Linda Marie Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American popular vocalist and entertainer who has earned multiple Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, a Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations. A singer-songwriter and record producer, she is better known as a definitive interpreter of songs. She has recorded over 30 studio albums, and has made guest appearances on over 100 other albums. More importantly, outside of the studio and record charts, and on par with her male counterparts of the day, Ronstadt became the first solo female rock n roll artist in music history to have highly anticipated tours - coinciding with a string of mega-successful albums, thus making her able to command sell-out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans..

She has recorded studio albums in many genres outside of the rock n roll field and is known throughout the music industry as one of the most versatile, durable, and commercially successful female singers who has ever recorded popular music. Branching out, she has recorded Traditional Pop, mariachi, jazz, folk, Broadway and Opera. However, her most commercially successful period was the 1970's and 1980's. In the 1970's she was the best selling female singles and albums artist of the decade. As she moved on to other genres in the 1980's she maintained her consistent commercial success, and remained one of the best selling female album artist of the 1980's. Ronstadt's albums have earned her three No. 1 albums, 10 Top 10 pop albums and 27 Top 100 pop albums on the Billboard 200 album chart. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a No. 1 single, three No. 2 singles, 10 Top 10 pop singles, and 21 Top 40 pop singles on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Establishing her professional career in the mid sixties at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements, genres which later defined post-sixties rock music, Ronstadt became the lead singer of the successful folk rock group, The Stone Poneys. Later as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, considered the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During these years as greater fame eluded her, Ronstadt actively toured with Jackson Browne, The Eagles, Neil Young and others, made television show appearances. and began to contribute her voice to a variety of albums such as Carla Bley's jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill. However, in the mid 1970s Ronstadt attained unprecedented hit-making success with chart-topping albums such as Heart Like A Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living In The USA. Coupled with her chart success, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star, setting records as one of the top-grossing concert artist for the decade, and the most successful female rock singer of her era.Labeled the First Lady of Rock, and The Queen of Rock, Ronstadt was the Top-Selling Female Artist of the 1970's. Her rock n roll image was equally as famous as her music, landing six times on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, Newsweek, and on the coveted cover of Time magazine. In the early 1980's Ronstadt went to Broadway, teamed with composer Phillip Glass, recorded Traditional music, and collaborated with famed conductor Nelson Riddle, which at the time and era, was viewed as an original and unorthodox turn by a rock n roll artist. This gamble paid-off, and Ronstadt remained one of the best-selling vocalists throughout the 1980s with multi-platinum selling albums such as: What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. Ronstadt, has continued to successfully tour, collaborate, and record albums such as: Winter Light, Hummin' to Myself and Adieu False Heart. Linda Ronstadt's thirty-plus album catalog continue to be best sellers, with a majority of them certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum. Ronstadt has record sales in excess of 80 million worldwide, including over 45 million albums sold in the US alone. A consummate American artist, Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock n roll and in music by achieving unprecedented success and being at the vanguard of many musical movements. Ronstadt is one of the top female vocalists in U.S. history and part of the list of best-selling music artists.

Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1946 to Gilbert Ronstadt (1911-1995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary Copeman Ronstadt (1914-1982), a homemaker with a gift for science. She was raised along with her brothers Peter (served as Tucson's chief of police from 1981-1992) and Michael and her sister Gretchen (Suzy), on the family's 10-acre ranch. The family was featured in Family Circle Magazine in 1953.

Her father, Gilbert, came from a leading and pioneering Arizona ranching family, was Mexican-American, with some German and English ancestry, with his grandfather, Frederick Augustus Ronstadt immigrating to the West in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany, marrying a Mexican-citizen, having several children, including Federico José María Ronstadt (Linda's grandfather) and eventually settling in Tucson.

The Ronstadt Family has made important contributions to arts and culture in the American Southwest. In fact, so great are their contributions to the state of Arizona that their history and influence, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies and, of course, music, is chronicled within the library of the University of Arizona, her alma mater.

Her mother, Ruth Mary, was the daughter of the prolific American inventor Lloyd Groff Copeman, raised in Michigan, was of Anglo-American descent, with German, English and Dutch heritage. Lloyd, with nearly seven hundred patents in his name, invented an early form of the toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray invention earned him millions of dollars in royalties. He once told his grandson that he could walk into any store or home and find one of his inventions.

Linda Ronstadt's early life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced her musical choices.. A product of the great American radio of the 1950's and 1960's with its eclectic broadcasting. Growing up she listened to all types of music, and credits her mother for her music appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and the Traditional Pop music that she herself would in turn help reintroduce to an entire generation. Staying true to any musical tradition Ronstadt sticks to “what... the music demand(s)”.

In the 1970s her private life became very public, most notably, as publicity surrounding her life was propelled in the late 1970s by a relationship with then-Governor Jerry Brown of California, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979. Ronstadt and Brown also took a trip to Africa which became fodder for paparazzi and the press.

In the mid 1980s, Ronstadt was engaged ("ring on the finger and all") to Star Wars director George Lucas.

Ronstadt is a major supporter and admirer of Salina, Kansas' sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000 "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)," and dedicating the rock anthem Desperado to him at a August, 2007 Kansas City, Kansas concert of hers.

