“My favourite”: the artist Linda Ronstadt was astounded to work with
There are a lot of good things about being a musician, particularly a famous musician with the respect of your peers. There’s the money, the opportunities, the travel, the freedom to be creative full-time. But there’s also the chances that come along to collaborate, or maybe even simply be friends with, your heroes – Linda Ronstadt particularly loved that part.
From the start of her career, Ronstadt had a particularly powerful circle of peers. In her earliest bands, she lay the groundwork for the Eagles as both Glenn Frey and Don Henley played with her, working on their own new music as they travelled around. During her first years, she toured with a lot of powerful names, like The Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne and more, building a powerful circle of stars around her.
But the circle was tight simply because everyone around her seemed to deeply and greatly respect her. When artists talk about Ronstadt, no one has a bad word to say about her, or even one that isn’t glowing with goddamn admiration.
“Linda was our muse and a brave artist who followed her instincts,” Frey once said about her, and he seemed to speak for everyone who encountered her around that time.
But as for Ronstadt herself, she felt just inspired by the people surrounding her. She’s spoken at length about the incredible joy to be found in working with people like Neil Young or Randy Newman, saying of the latter, “He is also an example of someone who is working at the top of his game after so many years in the business,” adding, “So many musicians have a little peak and that’s it, but Randy is still cranking out great songs that make you laugh or cry.”
None of those experiences could top this one, though, when her collaborative life peaked when she encountered her favourite artist. “I enjoyed making Cry Like a Rainstorm. I got to work with a lot of my favourite people, and I got to meet some new people,” she said of her 1989 album. In particular, she said, “Brian Wilson – he came into the studio and sang 15 parts for ‘Adios’!” She added, “He just comes in and puts the parts down, one right after another – real close, intricate harmony parts.”
Ronstadt got to witness a classic case of Wilson perfectionism as he added vocal line after vocal line to the track, laying it up in his signature way while she watched on, amazed. “I was just flabbergasted,” she said, adding of his singular talent, “Brian’s really a vocal orchestrator. There isn’t anybody else in pop music with that kind of talent.”
She felt, without any doubt, that she was watching a true master at work – a feeling she’d experienced before throughout her career. “I was astounded,” she said, and even that must be an understatement.
