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Post by terryarceneaux on Sept 11, 2012 20:56:16 GMT -5
I have seen some stage performance by Linda. at the start of her career she seen nervous.
Question: did she ever get over that. If not how did she cope with it.
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Post by erik on Sept 11, 2012 22:15:13 GMT -5
I think it is a very complex thing. Linda has, throughout her career, said at certain points that she sees herself as a concert artist, and at other times say that she prefers spending time in the studio.
Appearing in concert in public has never been an easy thing for her to do; she has one of the most well-known cases of stage fright of any singer in history, male or female. How she has ever managed to get through a 75-120 minute show in her 45 year career, given that stage fright, is something I don't even think she knows--but maybe she'll tell us in her memoir.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 12, 2012 5:21:19 GMT -5
I think it is a very complex thing. Linda has, throughout her career, said at certain points that she sees herself as a concert artist, and at other times say that she prefers spending time in the studio. Appearing in concert in public has never been an easy thing for her to do; she has one of the most well-known cases of stage fright of any singer in history, male or female. How she has ever managed to get through a 75-120 minute show in her 45 year career, given that stage fright, is something I don't even think she knows--but maybe she'll tell us in her memoir. I'd be curious about Linda's stage fright as well, though I don't think the way she handled stage fright was the same way Carly Simon handled her stage fright. Elvis also went through stage fright before every show but his stage fright was gone the moment he walked his way to the stage. Maybe Linda was like Elvis in just going out, doing the show and getting it over and done with?
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Post by erik on Sept 12, 2012 9:19:31 GMT -5
I think all performers handle their stage fright differently, but every situation and every concert is different, as are the audiences.
This is just speculation on my part, but perhaps part of Linda's stage fright stems from being very good at ballads, having a significant portion of her hits be uptempo rockers, and finding a way to balance the two, in terms of song selection and onstage performance, in order to please both the audiences and herself. It may not have ever been all that easy for her to do, at least in her own mind; and perhaps it also causes the disdain (some of it overdone [IMHO]) she has had for "Heat Wave" and "You're No Good" in later years.
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 12, 2012 15:05:30 GMT -5
I recall Stevie Nicks saying she gets so wound up before a show she will vomit.
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Post by Dianna on Sept 12, 2012 15:43:49 GMT -5
well, she never thought she was that good in the first place. which is weird, either it's a strong case of false modesty or she has the reverse condition of what many of those horrible singers who go on the audition for Idol (they actually think they can sing). Judging from her early footage, there's a lot more onstage shyness as compared to her later or more recent.. She grew in conidence for sure!
Also, I think with performing as a career, like anything one loves to for a living, you get better, smarter and more secure.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 12, 2012 17:55:15 GMT -5
well, she never thought she was that good in the first place. which is weird, either it's a strong case of false modesty or she has the reverse condition of what many of those horrible singers who go on the audition for Idol (they actually think they can sing). Judging from her early footage, there's a lot more onstage shyness as compared to her later or more recent.. She grew in conidence for sure! Also, I think with performing as a career, like anything one loves to for a living, you get better, smarter and more secure. Could part of Linda's problem with stage fright have been due to the songs she was singing? Recall that in the 60s and the 70s,the focus was on performers writing their own songs. Non-writing, non-playing performers were often criticized for not writing and/or not playing on their records (even though not playing on your recordings was a more wide spread practice than the purists knew). Early day audiences may not have come to Linda's shows expecting to hear older country songs like "I Fall to Pieces" or "Crazy Arms." I think the audience expectation could have been that Linda was a pop-rock singer, not a country singer with an occasional rock twist to her music. Much of her stage fright could've resulted from how the audiences in each city reacted to her music.
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Post by erik on Sept 12, 2012 20:44:15 GMT -5
I think it's possible that the material she was doing may have had something to do with her stage fright issues, but at heart she may not have felt she was ever that much of a performer, just a singer. As dianna says, it may be false modesty or the reverse of all the arrogance of American Idol contestants and (in my opinion) the judges.
