Linda Maria Ronstadt was born on July 15,1946 and is an American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.
122 Facts About Linda Ronstadt
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Linda Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award.
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Linda Ronstadt has earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award.
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Linda Ronstadt was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016.
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Linda Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014.
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Linda Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums.
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Linda Ronstadt has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
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Linda Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jimenez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle.
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Linda Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating, releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009.
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Linda Ronstadt announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy.
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Since then, Linda Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s.
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Linda Ronstadt published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013.
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Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15,1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt, a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F Ronstadt Co.
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Linda Ronstadt had a Roman Catholic upbringing and was raised on the family's 10-acre ranch with her siblings Peter, Michael, and Gretchen.
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Linda Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of Mexican descent with a German male ancestor.
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Linda Ronstadt married a Mexican citizen, and eventually settled in Tucson.
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Linda Ronstadt set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade.
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Linda Ronstadt continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.
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Linda Ronstadt 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.
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Linda Ronstadt has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday".
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At age 14, Linda Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen.
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Linda Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, decided to move there permanently to form a band with him.
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Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Linda Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown.
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Linda 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.
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At this stage, Linda Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan.
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In 1975, Linda Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals.
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Several years before Linda Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours" she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit.
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Linda Ronstadt noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band.
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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 Linda Ronstadt helped form and commercialize.
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However, as early as 1970, Linda Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres.
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Linda Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs.
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Linda 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.
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An infrequent songwriter, Linda Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
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Linda Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums.
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When interpreting, Linda Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics.
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Linda Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
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Linda Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart.
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In 1976, Linda Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboards Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind.
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In late 1977, Linda Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the US Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time.
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Linda Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude because rock and roll is kind of tough," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically.
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Linda Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing.
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Linda Ronstadt says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication.
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Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Linda Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants.
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At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Linda Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project.
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Since her solo career had begun, Linda 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.
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Linda 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.
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Linda Ronstadt was featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Linda Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge.
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Linda Ronstadt 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".
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Linda Ronstadt had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charting pop singles.
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In 1979, Linda Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo.
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Linda Ronstadt participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.
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In February 1980, Linda Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album.
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Linda Ronstadt made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time.
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Linda Ronstadt said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.
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Linda Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version.
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Linda Ronstadt garnered a nomination for the 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.
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In 1982, Linda Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well.
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Linda Ronstadt filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel.
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Linda Ronstadt had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music".
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Linda 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.
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Linda Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings.
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Between 1983 and 1990, Linda Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum ; one has been certified double platinum, and one has earned additional certification as a Gold double-disc album.
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In 1981, Linda Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler.
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Nonetheless, Linda Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.
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At the time, Linda Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit.
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Linda Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle.
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In 2004, Linda Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records.
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The album was a quiet affair for Linda Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion.
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Linda Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers.
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Linda Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
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Luisa Espinel, Linda Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s.
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Linda 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.
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Linda Ronstadt has credited Mexican singer Lola Beltran as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Linda Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.
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Linda Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the US and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences.
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Linda Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La boheme, for a limited-run engagement.
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Linda Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s.
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In 1991, Linda 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.
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In 1989, Linda Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles.
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Linda Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
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Linda Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians.
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Linda Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast.
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Linda Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993.
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In 1996, Linda Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies.
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In 1998, Linda Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years.
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Linda Ronstadt returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt.
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Also in 1999, Linda 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.
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Since leaving Warner Music, Linda Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
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In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Linda Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart.
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In 2010, Linda Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio.
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In 2011, Linda Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement.
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Linda Ronstadt's memoir Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands was published in 2022.
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In July 2019, Linda Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
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Linda Ronstadt has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number one.
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Linda 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.
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Linda Ronstadt has scored two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number-one hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
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Linda Ronstadt has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists.
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Linda Ronstadt appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof.
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Linda Ronstadt appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies".
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Linda Ronstadt voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away", with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
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Linda Ronstadt's three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New, and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind.
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Linda Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s.
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Linda Ronstadt remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues.
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Linda Ronstadt was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums.
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Linda Ronstadt's album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in US music history to ship double platinum.
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Linda Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb.
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Linda Ronstadt has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American.
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In 2016, Linda Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
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Linda Ronstadt 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".
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In 1983, Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months.
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In more recent years, Linda Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.
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Linda Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.
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Linda Ronstadt was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite.
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Linda 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.
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Linda Ronstadt received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John.
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Amid reports of mixed public response, Linda Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.
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In 2007, Linda Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while maintaining her home in Tucson.
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On January 16,2010, Linda Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action".
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Linda Ronstadt 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 ", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
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In 2004, Linda Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music, 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 Linda Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.
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Linda Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts.
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In 2008, Linda Ronstadt was appointed artistic director of the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival.
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In May 2009, Linda 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.