Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.
Speaker 1: My guest today is the one and only Linda Ronstad
Speaker 1: who has a brand new book, Feels Like Home. Linda,
Speaker 1: good to have you on the podcast. Oh, thank you
Speaker 1: for including me. Okay, so what was the inspiration for
Speaker 1: the book? Well, I made a trip with Lawrence Downs,
Speaker 1: who writes for the New York Times, and um, he
Speaker 1: was doing a travel piece on me someplace that I
Speaker 1: would like to explore, and I said, let's do it
Speaker 1: out of the Sonoran Desert because it exists on both
Speaker 1: sides of the border. We can make a trip to
Speaker 1: Mexico and go visit the little town where my grandfather
Speaker 1: was born. And he wrote a travel piece about that,
Speaker 1: and then, um, we decided. When I was in but
Speaker 1: Im that little town in the Mexican town with my
Speaker 1: grandfather was born, I was thinking about my great grandmother
Speaker 1: and I was sitting in the plaza looking across the
Speaker 1: plaza to the church and realized that that's where she
Speaker 1: would have taken him to be baptized. And she started
Speaker 1: her married life in Bonamici. And I thought I'd like
Speaker 1: to know more about my great grandmother, and I like
Speaker 1: to write about her. So I um, I asked Lawrence
Speaker 1: if he wanted to write about our trip too to Mexico.
Speaker 1: We made some return trips and explore Sonoran culture through
Speaker 1: the eyes of my great grandmother down through the generations
Speaker 1: to the fifth generation in Tucson. When you were growing up,
Speaker 1: did your family discuss this history or did you have
Speaker 1: to research it? No? They kept letters, so I had
Speaker 1: to find the letters. There were the Arizona Historical Society.
Speaker 1: I was lucky that we found letters because there would
Speaker 1: be no other way to know my great grandmother. My
Speaker 1: father talked about her a little bit and said she
Speaker 1: was nice. He was certainly pretty, but um, she dried
Speaker 1: fairly young. Okay. So in the book it talks about
Speaker 1: how your family ultimately comes together. There was a relative
Speaker 1: who came from Germany and ultimately married a woman in Mexico.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit more about that. Oh,
Speaker 1: Friedrich Aretaicas just came from Germany, who was my great grandfather,
Speaker 1: and he was he had been in the military and
Speaker 1: um Austria where he came from her to Germany, and
Speaker 1: so he became a colonel in the Mexican Army. But
Speaker 1: he was also the first mining engineer in the region,
Speaker 1: and so he was the one that ran all the mines.
Speaker 1: That's a very rich mining area, silver and gold and copper.
Speaker 1: And he was also the ran the end of Jenner Piscata,
Speaker 1: who he was. His colonel Genner Piscada is credited with
Speaker 1: driving the French out of Sonora, the state of Sonora.
Speaker 1: So he was and he had his own ranches. He
Speaker 1: married into the Rodondo family. They were very influential down
Speaker 1: there and had a big, huge ranch thousands of acres
Speaker 1: that they stole from the Indians. And um, she married him.
Speaker 1: He was fifty years older than she was, I think,
Speaker 1: but that was normal in those days. The older men
Speaker 1: were married younger women because they they were widowers. So
Speaker 1: she was. He was a widower and had five children,
Speaker 1: and so she started out at the age of eighteen
Speaker 1: with a bunch of kids and an older husband and
Speaker 1: traveling around to the mines. And how did your family
Speaker 1: end up in Tucson. They just migrated to son was
Speaker 1: in that was part of Mexico. He was probably working
Speaker 1: on a mine up there or something. Oh I know,
Speaker 1: my my grandfather was sent to apprentice with with an
Speaker 1: iron maker, which was a relative of his. Now, one
Speaker 1: thing in the book is you paint the picture of
Speaker 1: the Sonoran Desert. I don't think the average American really
Speaker 1: knows anything about the Sonoran Desert. Can you tell us
Speaker 1: about it? About what I'm sorry missed the middle of button,
Speaker 1: about the Sonoran Desert and how really the landscape is
Speaker 1: the same in Tucson as it is in mass Mexico
Speaker 1: across the border, well, except that it doesn't have some worrows.
