Linda Ronstadt says she has lost the ability to sing after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight months ago. Ronstadt, 67, (seen above in 2009) opens up in a new AARP article, revealing that she believes she may have first started showing signs of the disease as far back as eight years ago, but attributed the symptoms to a tick disease. She also had shoulder surgery that she thought caused the shaking in her hands.
From AARP.org:
“I couldn’t sing,” she told Nash, “and I couldn’t figure out why. I knew it was mechanical. I knew it had to do with the muscles, but I thought it might have also had something to do with the tick disease that I had. And it didn’t occur to me to go to a neurologist. I think I’ve had it for seven or eight years already, because of the symptoms that I’ve had. Then I had a shoulder operation, so I thought that’s why my hands were trembling.
“Parkinson’s is very hard to diagnose, so when I finally went to a neurologist and he said, ‘Oh, you have Parkinson’s disease,’ I was completely shocked. I wouldn’t have suspected that in a million, billion years.
“No one can sing with Parkinson’s disease,” Ronstadt said. “No matter how hard you try.”
It is also revealed int he article that Ronstadt now uses a wheelchair when she travels and requires the assistance of poles when not on even ground.
The article published on Friday is just a preview for “a wide-ranging interview with AARP’s music writer Alanna Nash to be published on aarp.org next week.”
The interview comes just a few weeks before Linda Ronstadt’s memoir, Simple Dreams, is released on September 17. However, the book will reportedly not include Linda’s Parkinson’s disease diagnosis or her struggle with losing her voice. Here’s the Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir book cover with a description from the publisher:
Tracing the timeline of her remarkable life, Linda Ronstadt, whose forty-five year career has encompassed a wide array of musical styles, weaves together a captivating story of her origins in Tucson, Arizona, and her rise to stardom in the Southern California music scene of the 1960s and ’70s.
Linda Ronstadt was born into a musical family, and her childhood was filled with everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to Mexican folk music to jazz and opera. Her artistic curiosity blossomed early, and she and her siblings began performing their own music for anyone who would listen. Now, in this beautifully crafted memoir, Ronstadt tells the story of her wide-ranging and utterly unique musical journey.
Ronstadt arrived in Los Angeles just as the folkrock movement was beginning to bloom, setting the stage for the development of country-rock. As part of the coterie of like-minded artists who played at the famed Troubadour club in West Hollywood, she helped define the musical style that dominated American music in the 1970s. One of her early backup bands went on to become the Eagles, and Linda went on to become the most successful female artist of the decade.
In Simple Dreams, Ronstadt reveals the eclectic and fascinating journey that led to her long-lasting success, including stories behind many of her beloved songs. And she describes it all in a voice as beautiful as the one that sang “Heart Like a Wheel”—longing, graceful, and authentic.
And here’s a live performance by Linda Ronstadt of her classic hit “You’re No Good” from the 1970s show Burt Sugarman’s The Midnight Special.
I think it’s funny that Jose Feliciano introduces Linda as a “country singer,” when clearly she has demonstrated that she crosses many genres. (I did like Jose’s little vocal riff on Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You” inspired by Ray Charles’ performance of the song from his ground-breaking, genre-smashing album Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music.)
