Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt has a new book, "Feels Like Home," about the Sonoran Borderlands where she grew up. We talk about her youth, Lucy's El Adobe, meeting musicians and making records, politics...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
My guest today is the one and only Linda Ronstad
who has a brand new book, Feels Like Home. Linda,
good to have you on the podcast. Oh, thank you
for including me. Okay, so what was the inspiration for

(00:29):
the book? Well, I made a trip with Lawrence Downs,
who writes for the New York Times, and um, he
was doing a travel piece on me someplace that I
would like to explore, and I said, let's do it
out of the Sonoran Desert because it exists on both
sides of the border. We can make a trip to
Mexico and go visit the little town where my grandfather

(00:49):
was born. And he wrote a travel piece about that,
and then, um, we decided. When I was in but
Im that little town in the Mexican town with my
grandfather was born, I was thinking about my great grandmother
and I was sitting in the plaza looking across the
plaza to the church and realized that that's where she

(01:09):
would have taken him to be baptized. And she started
her married life in Bonamici. And I thought I'd like
to know more about my great grandmother, and I like
to write about her. So I um, I asked Lawrence
if he wanted to write about our trip too to Mexico.
We made some return trips and explore Sonoran culture through

(01:32):
the eyes of my great grandmother down through the generations
to the fifth generation in Tucson. When you were growing up,
did your family discuss this history or did you have
to research it? No? They kept letters, so I had
to find the letters. There were the Arizona Historical Society.
I was lucky that we found letters because there would

(01:52):
be no other way to know my great grandmother. My
father talked about her a little bit and said she
was nice. He was certainly pretty, but um, she dried
fairly young. Okay. So in the book it talks about
how your family ultimately comes together. There was a relative
who came from Germany and ultimately married a woman in Mexico.

(02:16):
Can you tell us a little bit more about that. Oh,
Friedrich Aretaicas just came from Germany, who was my great grandfather,
and he was he had been in the military and
um Austria where he came from her to Germany, and
so he became a colonel in the Mexican Army. But
he was also the first mining engineer in the region,
and so he was the one that ran all the mines.

(02:38):
That's a very rich mining area, silver and gold and copper.
And he was also the ran the end of Jenner Piscata,
who he was. His colonel Genner Piscada is credited with
driving the French out of Sonora, the state of Sonora.
So he was and he had his own ranches. He

(03:00):
married into the Rodondo family. They were very influential down
there and had a big, huge ranch thousands of acres
that they stole from the Indians. And um, she married him.
He was fifty years older than she was, I think,
but that was normal in those days. The older men
were married younger women because they they were widowers. So

(03:22):
she was. He was a widower and had five children,
and so she started out at the age of eighteen
with a bunch of kids and an older husband and
traveling around to the mines. And how did your family
end up in Tucson. They just migrated to son was
in that was part of Mexico. He was probably working

(03:44):
on a mine up there or something. Oh I know,
my my grandfather was sent to apprentice with with an
iron maker, which was a relative of his. Now, one
thing in the book is you paint the picture of
the Sonoran Desert. I don't think the average American really
knows anything about the Sonoran Desert. Can you tell us

(04:06):
about it? About what I'm sorry missed the middle of button,
about the Sonoran Desert and how really the landscape is
the same in Tucson as it is in mass Mexico
across the border, well, except that it doesn't have some worrows.
Those are the cactuses with big arms, go really high,
cactus treet and when you have that, you know that

(04:28):
you're in the Sonora Desert. You know that you're within
a few hundred miles or Tucson. That's the only place
on Earth where they grow. And that's the only difference.
When you go south, the organ pipe cactus instead. But
the region is basically the same. It's the same food,
the same in music, the same intellectual culture going on.

(04:50):
There's a lot of a lot of the Mexican Revolution
was formed in Sonora. So your family ended upe owning
a uh A hardware store. Can you tell us about
the evolution of that. Well, my grandfather was sent north
and iron work, and he started building wagons. He built

(05:10):
the best of wagons and carriages in the area, and
uh that when naturally I do owning a Harvard story.
If you wanted a good tools, or a windmill, or
a good tractor for your farm, you go to my grandfather.
My father worked in that store too. Now you say
the store ultimately closed. Can you tell me about that

(05:32):
and how sad that was? Well, the big box stories
like Home Depot came in and they just outcompeted in
with lower prices. They also had lower quality. I'd rather
go into my father's hardvarre store. I took up a
whole steady block. But it wasn't I didn't have the
feeling like the big box stores. It wasn't full of
plastic junk. So we So when you group we're growing up,

(05:55):
did you hang out of your father's store. Yeah, I
used to hang out there a lot. I take the
bus from school and go over there. It was all
smelled like these loil It was really beautiful, had great
things in their fishing equipment, hunting equipment, digging equipment. So
you used to play around stuff? Did you break stuff

(06:16):
or were you a pretty good kid? Yeah? I used
to I was good. You didn't break anything of my
dad's or it was all made of metal. But they
had a toy department for a while and that was
really cool, and at a housewards department two. So did
you get a lot of toys since they were in
the store more than your friends? No, I got it,

(06:36):
Madame Alexander All usually every Christmas. That was pretty cool. Okay,
so you're growing up in Tucson and the fifties, you know,
is there television, how many stations radio? Does Tucsson feel
part of the fabric or does it feel like its
own world? Oh, we didn't have a television, and it
felt like its own world. And I got to school

(06:58):
and found out that everybody else had green lawns and popsicles,
popsicle um trees, lollipop trees that were green. We had
a different kind of vegetation, were different kinds of animals.
I thought everybody was like that until I went to school.
But I always knew I was Mexican. If you ever

(07:20):
found people putting you down or treating you differently because
you were part of Mexican, No, they didn't, because I
had white skin and a German surname. But my best
friend got um. If she would speak Spanish on the playgrounds,
she'd be just banked to be punished, and they experienced
she and her sister was darker skin than she was,

(07:42):
and they kicked her sister out of the community swimming
pool because Mexicans aren't allowed to swimming it. She said, well,
I'm going with her her sister. So when you were
growing up, how good a student were you? And were
you like, uh, popular in school? Were you more of
a loan or what were you like now? I wasn't all.