She has two adopted children, Mary and Carlos. Her daughter has made her a fan of musician Pink. Her son, who is into Death Metal, has introduced her to the music of Rob Zombie and she states "There's real power and energy (to his music)" and on AC/DC she says "I really love Back in Black. I appreciate it musically (and) how good the rhythm guitar player is."

Ronstadt is a big fan of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, and even persuaded friend and noted New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani to start reading the Harry Potter novels.

Ronstadt's favorite female vocalist is Maria Callas, saying "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period.", "I learn more...about singing rock n ­roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays." "She's the greatest chick singer ever." She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts in the 20th century in pushing singing, particularly opera, back into the Bel Canto "natural style of singing.".

Ronstadt defines her voice type as that of a Coloratura soprano.

As of 2007, Ronstadt resides in the San Francisco area while also maintaining her home in Tucson, Arizona. However, this same year, Ronstadt drew criticism and praise from some of her local Tucsonians by observing that the local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem has rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.

In an August 14,2007, interview she commented on all her well publicized outspoken views, in particular her, Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts incident (see Political Controversy below), by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone...you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace."

On September 23, 2007, Linda Ronstadt, was inducted into the The Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, also included among the strong class of inductees were Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

Controversy surrounding Ronstadt arose during a July 17, 2004 performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Towards the end of her performance, as she had done in performances across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Michael Moore's documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, a movie discussing the Iraq War, and dedicated the song "Desperado" to Michael Moore. Accounts of the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore,(and) the other half booing." However, the situation escalated into what Tyri Squyres, director of public relations at the Aladdin, described as a "mob scene...It's amazing how ugly it got," with people walking out, tearing down posters, throwing drinks and demanding a refund.

Following the concert, news accounts reported that Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises. Ronstadt claimed she wasn't physically taken off stage but was ordered by Aladdin staff to wait to speak with Aladdin President Bill Timmins. She claims to have refused to wait and to have left, and later remarked that while Aladdin staff attempted to detain her, she thought, "Or they were going to make me start writing on a chalkboard or read me my Miranda rights?" Later she said, "Apparently..(the Aladdin)..called up one of the people that was traveling with us and went, 'She's talking about Michael Moore, and this is a place for entertainment, not politics'."

Ronstadt's comments, as well as some audience members and the hotel reactions, became a topic of discussion nationwide, as Timmons and Michael Moore all made public statements on the controversy.

The "Aladdin Incident" subsequently drew international headlines and public discourse on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage. The Aladdin Incident made the editorial section of the New York Times.

Following the incident, many friends of Linda Ronstadt, including The Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagement at the Aladdin.. Likewise, Ronstadt received immediate telegrams of support from her rock 'n roll friends around the world, such as The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, and Elton John.

Despite reports of this public response, Ronstadt continued in her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 summer concerts across the country, which evidently continued to have a polarizing effect on the public. As Peter Asher noted, "Ronstadt is an extremely determined woman, in every area."

At age fourteen, she formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and her sister Suzy. They billed themselves as The New Union Ramblers or The Three Ronstadts, and the trio played around coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and small joints. Their repertoire included the music they grew up on - folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Linda wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, at 17, she decided to move on to Los Angeles.

While Ronstadt was a student at Arizona State University, she met guitarist Bob Kimmel. Together they moved to Los Angeles. In 1964, guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards joined the pair, co-writing several folk-rock songs with Kimmel. They recorded "So Fine" for Curb Records. The record company wanted them to sing surf music, which the trio chose not to do. The trio was discovered and signed with Nick Venet and Capitol Records, with Ronstadt as the lead singer. They became a leading attraction on California's folk circuit, recording their first album in the fall of 1966. The Stone Poneys acted as a supporting act for The Doors on tour; "The Lizard King" didn't exactly endear himself to Ronstadt, she remarked... "We thought they were a good band, but we didn't like the singer",

That same year, a second album followed, Evergreen, Volume 2, released in June. The album cover is notable for showing all three Stone Poney members on the cover. Evergreen was significant for the group's hit single "Different Drum", which reached 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was written by future Monkees member Michael Nesmith, along with notable songs, "Back on the Street Again" (Steve Gillette) and "One for One" (Al Silverman and Austin DeLone).

The beginning of the end for the Stone Poneys occurred when their then-manager came up to them at The Troubadour one night and said, Well, I can get your chick singer recorded, but I don't know about the rest of the group. And that was the end of it. Capitol Records released The Stone Poneys in January 1967; it failed to chart.

A third album, The Stone Poneys & Friends, Volume 3, was released in April 1968 and included the single "Up To My Neck In High Muddy Water," which stalled at No. 93; however, at this stage, the group had disbanded, and Linda Ronstadt went solo.

Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, considered the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.

Ronstadt also vocalized in some commercials. One notable one is the famous late 1960s commercial for Remington electric razors, with a multi-tracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa saying that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".