I think we can all agree that Linda has always been a fairly shy person, especially when it comes to performing. However (and while she may not necessarily admit to it), I also believe that her shyness is one of the many endearing and enduring traits that her fan base, including her peers in the music business, appreciates about her. It's real; and I think that very reality is something that is sorely missing in a lot of these would-be contestants on Idol, X Factor, The Voice, and other shows of that kind.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 12, 2012 22:59:08 GMT -5
I think it's possible that the material she was doing may have had something to do with her stage fright issues, but at heart she may not have felt she was ever that much of a performer, just a singer. As dianna says, it may be false modesty or the reverse of all the arrogance of American Idol contestants and (in my opinion) the judges.
I thought it not only could have been the songs she performed in concert but also the musicians who came and went like they were in a revolving door. It would've been pretty tough for Linda to have had rehearse with a different band each time a tour was arranged. One band might've been at the top of their game as musicians while another band might never have risen above an amateur bar band status. I recalled Linda saying in a syndicated tv interview in early 1971 that she preferred working with musicians who were her own age, figuring their level of expertise as musicians matched her level as a singer. I thought that was a rather naive attitude to have as age really isn't relevant to one's skills as a musician.
She might have been more comfortable in the early 70s if she'd had a group of musicians who had stuck around longer rather than moved on. Of course, the question beckons would she have had Kenny Edwards back in her band and Andrew Gold if some of those earlier musicians had stuck around? Quite honestly, I'm glad many of the earlier musicians didn't stick around and that Linda had Andrew and Kenny (and Dan Dugmore) in her band. They gave her a more cohesive sound, one that matched her talent as a vocalist.
I think we can all agree that Linda has always been a fairly shy person, especially when it comes to performing. However (and while she may not necessarily admit to it), I also believe that her shyness is one of the many endearing and enduring traits that her fan base, including her peers in the music business, appreciates about her. It's real; and I think that very reality is something that is sorely missing in a lot of these would-be contestants on Idol, X Factor, The Voice, and other shows of that kind.
Linda's appearance on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was quizzing her about her dating or love life and she just looked away from him totally demonstrated just how shy she really is - or was, back in those days. I had to wonder if the comment also made her blush, which you couldn't have seen on the tv. She seems to have always been a very private person and I think she found the questions into her love life intrusive. With a lot of the Idol/Factor/Voice contestants, you get a lot of performers who have no shortage of ego and no shyness about themselves. They think they truly belong and that having a million selling album is their right. But, in Hollywood, if you don't have the huge ego and are extremely shy, the odds of you making it have to be in the sub-zero range. Linda's shyness didn't prevent her from making it but I think the powers that be realized the potential she had and were prepared to make her into a success, her shyness notwithstanding.
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Post by erik on Sept 13, 2012 9:18:36 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker:
She probably regrets having said that, but she likely felt an enormous insecurity about her own abilities as a musician.
Even though her backing bands, up until she got Kenny (back again), Andrew, and the others, were temporary things, Linda still forged some really great relations with them and made friends, all of whom were supportive and very solicitous. Some sexism inevitably existed, of course; but in general, the opinion of just about everyone who ever worked with Linda was consistently high.
Obviously, the questions about her love life and stuff are irritating to her. However, Johnny was the kind of host that made his guests feel at ease, and he himself was a very private person too (or at least tried to be during his 30-year tenure). He seemed to be much more intrigued by what mattered to Linda the most, which was the music she made (IMHO).
