Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt in 1978

Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American popular music and country music singer. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award, and many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities.

Quotes

• Back in 1967,Tiger Beat magazine asked me what my ambition was for my career. I said I want to become a really good Mexican singer. But it wasn’t noticed or validated
  • In Linda Ronstadt: 'I had to sing those songs or I was going to die' 20 October 2020

• You gave us Rupert Murdoch ,thanks a lot you guys, take him back.
  • Linda Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt-Don Lane Show,27th October 1983

• For all families, participation in music and the arts, can help people reclaim and achieve the American dream.
  • Linda Ronstadt, Arts Advocacy Day 2009 Congressional Hearing, 1 May 2009

• I can sing in my brain…I sing in my brain all the time. It’s not quite the same as doing it physically. There’s a physical feeling in singing that’s just like skiing down a hill. Except better, because I’m not a very good skier.
  • On how she still sings in her head since retiring from music due to having Parkinson’s disease in “Linda Ronstadt Talks Illness, ‘Trio’ Album in Candid ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ Interview” in Rolling Stone (2019 Feb 4)

• I feel if I were to organize it correctly I would try to sing like a Mexican and think like a German. You know what I mean? I get it mixed up.
  • On her mixed heritage in a 1978 interview (as quoted in “Linda Ronstadt on New Live Album, Life With Parkinson’s and Modern Country Music” in Rolling Stone; 2019 Feb 7)

• The thing I’ve always thought about music is that it’s not competitive, it’s cooperative. I thought that was a really good example. We chose the songs because all three of us loved them so much we were afraid we’d get sick if we didn’t record them. Then we’d choose the arrangement by who was going to sing lead, by who sounded best…
  • On working with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Trio albums in “Linda Ronstadt on New Live Album, Life With Parkinson’s and Modern Country Music” in Rolling Stone (2019 Feb 7)

• …I was singing on the sort of the flat, lower part of my voice. I didn't have all the color and the breath and the sort of airy halo that comes. There's a lot of different textures that you can dial in and out on an unconscious level when you're singing. And you just bring in these colors and textures, and they all express emotion in some way or another. And I didn't have that with me. I was - I thought of myself as a painter that was painting with a limited palette, so I thought, well, I got some darks and lights here. And I've got some maybe some umber, you know? And I can put that in, and I just have to make a really strong drawing, make the image as bold as I can. And that's what I was trying to do with this song.
  • On how she initially coped with singing after her Parkinson’s diagnosis in “Linda Ronstadt On Making Music: 'I Knew How To Sing My Whole Life'” in NPR (2019 Sep 13)

• It's always like that when you record: You always think that you can do a better [job]. You know, the whole thing with recording is you have to know when to turn off the tape machine and just stop recording because you want to keep fixing, fixing, fixing, you know? In those days, we didn't fix anything.
  • On letting go of perfectionism in “In Memoir, Linda Ronstadt Describes Her 'Simple Dreams'” in NPR (2013 Sep 17)

• The culture supports serial monogamy, and I think I had plenty of that, and I think I was reasonably monogamous in a serial way. But I'm not a good compromiser. I think I don't have the knack for that kind of compromise. I admire people's marriages, and I think it's a wonderful thing to have, but I don't think it's the only way to live…
  • On her view of marriage and serial monogamy in “In Memoir, Linda Ronstadt Describes Her 'Simple Dreams'” in NPR (2013 Sep 17)

• She was trying to soften the blow of the word Mexican…That’s typical of what happens. Mexican Americans are always made to feel invisible.
  • On being asked by Jane Pauley if she was half-Mexican after a televised performance in “Linda Ronstadt: 'I had to sing those songs or I was going to die'” in The Guardian (2020 Oct 20)

• People didn’t have a clue I was Mexican unless they grew up with me…I heard plenty of it…I’d straighten them out fast.
  • On people saying derogatory things about Chicanos in front of her because they did not realize Ronstadt was Mexican in “Linda Ronstadt: 'I had to sing those songs or I was going to die'” in The Guardian (2020 Oct 20)

• I was bored with rock’n’roll…And I was tired of singing fast songs. I’m a ballad singer. And I like drama and nuance. This music has richer poetic images and more interesting rhythms.
  • On the joy of recording a non-English album in “Linda Ronstadt: 'I had to sing those songs or I was going to die'” in The Guardian (2020 Oct 20)

• There is a lot of German and French influence there…The music uses accordions and German-style brass bands, reinterpreted in a Mexican style. I like to say that Mexicans took German and French music and made it sexy.
  • On the traces of German and French influences in her Spanish music albums in “Linda Ronstadt: 'I had to sing those songs or I was going to die'” in The Guardian (2020 Oct 20)

• I get especially angry when I see how people are treated when they come up here looking for work, especially the farm workers…I challenge any prep school white boy to spend an hour picking strawberries in the full sun where you’re bent over and somebody sprays pesticide on you. And without them, we can’t eat.
  • On being incensed at the treatment of her people in “Linda Ronstadt: 'I had to sing those songs or I was going to die'” in The Guardian (2020 Oct 20)