The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Linda Ronstadt

The New Yorker interview quotes Ronstadt's former manager, Peter Asher, who said Linda "would see people whispering at her concerts and imagine they were saying 'She's the worst singer I ever heard.'" Ronstadt replied that "she just didn't feel like she could sing well enough" and that she "didn't like to see the audience," but could overcome her fears by "just say[ing], 'Breathe and sing.'" 

By 1980, she had recorded nine albums, win another Grammy, and have six songs in the Billboard Top 10, including "You're No Good" at #1. At this point she decided to make the first of her dramatic explorations of different musical genres with a role in Broadway's 1980 revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance, for which she earned a Tony award. Per Biography, she then went on to make three albums of jazz and pop standards that had been relegated to easy listening stations and elevators. Ronstadt worked on the project with famed arranger and composer Nelson Riddle. In 1987, she leaned deep into her country sound and collaborated with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harrison for the album Trio, earning another Grammy and topping the country charts. That very same year she also released the Spanish language album Canciones de Mi Padre (Songs of My Father), which remains the biggest-selling non-English language album in United States history. It earned her a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Performance in 1988.