Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still
Linda Ronstadt wasn’t exactly the kind of person that wanted to heap praise on herself all that often.
Even though she had one of those voices that anyone could appreciate, there are more than a few times where she could give a landmark performance and then talk afterwards about how she should have done it better when she came offstage. But even if she solidified herself as a legend, there were some bits of praise that she never felt all that comfortable with getting from her higher-ups.
But it’s not like the rest of the country rock world ever forgot about that voice. She was one of the most pure voices to come out of the Troubadour whenever she performed, and even when she was competing with the rest of the twang-y side of rock, the fact that she had Don Henley singing backup for her was one of the biggest musical flexes that anyone could have hoped to do around that time. That is, if you actually cared at all about rock and roll, and it wasn’t clear that Ronstadt did after a while.
She liked the idea of making great music wherever she could find it, but the more she listened back to her records, the more she realised that she wasn’t cut out for that kind of music anymore. Rock and roll should have been made by kids who still had something to prove, and while that’s not entirely true, she felt that the world of MTV was something that she didn’t quite fit in with anymore.
There was no way that she was going to be the next Madonna by any stretch, so moving on to other genres was the next best thing for her to do when she began singing on Broadway. The idea of making more sophisticated recordings was all she could have asked for, but when The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came calling, Ronstadt was almost perplexed that she would even be recognised.
After all, she hadn’t made rock and roll records in decades when she got inducted, and even when talking about her induction later on, she didn’t seem to care one way or the other about it, saying, “It’s not anything I’ve ever given a second thought to. I remember one of the guys at my record company asked me once if I would induct somebody into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I said ‘I really don’t like going to things like that.’ And he said, ‘Linda, you have to do it if you ever want to get inducted yourself!’ I said, ‘I don’t care if I ever get inducted’”
Even if she didn’t really remember her rock and roll days, though, rock and roll certainly remembered her. She might not have been there to accept her award by any stretch, but watching everyone from Sheryl Crow to Stevie Nicks pay tribute to her and talk about what her music meant to them was enough of a reminder that she was still very welcome in country-rock circles.
And while she was in no shape to perform, Glenn Frey was always willing to give his own recollection of listening to her back in the day. You have to remember that Frey was already looking for a job when Ronstadt was putting together her backing band, and even when the Eagles took off, he was forever grateful for Ronstadt believing in them when it looked like they didn’t really have that much to work with.
But even if rock and roll was a distant memory that Ronstadt liked to look back on from time to time, that doesn’t erase the massive impact that she had on an entire generation of musicians. Most people only wanted to make the best records that they could, but when Ronstadt first came out, she set the benchmark for what all great singers were supposed to aspire to.
ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE 