An Open Letter to Linda Ronstadt

Dear Linda,

The last fan letter I wrote was written when I was nine years old. It was addressed to Gunther Gable Williams, whom I had seen in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He wrote back. I’m not expecting you to write back. I’ve enjoyed a lot of your music, and I certainly owe you more than you owe me. You can let the reply slide.

You have been on my mind since I watched the History of the Eagles on Netflix. I enjoyed the documentary even though I’ve never been much of a fan of the Eagles. Both Glenn Fry and Don Henley said nice things about you, which catalyzed a week long binge of watching your videos on YouTube.

It didn’t take long for me to come across this:

Which, I just have to say, is just so wonderfully affecting that I have developed a school boy crush on you. I would say more, but I can’t without gushing.

I will say that the questions in the interview are horrendous. Not only do you come off as smart, charismatic and honest, but you do it in the face of some of the worst questioning I have ever heard. Your interview is like the antithesis of the Terry Gross/Gene Simmons interview.

So anyway, Linda, thanks for your music. Thanks for the interview, and good luck to you. I can’t believe that any of what comes next would be of interest, so I will sign off here and let you go.

Your fan,

Gutbloom

This story is part of the Great POMQA Writing Prompt. Join us in the People of Medium on Slack.

For those of you still reading, here are the gems I found when I went down the Linda Ronstadt rabbit hole on YouTube.

There were a lot of things I learned. For example, I didn’t know that it was her that sang Different Drum or that the song was written by Mike Nesmith of the Monkeys.

I also didn’t realize that it was her voice, along with James Taylor, backing up Neil Young on Heart of Gold:

I also found out that she sang on Little Feat’s All That You Dream, which led me to this recording of Linda and Lowell George singing Willn’ together. (You have to go to YouTube to listen to it. It is worth the trip.)

There are some pretty great videos of her singing her hits.

And then collaborations, like Desperado with the Eagles.

And a duet with Johnny Cash:

Or this one with Glen Cambell singing a James Taylor song.