Linda Ronstadt

'Different Drum' made her a name in 1967, but the Stone Poneys were a detour. The real career launched with Heart Like a Wheel in 1974, when 'You're No Good' went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Peter Asher, who produced her through most of the '70s, found a formula: radio-ready covers delivered with a voice that made them feel like originals. Four consecutive platinum albums. She didn't write most of her hits, but nobody remembers that.

Retired in 2011, she announced a few years later that progressive supranuclear palsy had ended her ability to sing entirely. The initial Parkinson's diagnosis was re-evaluated, but the result was the same. She skipped her 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, reportedly did a series of multimedia speaking events called 'A Conversation with Linda,' and kept her public appearances selective. A 2019 documentary, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, reintroduced her to a generation that knew the Eagles better than they knew her. Tucson renamed its main music hall after her in 2022. She can't sing anymore, but people keep finding reasons to say her name.

Four of the most famous men in 1970s rock once drove her van, played her set lists, and slept in her tour hotels. Glenn Frey and Don Henley started rooming together on her 1971 tour, figured out they could harmonize and write, and decided to go independent before it was over. She suggested Bernie Leadon; her manager John Boylan brought in Randy Meisner to complete the lineup. They reportedly rehearsed in her living room because she had more space. At her 2014 Hall of Fame induction, which she didn't attend, Frey said it plainly: she put the Eagles together. She already knew that.