not an article not a rumor not a

censored memoir For the first time Linda

Ronstat has directly named the people

who have hurt her most in her career

Five names five stories that she thought

she would take to the grave No one

forced her No one set her up It’s just

that at some point when the voice has

left the body people start to want to

speak in other ways And she chose this

way What she’s about to tell you will

change the way you look at seemingly

flawless relationships collaborations

and rock history that you once believed

to be glorious Everyone knows that the

Eagles were Linda Ronstat’s backup band

before they became American rock icons

What’s less wellknown is that Linda

opened the door for them to the big

stage She chose them not because she

lacked talent but because she believed

they had substance Glenn Frey still

finding his way was someone Linda

appreciated Both his musicianship and

his teamwork But once the reputations

began to shift so did the distance When

the Eagles hit it big with Hotel

California and the hits that followed no

one talked about the time they were

behind Ronstat Nor did Glenn Frey In a

1977 interview when asked about the

band’s role as backup for solo artists

Frey simply said “We learned a lot from

those days but frankly we’re on our own

now.” Linda didn’t respond But after

that day all invitations to perform

together with the Eagles stopped Things

came to a head at the Hollywood Bowl It

was supposed to be a memorable reunion

Linda would join the Eagles for a few

songs just like they had on their first

tour But just before the set list was

finalized Glen Freys manager called to

suggest a change of pace The Eagles

would perform after Linda They wanted to

close the show Linda refused She didn’t

need a place on stage but she also

couldn’t stand to have her role

rewritten in the story especially not

when it was someone who had once walked

off her stage In response Frey cancelled

the collaboration His final message was

“I don’t think the audience will be

expecting you anymore.” It’s not that

Linda doesn’t understand competition but

with Glenn she sees something else

Handwashing She doesn’t need credit but

she recognizes it when people

deliberately erase her from the

collective memory Years later in a

private conversation with a journalist

Linda was asked why she had never

appeared at Eagle celebrations But

having laid the foundation she simply

laughed Some people are comfortable

living with the story they have written

I am not For Linda it wasn’t Glen Frey

she hated It was what he represented A

way of getting ahead by rejecting the

first steps She didn’t expect thanks but

she didn’t forget to ignore them either

Frey died in 2016 Linda did not speak

publicly nor did she appear at any

memorial events Behind the scenes she

only told an old friend I wish him peace

But if there is one thing I regret it is

that I thought we were allied Linda

doesn’t need to win in other people’s

memories But when she looks back Frey is

still the first one to appear Not

because of fame but because of the

feeling of being left out of a story

that should have had a right to exist

The man who saved the world but left me

alone Neil Young was one of the artists

Linda had truly admired He was outspoken

anti-war and a defender of the underdog

Values Linda shared but that similarity

led to one of the biggest rifts she had

ever experienced in the music industry

In 1976 Linda and Neil were invited to a

benefit concert for immigrant workers in

California The event was organized in a

spirit of solidarity But even at the

first meeting Linda sensed something was

wrong She suggested songs like Desperado

and Blue Bayou Light but with emotional

depth Neil shook his head “We’re not

here to sing salon music,” he said

almost mockingly Linda held back The

second time he interrupted her as she

discussed the set list he insisted that

real protest songs don’t need to be

emotionally easy to listen to To her it

wasn’t just a rejection It was his way

of denying her part in the struggle On

stage that day Linda stood on the

sidelines not included in the general

acts as planned She didn’t want to make

a big deal out of it but when she got

off the stage she cried in the dressing

room Not because she was being left out

but because she felt excluded from

something she should have had a right to

be a part of She said nothing to Neil No