Ronstadt released her second solo album titled Silk Purse in March 1970. It was the only one of Ronstadt's studio discs that was recorded entirely in Nashville. Ronstadt hired Elliot Mazer to produce the album. Mazer had been recommended to Ronstadt by her friend Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on her Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover was the first to establish a trend in many other Ronstadt album covers - bold, colorful and memorable. This album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pig pen with the back and inside cover showing Ronstadt in bold red and on stage. Ronstadt has stated that she wasn't pleased with this album although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single, "Long Long Time". Also Silk Purse is notable for earning Ronstadt a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female, the first of her 27 Grammy nominations.

Linda began incorporating new sounds into her stage gigs, with the help of various backing bands. However, Linda noted in a 1969 interview for Fusion Magazine, that it was difficult being a single chick singer with a decidedly all-male backup band. According to her, it was really hard for a single girl to get a band of backing musicians, because there's all that ego problem of being labeled a sideman for a girl singer. For example, the guitar player would hurry to the microphone and say 'Thank You' before she could even get to the mic after their set. Or she'd find that musicians felt their masculinity was threatened being sidemen to a girl singer.

Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, famous for incorporating cajun and swamp-rock elements into their music. Its members included cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau, John Beland, before either of them would join The Flying Burrito Brothers, Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell and Eric White (Clarence White of The Byrds' brother). Swampwater would go on to back Ronstadt on TV's The Johnny Cash Show, The Mike Douglas Show and The Big Sur Folk Festival. Another backing band featured players Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner who later formed The Eagles, who would go on to become the best-selling American group ever. They toured with her for a short period in 1972, and were her studio band for her third solo album, the self-titled Linda Ronstadt album.

In 1973, Linda Ronstadt hired producer Peter Asher, then producer for James Taylor. Asher at first was hesitant because Linda Ronstadt had a reputation throughout the music biz of being a "woman of strong opinions and knew what she wanted to do (with her career)" and Asher did not like being pushed around, likewise, in this time and era these opinionated qualities in a woman where considered a "negative, whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold" but Asher, of course, ended up agreeing to manage Linda Ronstadt. This relationship with Asher, as producer of her albums, continued through the late 1980s. Asher, who has gone on to produce numerous other artist and winning two Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year, recently remarked that Linda Ronstadt remains his "favorite female singer of all time. Her voice is just astounding and ...(with) very clear ideas herself about what she (wants) to do, but also she could just sing the s--- out of anything."

She also released her fourth solo album in 1973, Don't Cry Now, and the first of her studio releases for Asylum Records. The album followed the theme of Ronstadt album covers, again, bold, colorful and memorable. It featured her first 'Country' hit with "Silver Threads And Golden Needles," which she had first recorded on her 1969 Hand Sewn...Home Grown album, which this time hit the Top 20.

In 1973, Ronstadt began touring as the opening act for Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour. This tour was notable for the fact that she was introduced to Emmylou Harris. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman put the newcomer Harris together with Linda Ronstadt, telling them, "You two could be good friends."

In the 1974 book Rock'n'Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff interviewed Ronstadt stating, "her own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to.....(and) her goal is to ....be soulful too. With this in mind, Linda fuses country and rock into a special union."

By this stage of her career Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of Country-rock. She, along with other notable musicians such as The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and The Eagles, helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was OK, however, she stated that she was being pushed hard, into singing more rock n roll."

By the end of the 1970's, the record industry gave Linda Ronstadt a Special Decade Award as the Top Selling Female album and singles artist of the decade. Outside of the recording studio, Ronstadt became a very successful concert and touring artist, as author Gerri Hirshey explains in her book We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock, Linda Ronstadt became the first "arena-class rock diva", with "hugely anticipated tours." Amazon.com, defines her as the American female rock superstar of the 1970's. Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar.....(selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Coupled with the fact that her album covers, posters, magazine covers - basically her entire rock n roll image conveyed - was just as famous as her music. That by the end of the decade, Redbook defined her as, "the most successful female rock star in the world..(who) has survived in the mostly male world of rock",. Having been a cult favorite on the music scene for 11 years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29 year old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened." With the November 1974 release of Heart Like A Wheel, her fifth solo album and last for Capitol Records, by February 1975, Ronstadt reached No. 1 on the Billboard Album chart and the album went double-platinum (over 2 million copies sold).

The album was highly notable not only for showing a physically attractive Ronstadt on the cover but more importantly, its critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock and helped launch Ronstadt's career into the stratosphere, making Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would put her on the path as one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" which had peaked at No. 2 Country. The album was nominated for Album of the Year (losing to Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years). The album included the No. 1 Pop single, "You're No Good", followed by the No. 2 single, "When Will I Be Loved which also became Linda's first No. 1 Country hit.

Immediately, Rolling Stone magazine put her on its cover in March, 1975 for the first time. The cover was the first of six Rolling Stone magazine covers and photographed by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. It also included her as featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing her many struggling years in rock n roll, home life and what it meant to be a women on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.

Later this same year, 1975, her album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It climbed into the Top 5 on the Billboard album chart went platinum. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually be the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums and then another seven between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the Pop and Country charts but Heat Wave, a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is A Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is A Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Country chart.

In 1976 Linda reached the Billboard Top 3 and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. The album showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, composing two songs, "Try Me Again" and "Lo Siento, Mi Vida (I'm Sorry, My Love)". It also included interpretation of Willie Nelson's classic "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.