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 13, 2012 15:24:02 GMT -5
She probably regrets having said that, but she likely felt an enormous insecurity about her own abilities as a musician.I think if she remembered saying it, she probably did regret it but like a lot of us, she probably doesn't remember everything she has ever said. She might look at someone with a puzzled look on her face if someone were to ask her about the comment today as I don't know what company or tv station it was that produced that syndicated music and talk show. I recall that it was out of Houston, Texas and that beside the comment about wanting to work with musicians her own age, Linda also talked about wanting to record the James Taylor song "You Can Close Your Eyes," which she would ultimately record for "Heart Like a Wheel" (though I believe she had tried out the song earlier but wasn't satisfied with the results). Even though her backing bands, up until she got Kenny (back again), Andrew, and the others, were temporary things, Linda still forged some really great relations with them and made friends, all of whom were supportive and very solicitous. Some sexism inevitably existed, of course; but in general, the opinion of just about everyone who ever worked with Linda was consistently high.No question about the support of the musicians and the friendships but I think it had to be extremely difficult to constantly work with a different band on a basic concert setlist, not to mention if some of the earlier band members had worked on her recordings and then split, as no two musicians ever played the same songs exactly alike. And I think Linda's stage fright could've resulted from not knowing how the audience would react, especially if some members of the audience were people who had been to her shows before. Add in people who might have been new to her concerts and who knew of her but didn't have any of her albums in their collection (ever known any people like that? I've known a few), and the musicians were of the bar band level, those people might have thought those musicians were the ones playing on Linda's albums. Obviously, the questions about her love life and stuff are irritating to her. However, Johnny was the kind of host that made his guests feel at ease, and he himself was a very private person too (or at least tried to be during his 30-year tenure). He seemed to be much more intrigued by what mattered to Linda the most, which was the music she made (IMHO).It was kind of weird that Carson put her into an uneasy place in asking about her love life and I could see why she didn't want to answer. I loved her reaction to the question even more - the looking away, the shyness. But, I had to wonder if he had asked the question in a more generalized way, would she have felt more comfortable in answering?
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Post by erik on Sept 13, 2012 20:37:08 GMT -5
One has to remember that, aside from having backing bands like the Corvettes, Swampwater, and the guys that soon morphed into the Eagles, Linda also had practically every musician in the Los Angeles country-rock session mafia working with her on albums and concerts during the early 1970s. I agree that it was very difficult for her at first, being around all these hot players, even though they really liked her a lot. When she started playing acoustic guitar around '72 or so, however, she managed to get her musical ideas together; and it made it easier to be a communicator.
As for that appearance on The Tonight Show, in March 1983, I think Linda may have come into that situation slightly under-prepared for what Johnny might have asked her. This was only the second time she had ever appeared on it, the first being in July 1969 when Johnny still did the show at 30 Rock in New York; and she might not have been totally aware of what might have been asked. But she sure wasn't as hostile to Johnny as she might otherwise have been, and probably knew he was just joshing.
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Post by Dianna on Sept 14, 2012 11:10:27 GMT -5
when johnny asked about her love life and marriage or never having married, I thought she handled herself well.. and maybe it was meant as a teasng kind of dig to him! (asking people about marrying several times) ouch! Wasn't he married 3 or 4 times! lol
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Post by erik on Sept 14, 2012 14:04:35 GMT -5
I think he took the dig at him in stride; few things ever fazed him in his thirty years. And it always seemed that Linda was at a special peak in her performance on the several times she was on his show between 1983 and 1990 (IMHO).
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Post by Dianna on Sept 14, 2012 14:11:32 GMT -5
One could say that he walked right into that one. lol
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 14, 2012 15:37:31 GMT -5
when johnny asked about her love life and marriage or never having married, I thought she handled herself well.. and maybe it was meant as a teasng kind of dig to him! (asking people about marrying several times) ouch! Wasn't he married 3 or 4 times! lol I thought Carson was only married twice, but on Carson asking Linda about her love life, marriage or never having been married, most of the people I have known who have been single all of their live don't like being asked questions about why they are still single. Having been single all of my life, I know I don't like being asked about it. It's amazing how many people think there's nothing wrong in asking a long time single person why they are still single and who never considered they might be opening up an old wound for the person who is single. Everyone who is single has a different reason as to why they are still single. It could be a person simply preferred being single over being married. That could be the case with Linda but there could also be another reason which only she knows and doesn't want to disclose as it's nobody else's business. But, it could also be a very sensitive subject that by bringing it up also brings up a lot of pain and hurt in the process. People don't mean any harm by asking but it's a question they should ask about asking before it's asked, and should be prepared to drop if the person doesn't want to discuss it.