(08:03):
I had good friends. The little girl that got kicked
out of the pool is my friend. He still is
mm hmm. And were you good in school? No? It
was horrible at school, ized daydream it was boring. I
went to Catholic school and they all they tell those
stories of the saints, and I didn't learn take I

(08:23):
was a good reader, and I've always been a reader,
but I couldn't do school very well. You were mean
to us. What did your parents say about you being
bad in school? I wasn't bad in school. I just
didn't I just didn't like it. I mean I could
do the work. I'd get the books in the beginning
of the here and read them all. And they were boring,

(08:45):
but I'd read them and then I didn't have to
pay attention. So what was occupying your time growing up?
Horses and put my pony? So when did you get
your first horse? When I was five? When you were five,
did you already know how to ride a horse? I
already knew how to ride a big horse, but but

(09:06):
I got a pony and he lasted until I was seven,
and then I got a big horse. Okay, so you
have the pony. How would you go out alone? How
far from home? Oh? Away, far to the base of
the mountains, lived in the middle of the valley. We

(09:26):
it was like having a car when you were five.
I'm serious. I mean we just left. We leave in
the morning. We'd come back around five o'clock. If we
didn't come back at dinner time, some go and look
for us. But they weren't. They were negligent parents. That
just was a different world, had great freedom. Did you
ever have any trouble that far from home? I fell

(09:47):
off the horse sometimes when I have to ride walk home.
And did you get hurt? Broke my arm, broke your arm?
Tell me about that. Well, I fell with my sister's
horse and to a hard hard dirt road where I
was always bouncing off my horse, I just bounced right
back on and you know I've broken bones. Did you

(10:09):
immediately know it was broken? Well, I know it hurt.
I showed it to my mother and she knew it
was broken. She took me right to the doctor. And
did you get a cast? And have all your friends
signed their names? Yep? Did that exactly? Uh huh. Now,
one other element of the book is you include recipes.
You know. One of the great things you put is

(10:31):
you have a recipe for refried beans. And as long
as I've been living in California, which is basically half
a century, I did not know that. That didn't mean
that they fried them twice. So tell us about refried beans.
They don't fry them. Try that's a mr normal refried
they're boiled and fried ones. Right, I didn't I learned

(10:52):
that in your book. So growing up, did you eat
Mexican style food in the house or was it more
angle saust Oh, we had fresh shortias and tamarindo, which
if there's a recipe before in the book, it's made
out of Tamaran beans. Boiled Tamaran means it's more they're
squnching than iced tea. It's delicious. They as had down

(11:13):
the refrigerator because had a pot of beans on the stove.
Who made the tortillas amalia? When that worked for us?
And that's a big point in the book that that
Sonoran tortillas are thinner and larger than what many people
are used to. You can see through them. There's their

(11:33):
paper thin and they're delicious. They're making with really good
wheat which they grow in Mexico, which they don't they
can't grow on huge amounts anymore because the Americans and
undercut the wheat prices and sold genetically modified wheat, so
then they grow that for a cash crop. But if
you know somebody that you can still get the good wheat, okay.

(11:56):
And so as I say, there's a number of recipes
in a book. If I took you out for your
favorite meal Sonoran style, what do you like most? Oh,
tortillas and beans. So you're living in Tucson and you
make a big point that the whole family is singing together,

(12:19):
and do you remember that from a young age. But
we used to have parties and music would start around
ten o'clock and going to midnight usually, But everybody in
my family can play or sing or do something not
not professional level. My dad would girl some meat and
my mother would make us big salad and there would

(12:40):
be roasted chilis and roasted different roasted peppers, and different
vegetables that were growing around. Honestly, lantro and chopped onions.
You can't learn how to cook from my book. It's
just it's not really a cookbook. It's just Um included
the recipes because the food is part of the culture,

(13:00):
as part of the unusual things that you can get
it in Sonora that you can't get anybody else. So
how has it changed since you lived there as a kid. Oh,
the developers got hold of the government and let them
do completely in discriminted development. So it's causing a lot
of erosion. We're getting desk clouds like the death Bowl

(13:20):
in Arizona. I drove to Phoenix ones and I was
two hours in dust. And you say in the book
you had a house up in Tucson until recently. When
did you have a house in Tucson, um nineteen ninety
four until a couple of years ago. I lived there

(13:41):
for about fifteen years. And what made you decide to
have a house there. I wanted to go back home.
I did. I still had friends there, I'm plenty of family.
What was it like going back as an adult? I mean,
I'm from the East Coast, I live on the West Coast,
and I think about what I but you know, when

(14:02):
you actually do it after living in the city in California,
you know it was a cognitive dissonance, or do you
feel right at home now? It was just being piste
off because the developers had ruined so much of the desert,
and they had caused the air quality to to be
very bad because there's tiny small particulate matters that floating
around this. Two sunnies, you have these sparkling clean skies.

(14:26):
That's two times I went there, was there for ten days,
and I never the dust haste never went away. It's
serious when you interfere with you with the nature's vision
of the desert, because there's plenty of life in the desert.
As soon as you take a bulldozer too it, you
make it into a waste land. And how did you

(14:46):
decide to ultimately sell your house and move back to California. Well,
I wanted to put my kids in San Francisco schools,
they were getting a lot of what church do you
go to? And Oh, that's okay? They I was getting
homophobic remarks and if you're not a Christian, you're going
to go to Hell or mart. So I the school

(15:08):
system is better here. The public schools are better and
the private schools are better. So I brought him over
here and put them in the most local school I
could find. And why San Francisco it has a better
air than Los Angeles? Well, California is a big state.
You know you lived in l A for a long time.
What's the difference between San Francisco and l A. I

(15:30):
don't have to live in a car culture in San Francisco.
The places you can walk to as more of a
sensive community, and people are doing it in l A.
They're moving out to um Silver Lake. And was there
easy to l A which had which were originally built
around a a culture that valued pedestrians over cars. And

(15:54):
did you have enough friends in San Francisco or you
made them when you once you got there? Oh? I
had lots of friends in San Francisco. And at this
stage in your life are you very social? You're more
of a loner homebody. I see, I'm with my family.
I have a have a daughter and a son. So

(16:15):
how did you decide to have kids? Oh, somebody came
up for adoption, and so I thought I would do it,
and then I got another one because I had done
it already once before. Was it tough being a single mother?
I had a lot of help, okay. And what was
the most rewarding part of having kids? I don't know.

(16:38):
Maybe watching my daughter sing really complicated musical Mexican song
sort of letter perfect should I had passed on something.
So you're living in Tucson in the sixties, you're singing
Mexican songs. At what point do you start hearing the

(16:58):
hit parade, whether be folk songs or popular songs. I
got that from the radio. In Tucson. We had radio
stations you can get anything. You can get XRF JEL
Rio Texas and the local stations played the top forty.
So I heard all that stuff on the radio. And

(17:19):
were you like addicted to the radio? Well? I played
it all the time in the car at home, I
played records. That was a folky for the sixties, right, Well,
the folky there, you know, we even had a folky
TV show Hoo Nanny, But of the uh of the
acts back then, whether it be Dylan, the Kingston Trio,

(17:41):
Pete Seeger, Who are your favorites? CPC here Pete Seeger.
So you're in Tucson, you'll leave at age eighteen? How
do you decide to leave? Well? I heard one of
the guys in the Stone Ponies was a friend. I
was playing music within Tucson, and he moved to l
A because there were more gigs, and he sent me

(18:03):
a letter said, you come over and be my girls singer.
We can form a band. I know a good guitar player,
so I did when formed the Stone Ponies. The first
person I saw performing. The first people I saw performing
when I went to l A, Ray Cooter and Taj Mahal,
and I said, Oh, they got some really good musicians
over here. I think else stay And had you planned

(18:24):
to be a professional singer prior to going to l
A from second grade? Oh? Really? Because I couldn't do arithmetic,
I said, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna be a singer.
I didn't think. I didn't think I was going to
be a star or anything like that. I didn't think
in terms of being famous. Or wildly successful. I just
thought of I wanted to sing. So you got to

(18:46):
l A and what was it like? Was a culture
shock after living in Tucson. No, it was a musical
culture I already do. We had a small musical world
in Tucson. But it was an attention of the same
thing with the players. And you said you saw Ry
Couter and taj Mahal right away. Where did you see

(19:07):
them at the ash Grove? And then we went to
the trip and heard the Birds. How about the other
acts that we're burgeoning like the birds? Were you following
all those acts too? So I was a huge fan
of the Birds. I knew Chris Hillman from bluegrass. I
knew him as a bluegrass a mandolin player. I thought, well, Chris,

(19:28):
Chris Hillman is playing folk rock. I guess we can too.
Let's just go back to chapter. You're into folk songs.
The Beatles come on the radio. Was that transformational for
you know? I didn't paint that was too much into

(19:49):
folk music than to attention to the Beatles. I got
more into the Beatles and I moved to Los Angeles.
But you ultimately or a big Beatles fan or that
was part of the fabric. Well, I'm a fan of
good songwriting, good craft, and they have plenty of that.
And how about the Rolling Stones, I like them, and

(20:10):
the rest of the British invasion, everybody from Freddie and
the Dreamers to Jerry and the Pacemakers to Herman's Hermits
like zombies, like the Zombie. Certainly good. Um. So you
moved to l A And at what point do you
ultimately decide and work and get a record deal. Well,

(20:34):
we played a little clubs, little focus. There were a
lot of them then in those days you could earn
while you learn. And then we played an audition at
the Troupadoor and we got the gig. And I thought,
if I ever got to headline at the Troubador, that
would be the pinnacle of success. So I um, I
got to play. I got to headline at the Troupador
and found out it wasn't the pinnacle of success, but

(20:56):
I didn't care. And did you have the straight gig?
How are you keeping yourself alive at this point just
by singing? Just by singing, so you never really have to,
you know, be a waitress or anything like that. No,
I never had any other job at singing. Wow, And
so other than singing with the Stone Ponies, would you

(21:16):
uh sing with other groups or do studio sessions or
anything like that. No, I didn't do that. I I
hung out with friends and play music at the troubuta
I meant John David Souther and Glenn Fry and John
Henley and all these people. How did you meet those guys?
He walked up to me and said he wanted to date. Wow,

(21:37):
So how did you get the first record deal? We
played the who it Is the tributor to audition and
on the way out, Herbie Cohen, who was a manager
in the business, cooked the arm and took me over
to Dantona's, the restaurant next door, and said, I can

(21:58):
get your girl singer records record contract. I don't know
about the band. So that was me with no no
no material of my own. I just sang. I learned
from Bobby Kimmel, who was the writer in our band,
sang his songs, so I said no, we had to
use the band. And then the second album we had

(22:20):
a big hit, but the Stone Point he didn't play
on it, and Kenny was it that discouraged with the
music and went off to India. To study something. It
came back much improved. By the time he came back,
I was I was established as a solars and I
hired him to be in the band. He was a

(22:40):
good friend. So, uh, you have this huge success with
different drum What was that experience like? Well, I didn't
like the way the record came out, so I told
him they couldn't put it out. It's a good thing
they ignored me. It was because, I mean, it got

(23:01):
me on television shows and which I hated playing because
the music was also bad and they got to tell
you what to wear and stuff like that. I didn't
like it. What did you not like about the recording?
I don't know. It was it was a good arrangement,
but I didn't It didn't sound like the Stone Ponies
to me. But it was my idea to do this song.

(23:22):
I thought. I thought it was going to be a hit,
that song. And how was your experience with herb Cone? Well?
I liked him very much personally and still do. He's
a character. He'll bullshit you, but he won't bullshit himself.
And this but he he got us wound up in jail.
We wound up getting arrested for stolen airline tickets because

(23:45):
he bought he had bought airline tickets from a a
dicey agency. He didn't know they were stolen, but he
knew they were. There was something wrong with them because
it was a cheap and he charged Capitol Records for
the whole amount of plus flight to Hawaii. So that
made me kind of unhappy. I thought that was dishonest.

(24:06):
And also he didn't understand the nuance in music. He
didn't understand I couldn't just go to a town and
call the union and hire a band. How did your
relationship with HERB come to a conclusion. Oh, well, during
the different depositions, he said, let's go to lunch and
I said okay. He said, Linda, this is going to
take too much time and energy. Let's just figure out

(24:28):
the number and settled. He settled for eighty thousand dollars
and kept eating lunch. Then we went to Africa together.
He remained a friend. So how did you feel about
the sexualized image that Capital employed to market your records.
I figured they wanted to sell records much I could

(24:51):
do about it, and that was fine with you. Well,
it was, It wasn't unfine. It just was nothing I
had anything to do with. Well, ultimately, you have this
gigantic success with the last Cappitle record in the subsequent
Asylum records, and you are, in addition to your talent,

(25:13):
you're perceived as a sex object. To what degree did
that affect you? And maybe just trying to pick the
best songs I could try to do the best I
could in music. Well, you know, we're living in the
meat Too era and people are testifying as to all
the aggressive men who cross the line. Did you have
those experiences? Well? I had plenty of those experiences, but

(25:37):
I was always protected. You know. I had Peter Asher
from my manager at John Boyland for a while, and
I was protected from stuff like that. I didn't have
to deal with the record company. Okay, the book, the
new Book Feels like Home, has a lot of recipes,
goes into food. Yet there's uh a lot of stars

(25:59):
talk about how they're pressured to be skinny. So what
was that like when you were a star? I don't know.
I wait ten pounds less than I did in high school.
I was thinned for a long time just naturally, and
then just naturally gained weight and it just naturally lost
it again when his body are made to expand and contract,

(26:20):
and it was very contracted. How did you meet David
Geffen on the Troubador and did he approach you? Well,
we had a kind of brendan common. He didn't approach me.
We had a friend in common that had worked with him. Um,
it was his room. It was his college roommate in school.

(26:41):
He said, you got made. My friend, David Geffen, he's
moving out to Los Angeles and he'll love you. I said, okay,
I'll look for him at the Troubador. It came up
and introduced him as the friend of this friend of mine,
his old college roommate, and he was very charming. We
got along fine. And how did you end up being
signed to Asylum Records? Well? I had offers from Colombia

(27:05):
and Warner Brothers and what was however Grossman's label and
from David and John Boyland was advising me then, and
he advised me to go with David because the Eagles
are already over there, and Joni Mitchell and James Um
James James Taylor wasn't with the music Peter Esher, but anyway,

(27:27):
it just seemed like a more natural context for me?
And how did j d end up producing the first record? Um,
I can't remember, to tell the truth, the record wasn't
coming out and I listed him to help and that
record was a mess. Well, the record came out and

(27:50):
was not financially successful. Uh commercially successful? Was that disheartening?
I didn't paid head just things like that. So ultimately,
how do you meet Andrew gold and what influence did
he have on your music? I met Andrew Golden was

(28:11):
in the Stone Ponies and we had a friend who
was a teacher at us sort of a Tony private
school in the valley, I can remember the name of it.
And we went there to visit my friend the teacher's class,
Andrew Golden, Wendy Wendy Steiner she had now called Wendy Waldman.

(28:33):
We're there in a band, and we thought they were
really good. Wendy Whendy Wendy Waldman is really talented singer
and absolutely first album, Love has Got Me unbelievable. I'm
friends with Wendy, I'm a big fan. I'm a huge
fan too, And I heard her singing the songs from
Love Has Got Me at her school, at her high school,

(28:54):
and I thought She was really good, and I thought
Andrew was good too, and they eventually formed a band together.
But there they were. All was Wendy things back up
on my live album that Live in Hollywood, that's Wendy
and and and Kenny singing together. Wendy, Kenny and Andrew
had a band. And also, um basn't remember. So how

(29:19):
do you end up working with Andrew? I just hired
him to go on the road. I had him to
be my guitar player. Peter Asher was impressive too, and
whose idea was it? To you do? You're no good?
And how did that come? Fine? It was a song
we added as an afterthought to the show. Because I
sang bellots all the time, it got boring, so I

(29:40):
had to learn a tempo song. So I played that
for Peter and he liked it. And Peter did very
good work on that production. He and Andrew did it together,
but it was Peter keeping everything straight. He did great
arrangement ideas, and it was a good sounding record. I thought, well,
it certainly was. So when the record was done, did

(30:03):
you know it was a hit? I thought it was strong?
And how did you find the mcgaricle's heart like a wheel?
I was sitting in a taxicab with Jerry Jeff Walker
about five in the morning, sun was just rising, and
I said, I am looking for songs. I come to
New York looking for songs. And we spent the night.

(30:24):
We spent the evening at Gary Gary White's house, the
guy that wrote a long time, and he said, I
know a song you could do. He said, there's these
two girls, these two sisters. I'll see them at the
Philadelphia Folk Festival, which was in a couple of weeks.
And she said they wrote the song called hard Like
a Wheel. And he sang me the first two lines
of three lines of hard Like a Wheel, and I

(30:46):
just flipped out. I said, you could please tell them
they have to send it and I'm going home in
About two weeks later, it came this real, the real
tape in the mail. It was mcgarriel's sisters. They recorded
with a piano and a cello. This just gave me
the idea to the string trio on it. So and
how about when will I Be Loved? How did you

(31:06):
decide to do that? I heard that from the Amally brothers,
and it doesn't matter anymore. I heard diferent Buddy Holly
when I was a kid. Well, when you would go
to make these albums, what was the procedure in finding
songs and ultimately deciding the ten or twelve that would
be on the record. Well, it was always hard to

(31:28):
find material because I hadn't found my voice yet, and
I didn't really find my voice until But I was
still learning and I was doing the best I could,
and I chose songs that were inappropriate for me. Often
because there was a lot of singer songwriters and they
write like Brandy Newman rights for his own boys. It's

(31:49):
hard to do his songs until you get really good
at it. So the songs that I loved and wanted
to sing, I wouldn't been in sing very well. So
tell me about finding your voice. Well, I started singing
better time in my phrasing. He had rushing the time

(32:10):
when I got with musicians that were demanding it body
Wotel mainly, and I improved my singing. And then I
had always wanted to do work in a real theater,
and I left Gilbert and Sullivan. So I was taken
to me Joe pap By. John Rockwell has always been

(32:32):
a friend and the mentor to me. You know who. Jocolm.
John rock fell is right wrote for the for the
New York Times. He was the head head critic for
years there. He and I were and I were great friends.
So he took me to meet Joe pap and I said,
I want to sing in the theater with the curtain
because I was tired of singing and arena's and he

(32:54):
said he probably had it was an idiot. And a
month later so one of his actors came and wanted
to do Gilbert and Sullivan and he said, but I
want to use a pop singer, not a classical singer.
So he said, oh, I know no one lived around,
said she came in. She wants to work here. So
they called me up and asked me if I wanted

(33:14):
the job. But Jerry Brown answered the phone and he
remembered he remember the HMS Pentaforre because that's the Gilbert
and Sullivan show he's seeing. And I knew that the
whole show of a J. M. S. Pinafore because my
sister sung it in junior high school and I had
memorized the whole thing. I said, I I'd love to
do a Pinafore and they said, no, it's Pirates depens Dance.

(33:36):
I didn't know that one, so I had to learn
it and ultimately let me put a song from part
from Pinafore in there. Anyway, I'm sorry my voice is
going out well. Ultimately you've got great reviews. But how
anxious were you about opening that show? I was wildly

(33:57):
keen to do it. It had a great cast, it
was a real ensemble addiction, and the music is great.
I got to use my high voice, and when I
put in my high voice really well, it integrated it
into the rest of my voice and I could do
the standards. And after I sang with Nelson Riddle, I
felt like I knew how to sing. So let's go

(34:20):
back to some of these earlier records. You do Love
as a Rose by Neil Young before he records it,
so how to second gave it to me? He gave
it to you, saying what on a demo? He said,
this is perfect for you. No, he said, he's just
my new demo. He was on his way. He had

(34:41):
a place in Zooma Beach, which was a little bit
farther northern my place in Malibu. I used to drop
by on his way up there, and my day he
had a bunch of new demos. I said, let let
me listen to them. And Nicola Larson was living with
me then, and I said, this will be so perfect
for you, Nikki, and it was hit for her. So
we both recorded Neil Young songs now. Also, you did

(35:04):
Roll Them Easy by Lowell George. How did you meet
Lowell George? I'm in the mid Atlanta. He was playing
with it with little feet and I flipped over him.
I thought he was one of the best singers I've
ever heard, and did a great guitar player. So he
was playing that song and I said I wanted to
learn it, taking over and talk to me, but he
didn't need tuning, I think, or I didn't need to me.

(35:26):
I had a change his tuning for my key and
I learned it on the guitar in my living room. Okay,
and then, uh, you end up doing the Tattler, which
is originally on Paradise and Lunch, the Rye Couterer album.
How did you end up doing the Tattler? I can't remember.

(35:48):
We needed an extra song. It's hard to find twelve
songs in a year. Hard of found twelve songs in
ten years, And at this point in time him with
this level of success where people constantly pitching you songs,
I'm not really I mean people. J D. South suggested

(36:12):
I recorded Blue Bay that Journe to be Fortunate. And
we were just hanging out of my house one night
and we were playing songs and Jackson played um for
Pitiful Me that he was he was in the studio
working with whoever perpetual Me, Warren's even and it would
be like Jackson de pitches pitches friends song over his own.

(36:34):
He's really generous that way. It was a great admirer Warre.
And I moved into Warren's apartment when I was living
in Hollywood after he lived in it, and I knew
him slightly, but I loved his songs well as good
as his version of poor Poor Pitiful Me is on
his first album forst Asylum album, Your version is the

(36:56):
definitive version. How did you end up coming recording poor
Pitiful Me? Jackson Brown's just suggested it. Read that place
Meliba I used to live, were playing songs and J D.
South there was there and suggested Blue Bay You and
Jackson was there and he said, you can you could
think more Pitiful Me? So I learned it. I taped

(37:18):
it with him singing it. I learned. I still have
the tape. And Uh, how did you because you know
and hastened down the wind. You do multiple Carla Bonoff
records songs. How did you meet and find those songs
from Carla Bonoff? Oh? Carlo was Kenny Edwards girlfriend. He

(37:39):
lived together and Kenny was in my band. So I
met Carla and you mentioned Jerry Brown earlier. How did
you end up meeting and getting involved with Jerry Brown?
I Madam and Lucy's lab cafe where everybody went to
eat Mexican food, and ultimately they had his picture in
the front window. What was appealing about Jerry? I'm not sure.

(38:07):
He's honest. He's a real he's honest with himself. He
has an amazing sense of humor that nobody knows about.
But and it was cute. And at the time, although
we was known as Governor Moonbeam, he was governor of California.
He ended up running for president. Uh. The Eagles and

(38:28):
other acts did fundraisers. You had a front row seat
for that. What was that like? I don't know. We
didn't go out in public munch, So what do you
think about the political situation today. I think it's I'm
terrified by it. It seems like there's fascist governments all

(38:48):
over the world that are taking over. I think it'll
lead the chaos and famine and war and all the
kinds of things that we can think of. And this
Elon Musk character is there's nothing but a chaos creator.
People think. People think that people can people can run
a business, which he was not a great businessman, nor

(39:10):
was Trump. But they get rich and they think they
know how to run the country and they don't, and
they have government sized budgets to accomplish what evil they
want to accomplish, Like like Ta Tongue decided the huge
plat part of China ship be planeted to wheat, and
it was the areas that we didn't grow very well
in and it caused a family that starts millions of people.

(39:34):
That's what happens if you get to just be a
dictator and say what what's going on? That's what Elon
Musk wants. So it sounds like you follow the news
pretty closely. Oh I do, so how do you how

(39:56):
do you get your information? Finally from the New Yorker,
the New York Times, But I also like um public
television is Judith Judith list your name would drift, Judy
would drift. And do you think there's any place well,
let's talk about the evolution. I mean, musical acts were

(40:18):
raising money for politicians back in the seventies. Is there
any place for music to change the landscape politically today?
I don't have any idea what we'll go on in
the future of music. It could be anything. People in
my age always think music is in decline, and I
think that to a degree. I'm not very interested in

(40:38):
music that is happening today. There's a couple of good people,
there's some really good singers, but the talent doesn't leave
the gene pool just gets shaped in drastically different forms
by the culture. And I think our culture is failing.
What in what way is just the culture failing? What's

(41:02):
getting less? To my democratic truth doesn't matter? And in journalism,
mean where don't nobody cares whether he tells the truth?
And I just tell bald face line. People believe you.
They're stupid enough, And that's really concerning to me. And
hatred is getting fashionable, and uh, you know Trump got

(41:23):
elected in sixteen. Did you find out some of your
close friends were Trumpers or no, no, no friends of
mine voted for him. It wouldn't be friends if they did.
And you know we're lucky we live in California, we
have newsom Do you think that Biden should run for

(41:45):
another term? I don't know, let to ask him. I
think he did a really good job. He's gotten legislation
through that Republican roadblock that nobody else has been able
to do. Well. What I don't like is that the
his own team doesn't give him any credit. They're not
running on his success. They're just reacting to the Republican attacks.

(42:08):
Makes me crazy. Well, he's going to go down in history,
is a real important president, I think. But you know
he's trying. It's the age is um. So do you
believe since he's doing a good job if he continues
to do this job, although if the Republicans take over

(42:31):
the House, which is what it looks like is going
to happen, um, do you think that he should serve
another term? I don't know. I mean, I don't understand
how the nuances of the presidency were. I'm sure it's
a lot of people making deals. Do something makes more
moral to I think his moral person. I think he's

(42:52):
very smart. I think he's very experienced. But he's a
gazer like me, but he's smarter gazer than I am.
And do you do you know Newsom? Gavin Newsom? Oh,
he's very charming and very smart. I think he'd be
probably a good president, being aggressive, which I certainly like.

