Linda Ronstadt Releases New Book ‘Simple Dreams’

Linda Ronstadt has released a new memoir about her career called Simple Dreams.

The 67-year-old singer recently announced that she lost her singing voice due to Parkinson’s disease but the new book doesn’t mention the illness. Instead, the 12-time Grammy winner talks about her career, her relationship with Governor Jerry Brown, and how she decided to become a singer.

Ronstadt writes: “I can remember sitting at the piano… My sister was playing and my brother was singing something, and I said, ‘I want to try that.’ My sister turned to my brother and said, ‘Think we got a soprano here.’ I remember thinking, ‘I’m a singer, that’s what I do.’ It was like I had become validated somehow, my existence affirmed.”

At the time, Ronstadt has no idea that her voice would make her an international star. In fact, Rondstadt said that her goals didn’t include Grammy awards of platinum albums. All she knew was that she was going to sing for the rest of her life.

Ronstadt added: “It’s weird, but that’s what I thought… I didn’t think I was a famous singer. I didn’t think I was a star, or that I could make the waters part — just that singing was what I was going to do. I thought maybe one day I’d get a job singing in a nightclub, and that would be cool.”

Linda Ronstadt participated in all-night jam sessions with people like Keith Richards and Gram Parsons during the 1970s but she also spent some time with Governor Jerry Brown. Ronstadt writes that she never planned on ending up with Brown since they led such vastly different lives.

Ronstadt writes: “Neither of us ever suffered under the delusion that we would like to share each other’s lives. I would have found his life too restrictive, and he would have found mine entirely chaotic… Eventually we went our separate ways and embraced things that resonated with us as different individuals … We have always remained on excellent terms.”

Linda Ronstadt’s new memoir talks about her life, her career, and her former Governor boyfriend but the book doesn’t mention her struggle with Parkinson’s. UPI reports that the singer hadn’t received an official diagnosis at the time the book was published. Ronstadt has, however, given a few interviews about her current struggles.

Here’s an interview Diane Sawyer did with Linda Ronstadt last week.