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Post by Dianna on Sept 14, 2012 15:46:10 GMT -5
yeah, I agree. I was single for a long time too.. it wasn't my choice, as i wanted to be married or in a relationship with the right person not just anybody. I'm choosy. lol (that's even worse, like people think you're pathetic or something being alone.. . like you said, slide there is always a reason . and it's obnoxious when people hound you about it. Maybe it's a good thing, like you're a catch, why aren't you married. that's I how took the carson thing
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 14, 2012 20:29:38 GMT -5
Not having to answer to anyone and do what you want to do when you want to do it is good enough reason. I would have said I am avoiding the Karmic wheel (ha). It used to be one got married to have kids but in today's world that isn't necessary and if you have the money like Linda does she really doesn't need marriage. Serial monogamy had worked well for her early years. Sex seems less important as we age and companionship may be the better reason for marriage especially in difficult times. Linda is very independent. Maybe she will open up in her memoirs. She has always been forthcoming about her attitudes on stuff like that which is what I love about her.
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Post by 70smusicfan on Sept 14, 2012 20:31:53 GMT -5
I've seen some (or most) of the Tonight Show videos. I agree with dianna with this additional caveat: As suave and sophistocated as Johnny was, I think he was as dumbstruck with her beauty and presence as most of us would be if we ever met her. He just opened his mouth and inserted his foot with stupid questions.
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 14, 2012 20:35:38 GMT -5
He and Ed went gaga over her that night and we know how difficult it was for her to accept compliments back then. I think it threw her off track on her line of thought. (in front of a large audience to boot)
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Post by terryarceneaux on Sept 14, 2012 20:40:57 GMT -5
Elvis did not look nervous to me. Linda I could see it in her eyes.
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Post by erik on Sept 14, 2012 20:46:38 GMT -5
Elvis likely used his nervousness to his advantage because it kept him anxious to get out there. And he had a persona to match. On the other hand, Linda, being totally different from the King (who, vocally and musically, was one of her many childhood favorites), simply went on as herself (if slightly edited), and it made her feel like a deer caught in the headlights. But she always seemed to pull through because of her talents, her band, and the sheer support of the crowd (IMHO).
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 15, 2012 15:34:57 GMT -5
Not having to answer to anyone and do what you want to do when you want to do it is good enough reason. I would have said I am avoiding the Karmic wheel (ha). It used to be one got married to have kids but in today's world that isn't necessary and if you have the money like Linda does she really doesn't need marriage.
While this is true to some degree, the question remains what if Linda wanted to be married at some point in her life? What if it was important to her for whatever reason, that she was married? Just as people can say something wrong in asking a single person why aren't they married, they can also make the wrong leap in the other direction as well, that the person didn't want marriage in the first place. We don't know why Linda never married, whether it was by choice or because she never found the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, or if there were issues between her and the men she dated that made the possibility of marriage unlikely.
Serial monogamy had worked well for her early years. Sex seems less important as we age and companionship may be the better reason for marriage especially in difficult times. Linda is very independent. Maybe she will open up in her memoirs. She has always been forthcoming about her attitudes on stuff like that which is what I love about her.