Speaker 1: Those are the cactuses with big arms, go really high,
Speaker 1: cactus treet and when you have that, you know that
Speaker 1: you're in the Sonora Desert. You know that you're within
Speaker 1: a few hundred miles or Tucson. That's the only place
Speaker 1: on Earth where they grow. And that's the only difference.
Speaker 1: When you go south, the organ pipe cactus instead. But
Speaker 1: the region is basically the same. It's the same food,
Speaker 1: the same in music, the same intellectual culture going on.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of a lot of the Mexican Revolution
Speaker 1: was formed in Sonora. So your family ended upe owning
Speaker 1: a uh A hardware store. Can you tell us about
Speaker 1: the evolution of that. Well, my grandfather was sent north
Speaker 1: and iron work, and he started building wagons. He built
Speaker 1: the best of wagons and carriages in the area, and
Speaker 1: uh that when naturally I do owning a Harvard story.
Speaker 1: If you wanted a good tools, or a windmill, or
Speaker 1: a good tractor for your farm, you go to my grandfather.
Speaker 1: My father worked in that store too. Now you say
Speaker 1: the store ultimately closed. Can you tell me about that
Speaker 1: and how sad that was? Well, the big box stories
Speaker 1: like Home Depot came in and they just outcompeted in
Speaker 1: with lower prices. They also had lower quality. I'd rather
Speaker 1: go into my father's hardvarre store. I took up a
Speaker 1: whole steady block. But it wasn't I didn't have the
Speaker 1: feeling like the big box stores. It wasn't full of
Speaker 1: plastic junk. So we So when you group we're growing up,
Speaker 1: did you hang out of your father's store. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: used to hang out there a lot. I take the
Speaker 1: bus from school and go over there. It was all
Speaker 1: smelled like these loil It was really beautiful, had great
Speaker 1: things in their fishing equipment, hunting equipment, digging equipment. So
Speaker 1: you used to play around stuff? Did you break stuff
Speaker 1: or were you a pretty good kid? Yeah? I used
Speaker 1: to I was good. You didn't break anything of my
Speaker 1: dad's or it was all made of metal. But they
Speaker 1: had a toy department for a while and that was
Speaker 1: really cool, and at a housewards department two. So did
Speaker 1: you get a lot of toys since they were in
Speaker 1: the store more than your friends? No, I got it,
Speaker 1: Madame Alexander All usually every Christmas. That was pretty cool. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you're growing up in Tucson and the fifties, you know,
Speaker 1: is there television, how many stations radio? Does Tucsson feel
Speaker 1: part of the fabric or does it feel like its
Speaker 1: own world? Oh, we didn't have a television, and it
Speaker 1: felt like its own world. And I got to school
Speaker 1: and found out that everybody else had green lawns and popsicles,
Speaker 1: popsicle um trees, lollipop trees that were green. We had
Speaker 1: a different kind of vegetation, were different kinds of animals.
Speaker 1: I thought everybody was like that until I went to school.
Speaker 1: But I always knew I was Mexican. If you ever
Speaker 1: found people putting you down or treating you differently because
Speaker 1: you were part of Mexican, No, they didn't, because I
Speaker 1: had white skin and a German surname. But my best
Speaker 1: friend got um. If she would speak Spanish on the playgrounds,
Speaker 1: she'd be just banked to be punished, and they experienced
Speaker 1: she and her sister was darker skin than she was,
Speaker 1: and they kicked her sister out of the community swimming
Speaker 1: pool because Mexicans aren't allowed to swimming it. She said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going with her her sister. So when you were
Speaker 1: growing up, how good a student were you? And were
Speaker 1: you like, uh, popular in school? Were you more of
Speaker 1: a loan or what were you like now? I wasn't all.
