Linda Ronstadt: ‘I dont like any of my albums’

So you dont miss it too much?

I miss harmony singing more than anything. I especially miss when everybody in my family sings and plays music when we got together, it was the main thing that bound us. And a lot of my friendships have music at the core I could call up Emmylou Harris and we would sing together over the phone. Now we visit for hours and we have a lot to talk about kids, gardens, pets, families and whats going on in our lives. But music took up such a huge part of that, its sort of a gaping hole, you know?

Which contemporary singers do you rate?

I listen to a lot of opera and classical music and to some traditional music, but mainstream stuff does manage to somehow float through the ether into my ears. I like Sia shes got a really original and unusual singing style. Ive never heard anybody sing like that. Very heartfelt, I think, very sincere. And shes a clever writer, too.

Youre best known in the UK for your 1989 duet with Aaron Neville, Dont Know Much. What is it you liked about his voice?

I always loved Aarons singing. He has a certain singing style related to French baroque opera, which got imported into the American South in the 18th century. His falsetto is very evocative of that, and that the Creole tradition was interesting to me.

You also sing with Paul Simon on Under African Skies, and the songs opening lyrics (5) were inspired by you, too.

I was in Tucson visiting my dad. Paul called and said he was writing a song for us to sing together, and could I give him some kind of a geographic point, something that was around Tucson? I loved this mission that was built in the early 1700s. Its a beautiful little building, built by pagans, and on the Indian reservation. It was kind of my spiritual home, so I told him about that.

Do you still consider Tucson home?

I had a house in Tucson for 10 years, but I sold it and moved to San Francisco because of politics and global warming, which the current Cheeto-in-Chief (6) will not admit is happening. It became so unbearably hot in Tucson, and I think cities that depend on air conditioning just wont be sustainable in the future.

What do you think will happen under Donald Trump?

Its a genuine national emergency. What he wants is to be in control of the media, and he has an acute instinct for the lowest common denominator he knows how to go really low. So if we dont wake up, he could turn us into a dictatorship. Ive read a lot on the history of Hitler, and people keep drawing comparisons theyre so staggering its step by step by step. Hes isolating us, hes taking us out [of contact] with South America, Mexico, Canada if we get attacked from outside, whos going to come to our rescue if weve isolated ourselves from our neighbours?

You also spoke out against George W Bush (7).

I dont have the power to bring these people down! But I thought he prosecuted an unjust war for a lie, and it added to the further destabilisation of the Middle East. We still wrestle with that problem. He and his dad were the cause of that. Then we had Obama for eight years, and we got lazy.

How do you like San Francisco?

Its impossible for anyone starting out to live here. The rents are so high (8). My son moved out for two years and then he moved back in. He works for Apple, at the Genius Bar, which doesnt make him a genius, but makes him very good at solving your tech problems.

What apps do you have on your iPhone?

I have one for learning Spanish and one for ordering food, and thats it.

Is it true that your grandfather invented the rubber ice-cube tray?

He did and the electric stove, the electric toaster and the electric milking machine. He invented a lot of stuff. He was brilliant and he was always working on something. He was so successful that he was judged to be third behind Thomas Edison in the number of useful patents (9) he had developed.

Is it also true that you once duetted with Frank Zappa for an advert for Remington razors?

Yes. Frank wrote it. It was so musically complicated that I dont know if they liked it. It was kind of like Bambi and Deep Throat on the same bill; it was not a likely pairing.

<a href=”http://www.rhino.com/article/now-available-linda-ronstadt-simple-dreams-expanded-edition” data-link-name=”in” body link” class=”u-underline”>Simple Dreams: Expanded Edition by Linda Ronstadt is out now on Rhino

Footnotes

(1) Simple Dreams went triple platinum and knocked Rumours off the top of the album charts after 29 weeks. In your face, Stevie Nicks.

(2) She played Mabel Stanley in Gilbert and Sullivans The Pirates of Penzance, opposite Kevin Kline.

(3) Trio was released in 1987 and won a Grammy. Trio II was released in 1994 and also won a Grammy. Ronstadt has a lot of Grammys.

(4) Adieu False Heart, recorded as the ZoZo Sisters, and released in 2006, was a commercial failure, reaching 146 in the US album charts. It was still nominated for a Grammy.

(5) In early memory, mission music was ringing round my nursery door.

(6) Ronstadt is not a fan of Donald Trump.

(7) After speaking out on stage against the Iraq War in 2004, Ronstadt was evicted from the Aladdin theatre in Las Vegas.

(8) One-bedroom apartments in San Francisco rent for an average of $3,402 (2,545) a month.

(9) Lloyd Groff Copeman had more than 700 patents to his name.