(43:15):
And how do you feel about Ron de santasist success?
I think he's a creep. Well, you know, there's a
lot of analysis that says, irrelevant of his political positions,
that he's a very cold guy and people can't warm
up to him. And you you're saying he's a creep.
Do you think people can overlook that and you think

(43:35):
it's going to ultimately hurt him? I don't know. I
wouldn't be surprised anything. When Trump announced he was going
to run, I was sure he was going to win.
And I said, this is the Weimar Republican, It's Germany
in the thirties and hump Trump is Hitler and the
Jews of the new the Mexicans ader the new Jews.
What I mean that mark about Mexicans being rapists. It's

(43:57):
clear where he was going with that. People demonized groups
of people to cover up their own political inadequacies are
not new to this the history of this country. But
he's a he's a champion. And if I snapped my
fingers and you were control of immigration, what policy would
you want to enact? I wouldn't take it on with

(44:20):
a ten foot poll. It's so complicated. It's the third
rail of politics. I've got to is something that there's
a lot of suffering down there. I've been to the
border a lot. Well, you know the fact that they
don't have the the uh you know, we have a
brain drain with technology forget people immigrating. People you know
from India and other countries come to study here. They

(44:40):
used to stay working technology companies, but now they leave
because of the visa situation. It's insane. I got about
a quarter of that. I really am hard of hearing,
you know. Oh okay, um, well tell me when did
you tell me the status of your hearing? I think
I've lost about fifty hearing? So you did you lose it?

(45:05):
From major from loud music? Who knows? Could be anything,
could be genetics, it could be I'm sure I lost
some hearing. I lost some top and from standing in
front of rock and roll bands, but not to the
I don't know, not in your doctor. And when did
you notice and start wearing the hearing aids? About a

(45:28):
year ago? Two years ago, my hearing was a lot
better than hearing aids suck. I'm sure somebody can invent
a better hearing aid. So do you wear them all
the time? I wear the moree I'm gonna talk to
somebody like you. So you know you've gone through these
health issues over the last decade or so. What's the

(45:48):
status of your health today? Well? I have Parkinson's disease,
and well that's a progressive disease. So how are you doing? Well,
I'm progressing. So what's it like now? What's the like
is like having parkinson disease? Well, I mean, to what

(46:10):
degree is your function You know you said you can't sing,
But to what degree is your functionality impaired? I don't
go out a lot, but I've I've always been a homebody.
I don't like groups of more than ten people. So
when you're at home, do you watch streaming television? Sometimes? Yeah?
Any of your favorite shows you can talk about? Um,

(46:36):
I like the Korean show which one it's called The
and the Impressive or the some super relative lawyer. Wou
extraordinary attorney, woo extraordinary Jerney Will Yeah, that's good. Any
other ones? Let's see what else if I liked? Mm hm,

(47:00):
can't remember? And are you a reader rather than the news? Oh? Yeah,
I'm a book I'm a reader the book. The last
book I read was see what it is it called?
I read three books at once, so one was about
called Vagina Obscure, which I recommend everybody. One was a

(47:21):
history that of Fabric, which is really a good book.
It's called Fabric. The woman is a very good writer.
She's also written a book about jewels and another book
about color, The History of Color. It's fascinating. It's a
great way to learn history. And then I read I
read a book I think everybody should read. It's called
Salite Though, and it's about a kid that immigrated from

(47:45):
El Salvador to Los Angeles. Is a nine year old
all by himself to find his parents, and it's written
from the point of view of a of a nine
year old child, completely all the way through the book.
It's completely fascinating. Guy's a brilliant writer. And how did
you find these books? And reviews? John Rockoll I read

(48:08):
a review of it in The New York Times, and
then John Rockoll sent me email saying I had to
read it. I went and about it and I read
the whole thing through to at a sitting. It was
really good. Recommend that to everybody. The Vagina Book. I
recommend to everybody too, men and women. It's really well written,
and there's there says so many obscure details that you
never knew. I could have been all these studies on

(48:31):
penises but not on vaginas. Wow, what do you think
about the state of sexuality in America today? Well, if
everything goes, I think there anything goes. I think that's
probably natural. Well, you know, we live in a relatively

(48:51):
puritanical society compared to Europe sexually. Oh yeah, it's ridiculous.
And grow What was it like growing up for you?
He is a Catholic girl. Well, it's about normal. I mean,
did you were you reluctant to have intercourse? Did you

(49:13):
think you know you're going to go to hell? That's
not a question I'm gonna talk about on the radio.
I didn't think I was gonna go to hell. I
was an atheists from third grade. And uh, what about birth?
Control and abortion. I had them both. How many abortions

(49:33):
have you had? Isn't none of your business? Uh? You know,
um people say it's very difficult to uh have an
abortion emotionally after the fact, was that of your experience
feeling of relief? Great relief? And do you ever did

(49:56):
you ever subsequent to the abortion think, well, might have
made a mistake, I should have the kid or never? Never?
It was the right thing to do. And so you
came of age. Was the pill around at that point? Yes?
It was okay? Thank God? So what do you think

(50:20):
about you know, there's a fight over trans and other identities.
Are you fall down on the side whatever you want
to do or what do you think about the other
side's opinion? Oh, let let them be, Let them do
whatever they want to do. I know that if you're

(50:41):
born with a different gender assignment, there's nothing you do
about it. I have to learn how to work with it.
I should be left alone. You know you've had children.
What about all this, you know with critical race theory
and what is taught in the school. Do you think
that just all bs or do you think God, we
have to protect children to some degree. I think they

(51:02):
should take critical race theory. I think everybody from the
first grade you'd learned what the history of black people
were in this in this country and and get a servant, uncut, undiluded.
Howard's Inn has a really good history for for children
that um tells the truth but makes it, doesn't sugarcoat it,

(51:25):
but puts it in a rational context that is not damaging,
but it is enlightening. I'm a great fan of Howard's
In going back to l A, sounds like you knew
everybody from Jackson Brown to Lowell George. Uh is that true?
Or though you just hung with the people, you hung with? Well?