I sometimes wonder if Linda ran into the kind of dating problems that bedeviled Elvis and Marilyn Monroe in their dating habits? In that the men looked at Linda and saw Linda Ronstadt, the celebrity, and not Linda Ronstadt, the human being. Given that Linda dated other celebrities, could some of the early ones have looked at dating her as a means to advance their careers? Of course, many of the later ones didn't need Linda to advance their careers. They had their careers but for whatever reason, those relationships ended as well. With Heart Like a Wheel as the title of her forthcoming autobiography, that suggests she could open up about her relationships and how her career affected those relationships, and what regrets she's had about them. I don't expect her auto-bio to be extremely sensational or too shocking, but I think there could be a surprise or two.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 15, 2012 15:58:42 GMT -5
Elvis likely used his nervousness to his advantage because it kept him anxious to get out there. And he had a persona to match. On the other hand, Linda, being totally different from the King (who, vocally and musically, was one of her many childhood favorites), simply went on as herself (if slightly edited), and it made her feel like a deer caught in the headlights. But she always seemed to pull through because of her talents, her band, and the sheer support of the crowd (IMHO). Elvis admitted he went through stage fright with every show he did, that he never got over it, yet he still managed to go out on stage night after night. I think the fact he didn't wear his prescription eyeglasses helped him het over the stage fright - peoples' faces were a blur to him. But, I think that for the most part, once on stage, he got into doing his show and just forgot about the stage fright. The exception to that might have been the last eighteen months of his life when his health began to seriously slide, far worse than many people knew and what many attributed to the drugs he was taking rather than the illnesses that were plaguing him. During his last tv special, he didn't look well nor did he feel well and there was one moment (that was edited out of the original special) in which he admitted to his audience that he was nervous. What was weird was that only some of the band members and vocalists around Elvis saw just how bad he was getting. Some of the band members and vocalists didn't realize how seriously bad his health was getting until they watched that last tv special years later. They didn't watch it in 1977 because they were still dealing with Elvis's death. I think it was one of the Sweet Inspirations members who said they thought Elvis looked fine in 1977 when they were with him, but the last special shocked them beyond belief. The cameras captured on film what they didn't see up close. And one has to wonder, did any of the other people who were around Elvis, the ones who were more inside Elvis's circle than the band members and vocalists, realize just how far downhill he had gone?
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Post by erik on Sept 15, 2012 19:32:08 GMT -5
I think Elvis' band members and the rest of the entourage knew by 1977 that his demons had been consuming him for some time, but they may not have wanted to think about them at the time because they didn't want the reality to shatter the image they had of him as being almost God-like. And they really didn't want to believe the stories about his prescription drug addiction. His voice was practically the only thing he may have had left in him that he could still rely on, and even that may no longer have been enough. Regarding marriage vis-a-vis Linda: In an interview she did with CBS News' Russ Mitchell in December 2004, she said that she had a great respect for the institution of marriage, but that it really wasn't for her; and in the past, she had complained at times about people, and not just celebrities, who only wanted access to her for the "star" image, and not the real Linda, which is understandable. In terms of Linda's performances of late, if you go down this link here: www.ticketmaster.com/Linda-Ronstadt-tickets/artist/736003..you'll see that the reviews of an unusually large number of fans were not all that good towards her. They said that she exhibited signs of not even wanting to be onstage (even though it was with the Mariachis), and that her voice was beginning to show signs of strain and cracking (and having to sing over the massed Mariachi brass, no matter how authentic she was at it, probably didn't help). Thus, even though we may be dismayed about her retirement, if anything about those reviews was even slightly true, she now seemed to have good reason not to push herself any longer.