Speaker 1: I had good friends. The little girl that got kicked
Speaker 1: out of the pool is my friend. He still is
Speaker 1: mm hmm. And were you good in school? No? It
Speaker 1: was horrible at school, ized daydream it was boring. I
Speaker 1: went to Catholic school and they all they tell those
Speaker 1: stories of the saints, and I didn't learn take I
Speaker 1: was a good reader, and I've always been a reader,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't do school very well. You were mean
Speaker 1: to us. What did your parents say about you being
Speaker 1: bad in school? I wasn't bad in school. I just
Speaker 1: didn't I just didn't like it. I mean I could
Speaker 1: do the work. I'd get the books in the beginning
Speaker 1: of the here and read them all. And they were boring,
Speaker 1: but I'd read them and then I didn't have to
Speaker 1: pay attention. So what was occupying your time growing up?
Speaker 1: Horses and put my pony? So when did you get
Speaker 1: your first horse? When I was five? When you were five,
Speaker 1: did you already know how to ride a horse? I
Speaker 1: already knew how to ride a big horse, but but
Speaker 1: I got a pony and he lasted until I was seven,
Speaker 1: and then I got a big horse. Okay, so you
Speaker 1: have the pony. How would you go out alone? How
Speaker 1: far from home? Oh? Away, far to the base of
Speaker 1: the mountains, lived in the middle of the valley. We
Speaker 1: it was like having a car when you were five.
Speaker 1: I'm serious. I mean we just left. We leave in
Speaker 1: the morning. We'd come back around five o'clock. If we
Speaker 1: didn't come back at dinner time, some go and look
Speaker 1: for us. But they weren't. They were negligent parents. That
Speaker 1: just was a different world, had great freedom. Did you
Speaker 1: ever have any trouble that far from home? I fell
Speaker 1: off the horse sometimes when I have to ride walk home.
Speaker 1: And did you get hurt? Broke my arm, broke your arm?
Speaker 1: Tell me about that. Well, I fell with my sister's
Speaker 1: horse and to a hard hard dirt road where I
Speaker 1: was always bouncing off my horse, I just bounced right
Speaker 1: back on and you know I've broken bones. Did you
Speaker 1: immediately know it was broken? Well, I know it hurt.
Speaker 1: I showed it to my mother and she knew it
Speaker 1: was broken. She took me right to the doctor. And
Speaker 1: did you get a cast? And have all your friends
Speaker 1: signed their names? Yep? Did that exactly? Uh huh. Now,
Speaker 1: one other element of the book is you include recipes.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the great things you put is
Speaker 1: you have a recipe for refried beans. And as long
Speaker 1: as I've been living in California, which is basically half
Speaker 1: a century, I did not know that. That didn't mean
Speaker 1: that they fried them twice. So tell us about refried beans.
Speaker 1: They don't fry them. Try that's a mr normal refried
Speaker 1: they're boiled and fried ones. Right, I didn't I learned
Speaker 1: that in your book. So growing up, did you eat
Speaker 1: Mexican style food in the house or was it more
Speaker 1: angle saust Oh, we had fresh shortias and tamarindo, which
Speaker 1: if there's a recipe before in the book, it's made
Speaker 1: out of Tamaran beans. Boiled Tamaran means it's more they're
Speaker 1: squnching than iced tea. It's delicious. They as had down
Speaker 1: the refrigerator because had a pot of beans on the stove.
Speaker 1: Who made the tortillas amalia? When that worked for us?
Speaker 1: And that's a big point in the book that that
Speaker 1: Sonoran tortillas are thinner and larger than what many people
Speaker 1: are used to. You can see through them. There's their
Speaker 1: paper thin and they're delicious. They're making with really good
Speaker 1: wheat which they grow in Mexico, which they don't they
Speaker 1: can't grow on huge amounts anymore because the Americans and
Speaker 1: undercut the wheat prices and sold genetically modified wheat, so
Speaker 1: then they grow that for a cash crop. But if
Speaker 1: you know somebody that you can still get the good wheat, okay.
