Linda Ronstadt

Linda’s storied career was launched in the mid-1960s in Los Angeles, where she and two friends formed the Stone Poneys. Within a short period of time, they hopped on the Billboard charts with the 1967 hit “Different Drum,” and that song title has aptly described her musical journey. A consummately talented vocalist initially greeted in the record business as little more than just another pretty face, Ronstadt moved effortlessly from the folk-rock of the Stone Poneys through primordial Southern California country rock as a solo artist to a hit-after-hit decade in the ’70s during which she became arguably the most important female singer in rock.

Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (1911–1995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (1914–1982), a homemaker. She was raised on the family’s 10-acre ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson’s chief of police from 1981 to 1991), Michael, and Gretchen.

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 recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name “the New Union Ramblers”. Their repertoire included the music they grew up on – folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock ‘n’ roll, and in 1964, after a semester at the University of Arizona, the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.

In the mid-1960s at the forefront of California’s emerging folk rock and country rock movements, Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown … Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.

The Stone Poneys became a leading attraction on the Los Angeles club circuit, with Ronstadt usually performing on stage in a miniskirt and bare feet. They worked in intimate clubs like The Troubadour in Hollywood. They released three albums and their recordings include Ronstadt’s first hit song, a cover of Mike Nesmith’s “Different Drum”.

The band’s first manager, Herb Cohen, tried to connect Ronstadt with Frank Zappa to make a demo, and also with Jack Nitzsche, but nothing ever materialized (she and Zappa – who were both being managed by Cohen in this period – would later make a radio commercial for Remington brand electric shavers that was rejected by the company).

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 her on the Cheap Thrills album.

At one stage her 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.

Ronstadt began performing “You’re No Good” to close her live shows in early 1973, after her band member Kenny Edwards suggested it to her. She first included it in her setlist while opening for Neil Young. When recording her album Heart Like a Wheel with producer Peter Asher in the summer of 1974 “You’re No Good” was a last-minute choice for recording, and was Ronstadt’s suggestion. “You’re No Good” peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Heart Like a Wheel was nominated for Album Of The Year, while her version of “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love with You” won the award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

Heart Like a Wheel is widely considered Ronstadt’s breakthrough album and was selected by the Library of Congress to be inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2013.

Ronstadt 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.”

Referred to as the “First Lady of Rock” and the “Queen of Rock”, Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. 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 early 1970s, Ronstadt briefly dated fellow musician J. D. Souther, who co-produced her Don’t Cry Now album. In 1983, Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months and from the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director and creator George Lucas.

In the eighties, she starred in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” on Broadway, recorded a standards album with the veteran arranger Nelson Riddle, and released “Canciones de Mi Padre,” a collection of traditional Mexican songs, which became the best-selling non-English-language album in American history.

Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in US history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.

In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement. In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she had Parkinson’s disease and could “no longer sing a note.” Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy ending a musical career that had left an indelible mark on the classic-rock era and earned her ten Grammy Awards.

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.

For her diverse body of work across four decades, she has received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy in 2016, the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington D.C. in 2019, and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s annual Legend Award in 2020.