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 15, 2012 21:46:31 GMT -5
I think Elvis' band members and the rest of the entourage knew by 1977 that his demons had been consuming him for some time, but they may not have wanted to think about them at the time because they didn't want the reality to shatter the image they had of him as being almost God-like. And they really didn't want to believe the stories about his prescription drug addiction. His voice was practically the only thing he may have had left in him that he could still rely on, and even that may no longer have been enough.With Elvis, I think the majority of those around him, whether they were members of his family, the Memphis Mafia or his band and backing vocalists assumed Elvis's problem to be the result of drug addiction and not the result of illnesses. The drug issue was a problem but there was also enough wrong with Elvis at 42, health wise - really wrong with him, that made an outcome of death a possibility just from those health issues. The people around him may have assumed that he wouldn't have had the health problems he had if he'd just stayed off the drugs, but it just didn't seem to occur to them that he was not in good health, especially the last eighteen months of his life. He went downhill at maybe a slow pace and maybe that's why people thought he was invincible, that he was beating his problems. If he had been off the road the last 18-24 months of his life, things might have been different as the road contributed to his run down and eventual death. Regarding marriage vis-a-vis Linda: In an interview she did with CBS News' Russ Mitchell in December 2004, she said that she had a great respect for the institution of marriage, but that it really wasn't for her; and in the past, she had complained at times about people, and not just celebrities, who only wanted access to her for the "star" image, and not the real Linda, which is understandable.I thought it likely that Linda might've had her fair share of suitors who were attracted to her because of her star image and nothing else. I don't know that with Linda, it wasn't a case of marriage not being really for her more than it might've been a case of throwing in the towel and giving up on the idea. If it wasn't her beautiful looks, guys could've been intimidated by the large amounts of money she had earned. Guys are always critcized for dating a woman who makes - or made - more money than what what the guy made. I think Linda sort of shared that attitude for a time as I recall seeing her comment on video about wanting to find a guy who had made about $50 million and recall reading a similar comment in her Playboy interview. Could she have really been that hard to please or high maintenance? She said she didn't want to date a guy who didn't make a lot of money, yet would she have considered dating down if she had found someone who appealed to her, wanted nothing to do with the limelight and didn't make a lot of money? Of course, she did date down somewhat when she dated actor Jim Carrey when he was still an up and coming actor. He hadn't made a lot of money at that point but he was actively seeking the limelight. Of course, almost everyone she dated had some limelight connection, whether it was Jerry Brown or Steve Martin and Albert Brooks, although there were some she dated - like musician Adam Mitchell, who was one of the musicians on "Silk Purse" and who was still around with her in in the mid-70s, that you would be hard pressed to find any information about the relationship she had with him. He seemed to shun the limelight, yet that relationship seemed to end as well. In terms of Linda's performances of late, if you go down this link here:
www.ticketmaster.com/Linda-Ronstadt-tickets/artist/736003
..you'll see that the reviews of an unusually large number of fans were not all that good towards her. They said that she exhibited signs of not even wanting to be onstage (even though it was with the Mariachis), and that her voice was beginning to show signs of strain and cracking (and having to sing over the massed Mariachi brass, no matter how authentic she was at it, probably didn't help). Thus, even though we may be dismayed about her retirement, if anything about those reviews was even slightly true, she now seemed to have good reason not to push herself any longer. My attitude would be one of gratitude, grateful that she still wanted to perform (at the time) and still loving her voice, despite the cracks and strains, and loving her. I sometimes wish we could still get another album or two from her, with songs on which she didn't have to strain to sing. Of course, with recording studio techniques, she could record over any cracks and strains and no one would be any the wiser. But, she may feel she has given all she had to give and it's time for the sun to set gracefully on her career. If she ever makes another album, I hope it's never because of a sad event like it was for singer Glen Campbell, whose "Ghost on the Canvas" album was basically a goodbye to his fans, because of his ongoing battle with Alzheimers. I'd rather her sunset into retirement be what she has made it and that she lives and enjoys a good, long life. She's earned it.
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Post by the Scribe on Sept 16, 2012 1:14:14 GMT -5
I think she could make a terrific writer of some sort. She is very well read and intelligent and there are so many avenues inside and outside of music open to her if she wanted to do so. I think she should produce a film about her family, the Ronstadt family. There is so much available on them already to make a great documentary. Considering our burgeoning Spanish population there would be great interest in America for their story and it would focus positively on our Hispanic community and their rich heritage.
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