retort or question But after that night

she turned down every invitation to

collaborate with him Once the organizer

suggested she sing a duet with Neil on a

live TV show Linda simply replied “I

choose not to stand next to someone who

despises me.” Neil was not silent In a

1978 interview when asked about female

artists in the struggle he replied “Some

have good voices but not the guts to

touch what really hurts.” Linda knew he

was talking about her and she never

forgot Linda did not speak publicly no

interviews no criticism But at an

informal gathering with some old friends

in the industry when the conversation

happened to mention Neil Young someone

asked her what she thought of him after

all these years Linda did not have to

think long She said only one sentence

slowly and clearly He is very good at

making people believe that he is on the

right side even when he is the one who

silences them In the years that followed

Linda avoided any projects involving

Neil Even when he sent a brief apology

through a mutual friend she didn’t

respond Not because she hated him but

because she didn’t believe in apologies

until the end To Linda Neil represented

a kind of male artist who assumed his

cause was superior to anyone else’s They

believed women should stay with their

love songs and stay on the sidelines of

protests unless invited to speak Linda

didn’t need their permission But when

the person she once trusted pushed her

aside it didn’t feel like disappointment

It felt like suffocation Years later

Linda was asked if she would have

reacted differently if she could go back

to that day She replied “I wouldn’t have

had to speak up to defend myself Time

would have done it for me For Linda the

most painful thing wasn’t being rejected

It was having someone who stood up for

justice disregard her ability to walk

the walk because she chose a different

path one that was just as just just less

noisy Neil Young kept performing kept

fighting kept being honored Linda stayed

silent But in that silence was a scar

And if she had to pick one person who

made her lose faith in her allies it was

Neil The neverending joke Glenda Ronstat

is not the type to succumb to fame Even

though working with many great artists

she has never allowed herself to be

reduced to a side note in any project

With MC Jagger it started as an

opportunity and ended as a prime example

of the so-called attraction of status

something Linda never believed was worth

sacrificing her dignity for In the 1980s

Linda agreed to participate in a

celebritystudded charity event Mick

proposed the idea for the finale All the

artists would come on stage to sing a

new version of Sympathy for the Devil

Linda didn’t object but after the first

rehearsal Jagger’s publicist released

promotional images for the event With

Linda’s photo next to him captioned

“Jagger and guest vocalists no names no

permission and no one asked.” Linda kept

quiet but after the incident she

actively refused any collaborations with

the Rolling Stones or Jagger for more

than a decade She told a close friend

that she felt dragged into a sideshow to

feed someone else’s ego That was until

1987 when MC Jagger appeared on a late

night talk show The host made a familiar

joke Linda Ronstad is one of the most

outstanding voices you’ve ever sung with

How’s that mick smirked and replied “She

looks better when she’s not singing.”

The audience laughed The host laughed

The studio erupted in reflexive laughter

Only one person didn’t laugh The man who

had stood next to him on stage who had

believed himself to be a colleague and

not a prop in someone else’s performance

She did not respond to the press but

wrote clearly in her diary They say

women should laugh when men joke but if

it is funny I choose to remain silent as

an act of protest Linda wasn’t surprised

that Jagger said that What saddened her

was the ease with which such jokes were

accepted especially coming from a male

rock icon and more than anything the

implicit understanding that women who

didn’t fight back were more likely to

stay in the game She was asked to sing

on a Jagger record in the early ‘9s on

the condition that she change her image

be more sexy Linda refused flat out and

without negotiation She made it clear to

her manager “I don’t have to be sexy to

be asked to sing And if that’s the

criteria I don’t even want to sing.”