In late 1977 Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the No. 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 The album was released in September and by April of the following year had sold over 3 million copies - triple-platinum - in the US alone. Interestingly, Simple Dreams had already been holding at No. 2 for two months behind Fleetwood Mac's long running No. 1 album Rumours before eventually claiming the top spot. Simple Dreams included the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou" as well as "It's So Easy" and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me". In fact, Simple Dreams was the highest selling album by any solo artist in 1977. It also garnered several Grammy Award nominations - including Record Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "Blue Bayou" (losing to Barbara Streisand's Evergreen) - and won its art director, Kosh a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing memorable Linda Ronstadt album covers.

This same year, she was asked by the L.A. Dodgers to sing the National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.

Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock n roll is kind of a tough (business)" which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically . Female rock artist like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" routine she was artificially encouraged to project, went through a identity crisis. Ironically, as Ronstadt noted in the 1974 interview with Katherine Orloff, was that "women in rock and roll...have to compete with the boys..(which is) to talk as dirty and (to) have just as callous an attitude," even as a kid hunting with her father and brother she "wanted to (be tough) and just like my brother, carry my .22, which was bigger than I was"

Eventually, Linda Ronstadt's rock n roll image became just as famous as her music in mid 1970s. The 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" , especially for the most famous woman singer of the 1970s, and perhaps ever, at the time, was notable and controversial for Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear." Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world, on the cover of Time magazine no less, as she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project. (Although she wore a rather revealing dress for the cover of Hasten Down the Wind which projected an image of her not all that different from the Time magazine cover). In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she didn't sit like that. The Time magazine cover did not stop critics but only helped critics in their claim that Ronstadt was her producer's puppet and encouraged critics who put her image and music together as reason to bash her, as Asher noted this irony, "anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about.". Qualities, which Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold" As noted, since her solo career began, Ronstadt fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and the Time cover, in the dress didn't appear to help the situation. To show how troublesome this Time cover is to her, recently Ronstadt refused to acknowledge that she was laying on the cover but was "sitting down...looking stupid".

Another iconic image of Ronstadt from this period, is her appearance in concert wearing a cub scout uniform, shirt half-unbuttoned with short shorts.

Later in 1977, Rolling Stone published for its cover, an alluring collection of photographs taken by Annie Leibovitz, which further created the image that Ronstadt, later said, wasn't pleased with. Ronstadt and Asher claim to have viewed the photos prior to publication and when asked that they be removed and the request was denied, they unceremoniously threw Leibovitz out of the house.

In 1978, Rolling Stone magazine declared Linda Ronstadt, "by far America's best-known female rock singer." She had a third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, with Living In The USA and a major hit single with "Ooh Baby Baby", which hit all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country and even R&B). Another notable song is Warren Zevon's, "Mohammed's Radio," in which Godot turns out to be rock & roll and Mohammed's radio is the grail. Living In The USA was the first album by any recording act, in music history, to ship double platinum (over 2 million advanced copies).. The album was eventually certified double platinum (over 2 million copies sold). By this stage of her career, Ronstadt's disc covers were big, bold and memorable. Living in the USA was no exception, showing the singer with a newly short haircut and on roller skates on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert and tour promotional posters but this time there were photos of Ronstadt on roller skates and Ronstadt in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, with every album released Ronstadt was going out and thoroughly promoting the album with posters because her image was just as famous as her music and concerts - which at the time were even famously recorded live on radio and/or tv. Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to illegally record and broadcast live, a Linda Ronstadt concert. The movie also showed Ronstadt live and in concert singing the hit song Tumbling Dice.

Keeping with this theme, Ronstadt conducted successful disc promotional tours and concerts. One notable concert in 1978 is Ronstadt's guest appearance onstage with The Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978 in her hometown of Tucson, where Ronstadt and Mick Jagger vocalized on "Tumbling Dice".

By the end of 1978, Ronstadt achieved unprecedented commercial success and became the "highest paid woman in rock", and the first-ever woman able to command sell-out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans. She had three No. 1 Pop albums, six platinum certified albums and numerous charted Pop singles. Billboard Magazine crowned Linda Ronstadt with Four No.1 Awards for the Year: No.1 Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year; No.1 Pop Female Album Artist of the Year; No.1 Female Record Artist of the Year; and the No.1 Female Vocalist of the Year. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million (equivalent to $38,000,000 today).

As Rolling Stone magazine dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and setting records themselves. By the end of the 1970s, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified by the RIAA for 7 times platinum (over 7 million US copies sold). In 1980 Greatest Hits II was released, certified platinum (over 1 million copies sold). In 2007 a UK compilation album was released, combining Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits I & II on one disc.

By the end of the decade, Linda had outsold her female competition, no other female artist to date had five straight platinum LPs: Hasten Down the Wind, and Heart Like a Wheel among them. Thereafter, Ronstadt was widely known and regarded in magazines and radio as the Queen of Rock, and the Queen of Country-Rock.

This same year, Ronstadt went on a successful international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Olympic Park Stadium in Melbourne, Australia and the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. She also participated in benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at the The Forum, in Los Angeles, California.