(51:46):
I met Jackson when he was seventeen and I was sixteen,
and no one had ever heard of either one of us.
And I just thought it was a good songwriter, as
saman was j D. I met him at the Troupador
and we went to my house and he played songs.
I thought he was a good songwriter. And when you
use the Eagles, what became the Eagles as your background band?

(52:08):
Did you realize they were going to go on to
all that success themselves? Oh? I was sure they would
be sure they would make kids okay, And what are
your kids up to today. My one daughter is a
visual artist and my other son is a tech guy.
And what does he do in tech? He's you know,

(52:30):
when you have a corporation and then they have all
their tech stuff. He runs it. He's in charge. He's
the person you go to your laptop doesn't work or whatever.
Very smart. Do you ever listen to your own records
if I need to check something like I'm trying to
figure out how to make my hearing aid work my
headphones as I listened to through several of itent I

(52:53):
listened to Paul Simon's record Graceland, and listen to some
records that I've produced mine to see what I can.
Because I know what those records sounded like when they
were made. I can tell what's missing, and there's a
lot missing. So other than when you're you know, adjusting
your hearing aids. Uh, do you listen to music much

(53:13):
in the home? Not much? And if you had to
look back at your career, what two albums are you
most proud of? I think the second Mexican record of
Mosconciones and the last record I made that it was
called that was in the last record I made, it's

(53:34):
called Winter light. And you know, you encountered a lot
in your career people saying no, and you ended up.
You know, how to tell me how those battles went
down with the record company, Well, they thought it was
a mistake career was to do them. And I said,
I'm doing them in any way. And because I couldn't

(53:57):
hear them, I could just hear the music. And to
their credit, people like Joe Smith are really old fashioned
record man and they knew how to sell records and
they stepped up and promoted it. And the same way
with Peter Asher. He couldn't have cared less about Mexic music.
You never heard it. I said, I just have to
do this, and he put his head to the to

(54:19):
the he put his shoulder in the wheel and did it.
He did a really good job. He didn't try to
get in my way. And you talk about Peter Asher,
you've worked with multiple producers. What's the key to a
good producer? I think they work in so many different ways.
Sometimes the producer controls the material and the way it's approached.

(54:40):
Sometimes the artist does, and sometimes the backing band does.
And it's a lot of subtle nuance of trade offs.
I think the producer is someone who listens and makes
carefully considered suggestions. Now the rage today is people selling
their publishing. Uh, you only wrote a handful of songs,

(55:05):
you know, right, A lot of the money is in publishing.
So how you know? Were the record companies honest with
you and paying you royalties back in the day, I
don't know. Let me put it differently, how are you
doing financially? Well, that's a pretty fucking personal question. But

(55:29):
I'm doing fine. I sold my catalog. You you sold
the catalog. I was doing fine before that. I had
a good business manager and I didn't spend a lot
of money. So you sold your royalties and all your records. Yeah,
how long would you do that? Oh? I don't know.

(55:50):
A year ago. Maybe it's based on twenty years of earnings.
He'll he'll recoup his investment in twenty years. I won't
be here in twenty years, so I don't care. It's
gonna have money. Now. Did you buy or do anything
uh that you now that you have this money? Or
did you just bank it? Well? I was going to
buy a house, but I saw what the prices are

(56:11):
up here, and I nearly fainted. I'm still on the floor, okay,
And what do you want people to get out of
this book? Feels like home. There's just another side to Mexico,
to that part of Mexico, and that party has been
a cohesive, singular piece of real estate since before um

(56:34):
Arizona was before Mexico is Arizona, and that they should
recognize what what similarities there between themselves and the people's
houves of the border. And you had brothers and sisters,
unfortunately two were no longer with us. Was their pressure
when you have this huge success to take care of

(56:56):
the rest of your family financially? Well, it changed it.
I didn't care my family financially. They were all gamefully employed. Well,
I mean it's tough that you were so successful. Did
your siblings revel in your success? Were they jealous? Well,
they didn't want to be professional singers that went on

(57:18):
the road. My brother was the chief of police of Tucson,
like his job just fine. My sister strad five kids.
I wanted to be a housewife. And did you help
support them? Not really, okay, because a lot of people
become successful and their family starts asking them for money.
That wasn't your experience? Well, not particularly if I want

(57:42):
to go for good Mexican food in l A. Where
should I go? I don't know. I haven't lived in
l A for twenty years. Well, you know, can you
mention any Mexican restaurants or do we really have to
go to Tucson to get the kind of food that
you like if you want good Mexican food. Way of January,
Lucy's Ill Adobe is reopening with the original owner and

(58:04):
the original recipes. It's going to be a great place
to eat. It's like it wasn't the seventies. What did
you use to order at Lucy's Green enchiladas? Really? And
are you a meat eater or not? I meet if
I have to? Okay, Linda, I want to thank you

(58:26):
so much for taking the time to talk to me
in my audience. Once again. Linda Ronstad has a new book,
Feels Like Home, a Song for the Sonoran Borderlands, and
so thanks again, Linda, thank you so much. Hi until
next time. This is Bob left Steps