The songwriter Linda Ronstadt called the “best source” any singer could hope for
By the 1970s, Linda Ronstadt was no newcomer to the industry. Despite only being 24, she’d already lived seemingly a million musical lives from her youth in a singing group with her siblings, her first bands and then finally, the decision to go solo.
She didn’t need a guiding light, especially not with a voice like that. It was well known that Ronstadt, in her youth, could basically sing a shopping list, and a crowd would gather. As soon as she went solo, splitting from the Stone Poneys, it felt like songwriters were queuing up to write for her, and the long line remained until she retired.
But out of all the people she worked with, there was one name that appeared to her like a revelation, although really, it was a mutual one.
In 1971, Ronstadt got a brand new touring band to back her up on stage. In the line-up, including Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner and Glenn Frey. Obviously, they’d go on to form the Eagles, beginning the band right there on her tour as the guys bonded, played together and eventually started writing together. But Ronstadt wasn’t just their boss or the person who brought them together; the band called her their “muse”, laying everything at her feet.
Frey once called Ronstadt “the first lady of country rock”, but when she reflected on her friendship with the artist, she truly credited him for broadening her horizons.
“Glenn Frey is the best single source of material for singers,” she said, recalling all the time she used to spend driving around in his car. “He’s got stacks and stacks of cassettes he’s made of all these different things,” she continued, and from within those countless homemade mixtapes, thrifted compilations or copies of classic, must-hear records, Ronstadt felt like she got an education.
They’d drive around, reflecting on how far they’d come with Ronstadt saying, “Remember when we used to sit around the Troubadour bar and go, ‘Oh, it’s so horrible, and I can’t get a record deal’”. But now, life was sweet, the sun would be shining, and the two were still close friends as she said, “We’re going to have a good time, and we’ve got great music on the tape player. ‘Back in the USA’ came on right then, and I just went, ‘God, that would be a great song to sing. I think I’ll do that one’.”
It was as simple as that. Once the two had made it, Ronstadt almost felt like her career stemmed from the passenger seat of Frey’s car, where she’d hear a song and then decide to cover it.
But from Frey’s view, it was the other way round as he returned the praise, saying, “She has always felt a responsibility to educate as well as entertain. She’s always putting in a Chuck Berry song for people that might not have heard of that, or ‘Blue Bayou’ by Roy Orbison, […] I really admire her bravery and credibility.”