Andrew Greeley in the book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era."

In 1980, Ronstadt recorded Mad Love, her sixth straight platinum selling album. Mad Love is a straightforward rock n roll album with strong post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, The Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. This same year she also made the cover of Rolling Stone for the sixth time. Mad Love disc entered the Billboard album charts in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the No. 3 position on the Billboard 200. In 1980, she continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You?", "Hurt So Bad" and the Top 40 hit "I Can't Let Go". The album earned Ronstadt the 1980 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female (but she lost to Pat Benatar for "Crimes of Passion"). However, this same year Benatar praised Linda Ronstadt by stating, How can I be the best (female) rock singer, Ronstadt is still Alive!

In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. However, this endeavor wasn't, to Ronstadt, as far a left field endeavor as it might have appeard to Ronstadt's popular music audience. She recounts that singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since Grandfather Fred Ronstadt is credited with creating Tucson’s first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense and had once created an arrangement of Pirates of Penzance, likewise, her mother, Ruth Mary Copeman Ronstadt, owned a large Gilbert and Sullivan collection.

The Pirates of Penzance revival turned out to be a major hit on Broadway. The musical opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park and moved its production to Broadway where it ran from January 8, 1981 to November 28, 1982.

A DVD of the Central Park production was released in October 2002, but there is no recording of the Broadway run which followed. The "Central Park" disc is notable for its somewhat mediocre videotaping and sound quality, both a result of the outdoor location. Ronstadt also co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 motion picture version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the movie version. The two versions (stage and for-film) are distinguishable by cover art.

For her effort on Broadway, she garnered a Tony Award nomination 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.

In 1984, Ronstadt had discovered La Boheme through the silent movie with Lillian Gish and was determined to play the part of Mimi. When she mentioned it to her friend, opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "my dear every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi." Ronstadt was later cast in the role of Mimi at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre.

In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway, for a limited run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her 1988 album of Mexican folk songs, Canciones de Mi Padre - "My Father's Songs."

After her stint on Broadway, Ronstadt went back to the studio to record more rock n roll music. In 1982, Ronstadt released Get Closer a rock n roll album with some country and pop music as well. The album is notable as it's her only album from 1974 (Heart Like A Wheel) to 1989 (Cry Like A Rainstorm) which did not receive a million-selling platinum certification by the RIAA (it did, however, sell in excess of 900,000 copies). It climbed to the No. 31 position on the Billboard 200. In 1982, she continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer", and "I Knew You When", and the notable Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" which was a Top 10 AC hit. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female as well as Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. The album won its art director, Kosh his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.

Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt also embarked on a very successful North American tour, remaining one of the top rock concert draws that summer and fall. One notable and famous concert being her November 25, 1982 Happy Thanksgiving Day concert held at Dallas, Texas's Reunion Arena and broadcast live via satellite on radio stations across the United States

Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career "(she)..was so focused on folk, rock and country that..(she) got a bit bored and started to branch out, and..(has) been doing that ever since." By this stage of her career, Linda Ronstadt was reportedly worth over $40 million (equivalent to $81,000,000 today), mostly from successful rock n roll records and concerts.

Ronstadt eventually became tired of playing arenas. She didn't feel that arenas, where people milled around lighting joints and buying beer, were "approriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture" - a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song You Can Call Me Al. Likewise, she has noted that she wanted to sing in places similar to the Theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and performer.

In 1983, a then 37-year old Ronstadt embarked on an unorthodox and original approach in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook when she recorded the first of what would be a trilogy of highly successful traditional pop albums alongside, the then 62-year-old grand master of pop orchestration, conductor Nelson Riddle: What's New (1983); Lush Life (1985); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986). The three have a combined sales of over 6 million copies sold in the U.S. alone.

The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her past disc covers. But in keeping with the themes of her other discs it was bold, colorful and memorable. The cover seemed to playfully suggest what's new? It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received a lot of ridicule for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music." In a 1984 Saturday Night Live skit, comedienne Julia Louis-Dreyfus parodied Ronstadt by dressing and posing in a copy of the What's New cover while the title track played in the background. Louis-Dreyfus sang things like "I sing old songs for you, ‘Cause I can’t do what’s new!". (Most of Linda's greatest Top 40 hits have been remakes.)

Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Rain - a Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Nelson Riddle album would turn off Linda's rock audience. Nonetheless, Ronstadt remained determined to record with Riddle. The gamble paid off, because when What's New was released in the Fall of 1983, it spent 82 weeks on the Billboard album charts and climbed to the No. 3 position (held out of the top spot by Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and Lionel Richie's 'Can't Slow Down') and RIAA certified triple platinum (over 3 million copies sold). The album earned Ronstadt yet another Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female and critical raves, with Time Magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."

What's New brought Riddle back to a younger audience. According to Levinson "the younger audience hated what Nelson had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered "Vintage Pop". Working with Linda, Nelson brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is . . the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teen-agers undid in the mid-60s . . . In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums . . . many of them now long out-of-print." Thus, What's New is notable for being the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.

