Who Is Linda Ronstadt ?
Linda Ronstadt is one of the essential figures in modern American music. Her voice runs through the story of folk, country rock, pop and the California scene of the seventies, and her career touches an extraordinary range of artists who helped shape that era. In a career that spanned decades, Ronstadt recorded 31 albums and sold over 100 million records.
Whilst she may not always be the first name mentioned alongside singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Carole King or Carly Simon, any serious look at this period of music soon leads back to Ronstadt.
Born in Tucson, Arizona, in 1946, she grew up singing at home, from Hank Williams and Elvis Presley favourites to the Mexican songs handed down through her family. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1964, she stepped into a music scene that was still taking shape. Before long, she would become one of its defining voices.
Ronstadt’s story connects to the Eagles, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, Mickey Dolenz and Aaron Neville, among many others. She was more than a successful singer with a long list of collaborators. She was one of the artists who linked scenes that are often treated separately now, helping carry ideas, songs and musicians across a fast-changing period in American music.
The Early L.A. Years, The Stone Poneys
In late 1964, Ronstadt joined the Stone Poneys with Bob Kimmel, an old friend from Tucson, and guitarist Kenny Edwards. The trio became part of the early Los Angeles folk scene and, after gaining traction at the Troubadour, landed a three-album deal. Success was modest, but one song changed everything. “Different Drum”, written by Michael Nesmith, became the group’s standout hit and brought Ronstadt to wider attention. By the end of the second album, the band was already fragmenting, and the third was made largely with session players, leaving Ronstadt on the verge of a solo career.
“You’re No Good” and Chart Success
After several years in which her solo career had yet to fully ignite, Ronstadt found an important ally in producer Peter Asher. He brought with him a direct link to the Beatles world through Peter and Gordon and his family’s connection to Paul McCartney. Their first album together, Don’t Cry Now, helped reset her trajectory and gave Capitol renewed confidence in her catalogue, leading the label to repackage earlier material under the title Different Drum. But it was the next record that changed everything.
Released just before Christmas 1974, Heart Like a Wheel established the formula that would carry Ronstadt into the mainstream, blending older material with contemporary songs and giving them both polish and force. The album became a major success, reaching No. 1 in the United States the following spring. Its breakthrough single, “You’re No Good”, went to No. 1 on the pop chart, while her version of Hank Williams’ “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” reached No. 2 on the country chart and earned her the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
By the late seventies, Ronstadt was moving well beyond any narrow idea of country rock. Her version of the Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice”, (from Exile on Main Street) released on Simple Dreams in 1977, showed how comfortably she could step into tougher material without losing her own identity. It is a small but telling link to the Stones, and another example of how wide her musical reach had become.
Linda Ronstadt and the Birth of the Eagles
Linda Ronstadt stands right at the beginning of the Eagles story. Before Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner became a band in their own right, they were brought together in Ronstadt’s orbit as her backing group in 1971. Frey later called her the “first lady of country rock” and spoke of her “bravery and credibility” in taking a chance on them. He also described Ronstadt as “our muse”, a reminder that the Eagles did not simply appear out of nowhere. They emerged from the same Los Angeles circle of clubs, musicians and relationships that surrounded Ronstadt at the time.
By then, Ronstadt had already become a focal point for ambitious young players moving through California’s music scene. Frey and Henley were part of the Troubadour world, while J.D. Souther, for a time Ronstadt’s boyfriend, formed another vital link between her story and theirs. Souther wrote “Faithless Love” for Ronstadt, later recorded on Heart Like a Wheel, and would go on to become one of the key outside writers in the Eagles’ catalogue, with songs including “New Kid in Town”. These connections show how naturally Ronstadt’s world fed into the rise of the Eagles, and why her voice runs through so much of modern American music.
Trio: Dolly, Emmylou and Linda
Ronstadt’s work with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on Trio gave her one of the most admired collaborations of her career. Released in March 1987 after years of false starts, the album brought together three artists whose voices were distinct enough to stand apart, yet close enough in spirit to blend beautifully. It became a major success, reaching No. 1 on the U.S. country chart, producing a No. 1 country single with “To Know Him Is to Love Him”, and earning a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.
For Ronstadt, Trio showed something essential. She was never only a solo star. She was also one of the great musical partners of her era, able to share a record with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris and still leave a voiceprint all over it. Years later, Trio II would extend that partnership, but the first album remains the defining statement.
Duets, Comebacks and a New Kind of Hit
By the late eighties, Linda Ronstadt had entered another phase of her career. She was still a star in her own right, but she had also become one of those voices that could change the temperature of a record the moment it arrived. Her collaborations carried real weight, and they placed her alongside some of the biggest names of the period, including Aaron Neville, Neil Young and Paul Simon.
The most commercially potent of those partnerships came with Aaron Neville. Their version of “Don’t Know Much”, from Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind in 1989, became one of Ronstadt’s last great chart moments. Introduced to both singers by Steve Tyrell and produced by Tyrell with Peter Asher, the song matched Ronstadt’s poise with Neville’s fragile, aching delivery. It reached No. 2 in the United States and the United Kingdom, topped the adult contemporary chart in America, and won the pair a Grammy. More than that, it showed how naturally Ronstadt could step into a duet and still leave a clear stamp on it.
Her work with Paul Simon was subtler, but no less telling. On Graceland, Ronstadt sings harmony on “Under African Skies”, one of the album’s most graceful and luminous songs. It is not a headline-grabbing duet in the mould of Aaron Neville, but it places her inside one of the defining records of the decade, her voice slipping naturally into Simon’s wider musical world.
Neil Young offers another angle on the same story. Ronstadt provided backing vocals on Harvest Moon, including the title track, bringing her voice into one of the most cherished singer-songwriter albums of the early nineties. By then, she was no longer simply a star with her own catalogue. She had also become one of those rare singers whose presence could bring warmth, familiarity and history to another artist’s record.
Linda Ronstadt - Hall of Fame
Ronstadt’s place in American music was formally recognised on 10 April 2014, when she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the 2014 class, with Glenn Frey listed as her inducer. It was a fitting honour for an artist whose voice had moved so easily through country rock, pop, folk, standards and duets, while also linking so many of the major figures around her. By the time the Hall caught up with her, the case had long since been made in the records themselves: Linda Ronstadt was not simply one of the great singers of her era, but one of the key threads running through modern American music.