The Tucson Music Hall renamed for Grammy and Emmy Award winner Linda Ronstadt". The Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on May 8, 2022. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
155. ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" Archived January 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Rolling Stone.
156. ^ "Linda Ronstadt – Hit Parade Hall of Fame". March 4, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
157. ^ "Homecoming Queen". Mojo. April 1995. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2007.
158. ^ Bailey, Rich (January 2002). "Dennis James interview". Archived from the original on March 17, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
159. ISBN 0-87930-666-1
160. ^ "The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time". Rolling Stone. January 1, 2023. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
161. ^ Mathews, Tom; Kasindorf, Martin; Huck, Janet (April 23, 1979). "The Pop Politics of Jerry Brown – The Ballad of Jerry and Linda". Newsweek. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved November 12, 2006.
162. ^ "Movie Star Jim Carrey Stops By" (Interview). Interviewed by Howard Stern. October 28, 2014. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
163. ^ ^{a b} Schwartz, Jonathan. "Linda Ronstadt – Checking in with the Ex-Flower Child at Home in Tucson". Us Weekly. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
164. ^ Fink, Mitchell (September 16, 1991). "The Insider". People Weekly. Vol. 1991, no. 33. p. 33. Singer Linda Ronstadt quietly became a single parent earlier this year. She has adopted an infant girl and named her Mary Clementine Ronstadt.
165. ^ ^{a b c} Walsh, Diana (September 25, 1997). "Linda Ronstadt home for sale". San Francisco Examiner. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
166. ^ Harata, Wayne (March 31, 2006). "Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
167. Crawdaddy
     , June 1974
168. ^ "The 00-42 Linda Ronstadt Signature Edition" (PDF). The Sounding Board. Martin & Co. January 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
169. ^ "Quick Takes: Linda Ronstadt plans memoir". Los Angeles Times. July 29, 2011. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
170. ^ Deutsch, Lindsay (July 29, 2011). "Trailblazing rocker Linda Ronstadt to publish memoir". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
171. ^ "AUTHORS 1 - 1 of 1: Ronstadt, Linda". Simon & Schuster. August 24, 2013. Archived from the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
172. ^ Mansfield, Brian (August 23, 2013). "Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's Disease". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
173. ^ "Linda Ronstadt Says She Has Parkinson's Disease". CBS San Francisco Bay Area. August 24, 2013. Archived from the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
174. ^ Asked about her religious beliefs on The Tavis Smiley Show (September 26, 2013), she replied, "I'm a spiritual atheist."
175. ^ ^{a b} Rothschild, Matthew (July 21, 2004). "The Progressive". Linda Ronstadt Gets the Hook at Aladdin. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
176. ^ Weatherford, Mike (July 20, 2004). "Aladdin officials defend eviction of singer after political comments". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on September 23, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
177. ^ "Open Letter to Bill Timmins, President Aladdin Casino and Hotels". Michael Moore. Archived from the original on March 19, 2006. Retrieved June 24, 2007.
178. ^ "Desperadoes". The New York Times. July 21, 2004. Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
179. ^ Dunham, Nancy (August 14, 2007). "Interview: Linda Ronstadt". Blogcritics. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
180. ^ Selvin, Joel (July 28, 2006). "Linda Ronstadt, at 60, is back in San Francisco, raising kids and singing what she wants to sing". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 20, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
181. ^ "Linda Ronstadt draws readers' ire". Arizona Daily Star. June 7, 2007. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
182. ^ Burch, Cathalena E. (June 2, 2007). "Ronstadt: Dust drove me away". Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
183. Planet Out. Archived from the original
     on March 29, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
184. ^ Lemons, Stephen (December 29, 2009). "Linda Ronstadt Calls Joe Arpaio 'a Sadistic Man', Will Participate in Anti-Arpaio Human Rights March Saturday, January 16". Phoenix New Times. Archived from the original on February 6, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
185. ^ Cooper, Jonathan J.; Davenport, Paul (April 30, 2010). "Linda Ronstadt joins group filing suit against Arizona law". The Christian Science Monitor. Associated Press. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
186. ^ Fischer, Howard (April 29, 2010). "2 lawsuits challenge Arizona's immigration law". Arizona Daily Star. Capitol Media Services. Archived from the original on May 3, 2010. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
187. ^ Strand, Michael (October 1, 2007). "Ex-Interior Department secretary says The Land Institute on right track". Salina Journal. Archived from the original on December 24, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
188. ^ Bedard, Paul; Schwab, Nikki (March 31, 2009). "Linda Ronstadt, Wynton Marsalis, and Josh Groban Pitch Congress". Submitted by Linda Ronstadt Singer House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
189. ISBN 978-0-399-53033-3
     .
190. ^ Ronstadt, Linda (Introduction). Giel, Kate (ed.). "Classic Ferrington Guitars". Barnes & Noble. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved May 17, 2007.
191. ^ "Past Inductions – 2007 Induction". Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall Of Fame. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
192. National Council of La Raza. Archived from the original
     on February 27, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
193. ^ Brown, Patricia Leigh (September 19, 2008). "Once a Rock Star, Now a Matriarch of Mariachi". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
194. ^ ^{a b} "Opinion: Arts Advocacy Day testimony from Linda Ronstadt". The Mercury News. March 30, 2009. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
195. ^ Swed, Mark (April 1, 2009). "Linda Ronstadt hails Gustavo Dudamel in testimony on Capitol Hill". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 4, 2009. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
196. ^ "Smokey Robinson at Commencement May 9". Berklee College of Music. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
197. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". The Recording Academy. Archived from the original on August 27, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
198. ^ Morris, Christopher (July 26, 2011). "Ronstadt Draws Lifetime Award – Latin Recording Academy Also Honors Feliciano". Variety. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
199. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Television Academy. Archived from the original on August 27, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
200. ^ "ALMA Award". Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2011 – via YouTube.
201. The Miami Herald
     .
202. ^ "Ana Gabriel leads nominees for Latin Music Awards". Billboard. Vol. 104, no. 13. March 28, 1992.
203. ^ Lannert, John (March 30, 1993). "Secada Lead Latin Noms Following Grammy Win". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 10. p. 10. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved January 3, 2013.

External links

• Official website
• Linda Ronstadt at
  IMDb
• Linda Ronstadt at the Internet Broadway Database
• Linda Ronstadt at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Image of Linda Ronstadt reclining on a porch railing in Los Angeles, California, 1974. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.