In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her first studio album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional pop since her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with a smaller jazz combo. The album was a quieter affair for Ronstadt, receiving few interviews and only one television performance as promotion. Nonetheless, the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums charts, and not having the mass distribution Warner Music gave her, Hummin' to Myself sold over 100,000 copies in the US alone within the first 6 months of its release, relatively successful for a small record label like Verve Records and it did achieve notable critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.

In 1978, Ronstadt, with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, began recording a Trio album. The attempt failed. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were focused at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.

However, in 1987, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio and finally released the album Trio, which they first had conceived of ten years earlier. It was a considerable hit, holding the No. 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the Pop side also. It sold two million copies and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and produced four top-ten country singles including "To Know Him Is To Love Him" which hit No. 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.

In 1999, Linda reunited with Dolly Parton and EmmyLou Harris for the Trio 2 album, the long-anticipated follow up to their 1987 Trio album. It included "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg.

In 1987, Ronstadt recorded an album of Mexican folk songs, or what she describes as "world class songs", titled Canciones de Mi Padre - "My Father's Songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful. For Canciones de Mi Padre Ronstadt was in full Mexican dress and her musical arranger was famed Mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.

These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. For example, the history of this album goes back half a century. In January, 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel was Linda Ronstadt's aunt and an international singer in the 1920s. Ms. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt (Linda Ronstadt's grandfather), and the songs she had learned, transcribed and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. 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. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs without any accent; Linda has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family.Also, Ronstadt has credited Mexican singer Lola Beltran as an influence in her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo “Lalo” Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as child.

This album won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. The album has been RIAA certified double-platinum (over 2 million U.S. copies sold), although it only reached #42 on the Billboard 200 pop album charts, however it spent over 35 weeks on the charts.

Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show in concert halls across the United States and Latin America to both hispanic and non-hispanic audiences, including on the Great White Way. She called the stage show by the same name Canciones de mi Padre. These performances were released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, 4 years after she performed La Boheme, for a limited run engagement. PBS Great Performances aired the celebrated stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt an Emmy Award for Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program. She recorded two additional discs of Latin music in the early 1990's. Although their promotion, like all her albums in the 1990's, was a quieter affair for Ronstadt, where she appeared to do the "bare minimum" to promote. They have not sold the 2 million US copes Canciones de Mi Padre has but were critically acclaimed. The first one she recorded was Mas Canciones a follow up to the first Canciones. For this effort she won a Grammy award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The same year she stepped outside of Mariachi genre and decided to record well known "afro-Cuban" songs. This disc was titled Frenesi. Like her second Latin recording venture, this third Latin album won Ronstadt another Grammy award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.

Ronstadt made a return to the top of the Pop/Rock chart in 1987 when she achieved a Billboard Hot 100 chart No. 2 hit with the "Somewhere Out There" recorded as a duet with James Ingram and featured in the animated film An American Tail. The song was nominated for both a Grammy Award and Academy Award for Motion Picture song. It also achieved commercial success, certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold). On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt again to record the title song, this time for the sequel to Americal Tail, titled American Tail: Fievel Goes West. The song she recorded was "Dreams to Dream" although it failed to achieve the same success as its predecessor, the song did give Ronstadt a modest Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.

However, Ronstadt did make a full focused return to the mainstream pop charts in 1989, releasing both an album and a couple of popular singles. This effort titled Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind became one of the singers biggest albums, in terms of production, arrangements, chart sales, and critical acclaim. The album returned Ronstadt, as a solo artist, back to the top 10 of the Billboard album charts, reaching the No. 7 position and went triple platinum (over 3 million US copies sold) and singles charts simultaneously. The album also received critical acclaim, nominated for numerous Grammy awards. She even featured American soul singer Aaron Neville on four of the twelve disc cuts.

For this major disc, Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony and numerous musicians. It had duets including "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 chart No. 2 hit) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 chart No. 11 hit), and equally long-running No. 1 Adult Contemporary hits. These duets with singer Aaron Neville received much critical acclaim, garnering several Grammy nominations and won Ronstadt 1989's Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal - she shared the honor with Aaron Neville.

In fact, her Grammy appearance in February, 1990, was notable because this was Ronstadt's last live Grammy Award appearance, even though she has won five additional Grammy Awards since then. She hasn't even watched the Grammys since then.. Their appearance was the first time they had performed the song for the public ever since the song had become a hit the previous year in December, 1989. The following year Ronstadt won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the single, "All My Life", with Aaron Neville.

In December 1990, Linda Ronstadt participated in a concert to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues, held in Tokyo at the Tokyo Dome. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, notable Japanese artists, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon. A CD resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.

Ronstadt continues to be original and explore different manners in which to introduce classic music, in a new and unorthodox fashion. For example, in 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of rock 'n roll songs reinvented as children's music. This effort won her and longtime collaborator, recording engineer George Massenburg, Grammys for Best Album for Children.

