Linda Ronstadt loses voice to Parkinson’s
‘I can’t sing a note,’ says winner of 11 Grammys
Linda Ronstadt, the onetime “First Lady of Rock,” is no longer able to sing because of Parkinson’s disease.
The 67-year-old, who sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and is widely regarded as the most successful female rock singer of the ’70s, said she was diagnosed eight months ago and “can’t sing a note.”
“No one can sing with Parkinson’s disease. No matter how hard you try,” she said.
In an interview with AARP Magazine, the rock and country singer said she began to show symptoms eight years ago, but initially dismissed it as something to do with an unspecified tick-borne illness from which she suffered. When her hands then began to tremble, she said she thought the shaking was because of a recent shoulder operation. “I couldn’t sing and I couldn’t figure out why,” she told the magazine.
“I knew it was mechanical. I knew it had to do with the muscles, but I thought it might have also had something to do with the tick disease that I had. And it didn’t occur to me to go to a neurologist.”
She was “completely shocked” when finally diagnosed. “I wouldn’t have suspected that in a million, billion years,” she said.
She now uses sticks to walk on uneven ground and a wheelchair when travelling, according to the magazine.
During her career, Ronstadt, who was born in Arizona, won 11 Grammy Awards as well as two Country Music Awards and an Emmy. She was also nominated for a Tony Award for her role in the 1981 musical The Pirates of Penzance. Her 1977 song Blue Bayou peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard chart, while her duet with Aaron Neville, Don’t Know Much, reached No. 2 in 1989. In 1978, she made an estimated $12 million.
Her autobiography, Simple Dreams, is due to be published next month.