It’s not that Linda didn’t appreciate

Mick’s talent She once said he was such

a good stage performer that he convinced

the crowd that every line was theirs But

to her Mick was always the embodiment of

unapologetic power Power that exploited

the image of others to bolster its own

Linda didn’t expect an apology from

Jagger nor did she expect an explanation

Such people she thought rarely felt the

need to say anything after being coddled

But if anyone had ever asked who had

made her lose all faith in her ability

to work with people at the pinnacle of

fame Linda would have said without

hesitation “Mick Jagger.” For her it

wasn’t a grudge It was a line And once

someone crossed that line no matter how

famous they were no longer in her world

The woman who makes me feel unworthy

After her encounters with male artists

where ego power and prejudice were

always present Linda once believed that

women would be the place where she would

find empathy understanding and fairness

She thought that people on the margins

of power would know how to hold each

other together But then there were

situations that made her realize that

not all wounds come from brutality or

contempt There are wounds that come from

people you once admired once trusted And

because of that it leaves a deeper cut

For Linda that happened with Joanie

Mitchell Linda has never made it a

secret that she looks up to Joanie as a

role model Not just because of her voice

but because Joanie writes her own songs

owns her own sound and has complete

creative control over what she performs

Linda doesn’t write her own songs She

chooses to interpret other people’s

songs in her own way And that used to

make her feel inferior next to people

like Joanie In 1979 at a Rolling Stone

concert Linda performed a special

arrangement of Joany’s hit River The

response from the audience was

overwhelmingly positive Immediately

after the performance Linda walked

backstage and saw Joanie talking to a

group of people As Linda approached

Joanie turned smiled slightly and said

“I didn’t know my songs were so

popular.” The remark seemed light but

Linda could hear the sarcasm in every

word She didn’t reply She just turned

away and sat quietly in the dressing

room for the rest of the event A week

later in a small interview with a music

magazine Joanie was asked about artists

who covered her music She replied “I

write from my blood No one can convey

that unless they have lived it.” Linda

read the article folded the magazine and

never mentioned Joanie again to the

press Later when producers suggested

Mitchell’s songs for her ballad album

Linda declined not because she didn’t

like them but because she didn’t want to

be associated with someone who had made

her feel like she wasn’t real enough to

express other people’s sadness In the

years that followed whenever Joanie

Mitchell was mentioned Linda never shied

away but she never strayed beyond

neutrality No criticism or flattery just

a quiet clear attitude Once when asked

if she would work with Joanie again

Linda replied simply “I admire talent

but I work with people who have both

talent and kindness For me one is not

enough For Linda Joanie wasn’t exactly

an enemy but someone who made her doubt

her own worth something no one else had

ever done not even the men who had

openly despised her That didn’t make

Linda lose herself On the contrary she

came to understand her place in the

industry an artist who chose to sing

songs that felt real to her even if she

didn’t write them and that didn’t make

her any less sincere During a late

recording session when only a few people

remained in the mixing room Linda shared

with a close friend “I used to think I

wasn’t deep enough that I was just the

person behind someone else’s songs But

then I listened to my own recordings and

I realized sometimes it’s the way you

tell the story that makes the song mean

something completely different Not a

copy a soulful version of yourself.”

Linda never needed anyone to validate

her worth But with Joanie Mitchell

things were different Not because Joanie

was better but because Linda believed

they were on the same page It was the

indifference from her once icon that

took her years to shake off the feeling

that she was always one step below even

though no one had ever said it out loud

When friendship breaks down in song

Linda Ronstat didn’t have many close

friends in the music industry but her

relationship with Dolly Parton was one

of the few strong bonds between three of

the most prominent women of the era

Linda Dolly and Emmy Louu Harris They

weren’t just musical partners they were

also sisters especially when they

collaborated on the albums Trio and Trio

2 Trio’s success in 1987 was

unquestionable but behind the scenes

things weren’t always smooth sailing

During the making of Trio 2 released

more than a decade later Dolly asked to

have her vocals removed from some of the

recordings for personal reasons and

scheduling reasons Linda and the

producers agreed and decided to keep

Emmy Louu and Linda’s vocals on just a

few tracks Linda thought it was a done

deal But when the album was released

Dolly was surprised and unhappy with the

way it was handled There was no clear

dialogue between them after that No

public argument no back and forth in the

press just silence that lasted for years

Linda feels misunderstood in a place

where she once thought there was trust

For Dolly it may not be a

misunderstanding but a feeling of being

left out of a project she has put her

heart and soul into A friendship that

once seemed unshakable begins to show

cracks over seemingly small things but

neither of them is proactive enough to

pull the other back Linda didn’t blame

Dolly for wanting to pull out of some

songs She understood the pressure of the

schedule and the artistic control that

an artist like Dolly always maintained

But what hurt Linda Moore was that

neither of them had taken the initiative

to sit down and talk things out to clear

up the misunderstandings They had once

had enough trust to create together to

step on stage without rehearsing to sing

in harmony without saying much But after

that everything was as if the power had

been pulled No scandals no publicity no

criticism It was just that from then on

they had not performed together on the

same stage again for many years In a

private conversation with Emmy Lou

Harris in 2005 Linda said something that

left listeners speechless I’m not angry

at Dolly for choosing to withdraw I’m

upset that she didn’t ask me before

believing that I was deliberately

pushing her out It was not a reproach

but a regret Because if they had just

talked frankly once all the

misunderstandings might have disappeared

But the distance created by silence is

often harder to fill than any argument

Years later when Linda Dolly and Emmy

Louu were honored together at an awards

ceremony in Washington they had a chance

to meet again They hugged smiled at the

camera and exchanged polite words like

old friends Everything was proper But

Linda could clearly sense that something

between them was gone forever There was

no conflict no resentment It was just

that something that had once been

beautiful had faded away and no one knew

how to bring it back To her Dolly was

not a bad person She even described

Dolly as intelligent and sharp a natural

producer in the shape of a folk artist

But she did not deny that a distance had

formed and that it stemmed from both of

them choosing silence over dialogue when

misunderstandings arose Linda doesn’t

need every relationship to end well But

if there’s one person she regrets losing

the most it’s Dolly Parton She once

wrote in a private note “There are

people who are not worth keeping but

there are also people who are worth

keeping It’s just a pity that we don’t

have time to keep them properly Not all

wounds come from outright betrayals

There are small slow but never healing

cuts because they come from trust that

was once real Linda Ronstat doesn’t tell

these stories to hurt anyone She doesn’t

expect an apology nor does she need

anyone to defend her But in a world

where female artists are often asked to

keep quiet to maintain their image

speaking up but late is always valuable

If what you just heard makes you think

about the dark side of the spotlight or

simply makes you want to hear Linda’s

voice from a different perspective leave

a comment We want to know what you think

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hidden corners of legends who seem to

never get angry Linda has told her part

Now it’s your turn