On November 16, 1999 Elektra/Wea released The Linda Ronstadt Box Set. The Box Set includes a total of four discs arranged thematically rather than chronologically with five hours of eighty-six songs that highlight Ronstadt’s eclectic career. The Box Set includes very detailed liner notes, rare photos, and interesting facts, including how Linda Ronstadt was the first female performer to chalk up seven consecutive platinum albums. First, there are two CDs that essentially serve as best-of sets. Disc three consists of duets with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Aaron Neville, and Frank Sinatra. Disc four, offers rarities, including her contributions to Randy Newman's Faust and a contribution to Carla Bley's jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill and songs off 1978's Living in the USA and 1980's Mad Love period that didn’t make it onto the albums in addition to some live contribution and "All I Have To Do Is Dream" with Kermit the Frog.

In 2000, Linda Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with Elektra/Asylum which had now become part of the Warner Music Group. The fulfillment of this contract was the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which included rare choral works, the song "River" by Joni Mitchell, and a rare recorded duet with Rosemary Clooney on her signature song, White Christmas. Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to work under the Verve and Vanguard Record labels.

One of the world's leading magazines for commercial and project studio recording, MIX Magazine, stated that "Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals.... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes" In fact, in 2004 Linda wrote the Forward Introduction to the book titled The NPR Curious Listener's Guide To American folk music, and in 2005 she wrote the Introduction to the book titled Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and his custom guitars that have been created for various musicians from Ronstadt, Elvis Costello, and Ry Cooder to Kurt Cobain. On August 3, 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this prestigous event, where she incorporated jazz, rock and folk music into her repertoire.

Signaling a recording return to more folksy roots, Ronstadt released several folk rock records with a more adult rock-oriented edge during this decade as well, including: Winter Light (1993), Feels Like Home (1995), However, recent Ronstadt albums have been much quieter promotional affairs for Ronstadt, receiving few interviews, mostly print interviews, and only one or two television performances on selective shows, as promotion. During this period, Ronstadt raised her two children, and she only agreed to do the "bare minimum" to promote her albums.

In 1998 Ronstadt recorded We Ran. The disc cover is notable for its non-dramatic photo, unlike the colorful and memorable disc covers that Ronstadt was famous for throughout her career. It was unlike her album covers over the years that won three Grammy Awards for artist Kosh. Although inside the disc, the music harkens back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. This is confirmed by Ronstadt returning to her rock n roll roots with vivid interpretation of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan and John Hiatt. The disc was produced by notable rock producer, Glyn Johns. The album is notable for being Ronstadt's few albums failing to hit the Top 100, on the Billboard album chart. We Ran also failed to chart any hit singles on both the Pop and AC charts. Although, the disc was well received by critics. Her vocal performance on the track "Cry 'till My Tears Run Dry" is particularly worthy of note, and demonstrated how much her voice had grown, since her early, somewhat raw, country music performances.

Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept towards this adult rock exploration, when she released Western Wall — The Tucson Sessions (1999), a folk-rock oriented project with EmmyLou Harris. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart and the Top 100 of the Billboard album chart by debuting at No. 73. They had a modest alternative rock hit with Sweet Spot, a song that was written with and recorded with Jill Cunniff of Lucious Jackson.

This same year Ronstadt went back to her concert roots, of sorts, 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. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and General Manager Bobby Goldwater said. "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "The Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles.

In 2006, as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with longtime friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy to record Adieu False Heart, an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early 20th century music, for Vanguard Records. The disc was released to an international market, and notable for having different covers, one showing artistic farm art and the other prominently showing Ronstadt and Savoy - this being the international cover, primarily in Australia and Japan.

Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of The Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. On the heels of Adieu False Hearts critical and international commercial success, as of 2007, Ronstadt is in the studio with Ann Savoy<i> recording a follow-up disc.

*As of the end of 2006, Ronstadt's albums have earned her three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, four No. 1 albums on Billboard's Country Album chart, 10 Top 10 pop albums and 27 Top 100 pop albums.

*As of the end of 2006, Ronstadt's singles have earned her a No. 1 single and three No. 2 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, 10 Top 10 pop singles, 21 Top 40 pop singles, two No. 1 hits on the Billboard Country Single chart, two No. 1 hits and 37 Top 40 hits on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts

*She has recorded over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on over 100 other albums. Some notable guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album </i>Songs from Liquid Days, a hit Classical record with other major Pop stars either singing or writing lyrics, she also appeared on Glass's follow up recording; 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, an appearance on Paul Simon's Graceland, she voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet "Funny How Time Slips Away" with Homer Simpson on The Simpsons: The Yellow Album. Ronstadt has also recorded on albums with artists as diverse as: Emmylou Harris,Dolly Parton,Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, The Eagles, Andrew Gold, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Mark Goldenberg, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman, Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney,and Aaron Neville.

*Some of her biggest-selling studio albums to date are her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New, and her 1989 release Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind, each one certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over 3 million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation, Greatest Hits, certified for over 7 million units sold as of 2001.

*Linda Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist, selling out major venues, and she also became the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970's. Ronstadt remained a highly successful touring artist throughout the 1980's.

*Cash Box named her the top-selling female pop singer of the 1970s.

*Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artist for promotion) tally as of 2001, now totals 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 8 Multi-Platinum albums. as well as 3 Gold and even 1 Platinum single release. In all, Ronstadt has been certified by the RIAA for sales in excess of 50 million albums worldwide and 30 million albums sold in the U.S. alone, as of 2001. However, Ronstadt's Real Sales (statistics used to pay the artist their royalties) information indicate that several more certifications are currently in effect and being upgraded. Since there is a wide difference between real sales and certifications, Ronstadt shows real sales of 48 million album units moved in the US and nearly 70 millions album units sold worldwide.

