What was Linda Ronstadt’s first band?
Not every artist comes into the music world fully formed. There are normally a lot of hoops that people have to jump through before being known as one of the greatest in their field, and that involves woodshedding a lot of those early ideas until they are good enough to become classics. And while Linda Ronstadt already had that huge voice behind her, she knew that her future didn’t need any bandmates tying her down.
Looking back on her classics, there was no one that mattered more than Ronstadt on albums like Heart Like a Wheel. Outside of singing a handful of covers, her renditions of tunes like ‘When Will I Be Loved’ exposed the world to that voice that seemed to shake the entire room whenever she counted off her song.
Although Ronstadt cut her teeth singing at the Troubadour bar on Sunset Strip, she had The Stone Poneys to thank for her initial success. Since she had started working in the world of country music, The Stone Poneys was a country trio that Ronstadt helped found in the late 1960s, where she played a mix of country and rock and roll that wouldn’t have been that out of place on her later records.
The music wasn’t nearly heavy enough to see something like the Ronstadt version of ‘You’re No Good’ coming, but the seeds were already being planted. It was now just a matter of getting everyone attuned to that voice so that the band could take over the world once the 1970s kicked into gear.
So, what happened to The Stone Poneys?
However, the issue is already as clear as day, based on the group’s records. There was a much more even division among the singers, but the minute people heard hits like ‘A Different Drum’ off their sophomore release Evergreen, there was no doubt that Ronstadt was the star of the show.
When putting together her backing band for the third record, it was becoming abundantly clear that Ronstadt needed her own vehicle, and calling the record Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poney and Friends was about as clear a sign as any that she was on her way out. But her ability to soar as a solo star came from another California rock act that would help write Ronstadt’s future.
Ronstadt always liked to surround herself with some of the best in the business, but when she started forming a group to round out her road band, one of her first suggestions was future Eagle Don Henley, who had just come off of working in his previous band, Shiloh, when he got the call. After Henley admitted that he knew everything she had ever done, his golden voice matched with Ronstadt’s perfectly, which ultimately went supernova when finding Glenn Frey on rhythm guitar from the group Longbranch Pennywhistle.
Although original Stone Poney members Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards were slowly on their way out, Ronstadt would persevere on her own, despite Frey and Henley leaving to take flight in their own outfit. If Heart Like a Wheel was any indication, though, Ronstadt didn’t really need a group to be noticed. She had got her foot in the door in Hollywood with the Stone Poneys, but the minute that she started belting, she was more than capable of going toe-to-toe with any of her now-famous friends