*She was the first female in music history to score 4 consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of 8 consecutive platinum albums.

*Her album Living In The USA is notable for being the first album by any singer, in music history, to ship double platinum (over 2 million advanced copies).

*At the time of its release, Canciones de mi Padre became the best-selling non-English-language album in American history.

*Ronstadt has served as record producer on various albums from musicians David Lindley and Aaron Neville to singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal — Glass Music Through the Ages<i>, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, and Ronstadt singing on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Linda also produced the Grammy Award winning Trio 2.

*She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields from Rock,Country, and Pop, to Tropical Latin.

* Linda Ronstadt has won 11 Grammy Awards in fields including Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children, and Mexican-American.

*Linda Ronstadt was the first female solo artist to have two Top 40 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" (October 1977). By December, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and remained there for the entire month. Linda Ronstadt's run on the Billboard charts includes one single or album charted every year from 1970 to 2000.

*As a singer-songwriter Ronstadt has also written songs covered by several artists, such as "Winter Light" covered by Sarah Brightman, and "Try Me Again" covered by Trisha Yearwood.

*Ronstadt's songwriting choices have come from artists as notable as: Lowell George, Zevon, Costello, Souther, Newman, the Rolling Stones, Patty Griffin. Sinéad O'Connor, Julie Miller, Bob Dylan. Mel Tillis, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Brian Wilson, John Hiatt, the Everly Brothers, Seldom Scene, Bruce Springsteen, George Jones, Tracy Nelson, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Little Feat, Neil Young, the Miracles, Oscar Hammerstein II, Roy Orbison with Joe Melson and Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

* 1975 - Best Country Vocal Performance, Female, "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" from </i>Heart Like a Wheel * 1976 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Hasten Down the Wind * 1980 - Best Musical Album for Children, In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record (multiple artist compilation w/ Linda Ronstadt) * 1987 - Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, Trio (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) * 1988 - Best Mexican-American Performance, Canciones de Mi Padre * 1989 - Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, "Don't Know Much" from Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind with Aaron Neville * 1990 - Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, "All My Life" from Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind with Aaron Neville * 1992 - Best Mexican-American Album, Mas Canciones * 1992 - Best Tropical Latin Album, Frenesi * 1996 - Best Musical Album for Children, Dedicated to the One I Love * 1999 - Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, "After the Gold Rush" from Trio II<i> with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris

* 1970 - Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female, "Long, Long Time" from </i>Silk Purse * 1975 - Album of the Year, Heart Like a Wheel * 1975 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Heart Like a Wheel * 1977 - Record of the Year, "Blue Bayou" from Simple Dreams * 1977 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, "Blue Bayou" from Simple Dreams * 1980 - Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, "How Do I Make You" from Mad Love * 1982 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, "Get Closer" from the album Get Closer * 1982 - Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, "Get Closer" from the album Get Closer * 1983 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, What's New * 1985 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Lush Life * 1987 - Album of the Year, Trio with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris * 1987 - Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, "Somewhere Out There" from the soundtrack to An American Tail with James Ingram * 1989 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind * 1999 - Best Country Album, Trio II with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris * 1999 - Best Contemporary Folk Album, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions with Emmylou Harris * 2002 - Best Traditional Folk Album, Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music, multiple artist compilation, with vocalist Ann Savoy * 2006 - Best Traditional Folk Album, Adieu False Heart with Ann Savoy

* 1989 - Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, Linda Ronstadt, Great Performances: Canciones de Mi Padre

* 1981 - Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance as "Mabel"

* 1983 - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance

* Creem Magazine, A Heart To Heart with Linda Ronstadt (December 1976) * Linda Ronstadt: Melancholy Baby, Esquire, (October 1985) * Linda Ronstadt rocks with jazz sophistication (August 4, 2007) * Linda Ronstadt plays NPR's "WaitWait...Don't Tell Me!" (April 28, 2007) * Linda Ronstadt radio interview on KQED with Michael Krasny, Forum, (July 19, 2006) * Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes, The Honolulu Advertiser (March 31, 2006) * San Diego Union-Tribune interview * Tucson Citizen report of the Aladdin incident * Edmonton Sun interview "Linda Ronstadt defends her politics" (August 10, 2006) * Calgary Sun "Ronstadt still sings sweetly" (August 10, 2006) * Linda Ronstadt's interview with Tavis Smiley * Kudos To Linda Ronstadt by James Donahue * The Weekend Australian: Everlasting Linda, by Debbie Kruger, (July 19, 1998)

* The Definitive Linda Ronstadt Homepage (Unofficial but Comprehensive) * Linda Ronstadt Fan's Forum * The UK Linda Ronstadt website * The German Linda Ronstadt website with real international chartsales & music awards database, etc. * Linda Ronstadt discography * Lloyd Copeman Prolific Inventor Homepage * Tucson's Ronstadt Family History of the Ronstadt family * * VIRB.com site * Future Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Induction chances and Information