Speaker 1: And so as I say, there's a number of recipes
Speaker 1: in a book. If I took you out for your
Speaker 1: favorite meal Sonoran style, what do you like most? Oh,
Speaker 1: tortillas and beans. So you're living in Tucson and you
Speaker 1: make a big point that the whole family is singing together,
Speaker 1: and do you remember that from a young age. But
Speaker 1: we used to have parties and music would start around
Speaker 1: ten o'clock and going to midnight usually, But everybody in
Speaker 1: my family can play or sing or do something not
Speaker 1: not professional level. My dad would girl some meat and
Speaker 1: my mother would make us big salad and there would
Speaker 1: be roasted chilis and roasted different roasted peppers, and different
Speaker 1: vegetables that were growing around. Honestly, lantro and chopped onions.
Speaker 1: You can't learn how to cook from my book. It's
Speaker 1: just it's not really a cookbook. It's just Um included
Speaker 1: the recipes because the food is part of the culture,
Speaker 1: as part of the unusual things that you can get
Speaker 1: it in Sonora that you can't get anybody else. So
Speaker 1: how has it changed since you lived there as a kid. Oh,
Speaker 1: the developers got hold of the government and let them
Speaker 1: do completely in discriminted development. So it's causing a lot
Speaker 1: of erosion. We're getting desk clouds like the death Bowl
Speaker 1: in Arizona. I drove to Phoenix ones and I was
Speaker 1: two hours in dust. And you say in the book
Speaker 1: you had a house up in Tucson until recently. When
Speaker 1: did you have a house in Tucson, um nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: four until a couple of years ago. I lived there
Speaker 1: for about fifteen years. And what made you decide to
Speaker 1: have a house there. I wanted to go back home.
Speaker 1: I did. I still had friends there, I'm plenty of family.
Speaker 1: What was it like going back as an adult? I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm from the East Coast, I live on the West Coast,
Speaker 1: and I think about what I but you know, when
Speaker 1: you actually do it after living in the city in California,
Speaker 1: you know it was a cognitive dissonance, or do you
Speaker 1: feel right at home now? It was just being piste
Speaker 1: off because the developers had ruined so much of the desert,
Speaker 1: and they had caused the air quality to to be
Speaker 1: very bad because there's tiny small particulate matters that floating
Speaker 1: around this. Two sunnies, you have these sparkling clean skies.
Speaker 1: That's two times I went there, was there for ten days,
Speaker 1: and I never the dust haste never went away. It's
Speaker 1: serious when you interfere with you with the nature's vision
Speaker 1: of the desert, because there's plenty of life in the desert.
Speaker 1: As soon as you take a bulldozer too it, you
Speaker 1: make it into a waste land. And how did you
Speaker 1: decide to ultimately sell your house and move back to California. Well,
Speaker 1: I wanted to put my kids in San Francisco schools,
Speaker 1: they were getting a lot of what church do you
Speaker 1: go to? And Oh, that's okay? They I was getting
Speaker 1: homophobic remarks and if you're not a Christian, you're going
Speaker 1: to go to Hell or mart. So I the school
Speaker 1: system is better here. The public schools are better and
Speaker 1: the private schools are better. So I brought him over
Speaker 1: here and put them in the most local school I
Speaker 1: could find. And why San Francisco it has a better
Speaker 1: air than Los Angeles? Well, California is a big state.
Speaker 1: You know you lived in l A for a long time.
Speaker 1: What's the difference between San Francisco and l A. I
Speaker 1: don't have to live in a car culture in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: The places you can walk to as more of a
Speaker 1: sensive community, and people are doing it in l A.
Speaker 1: They're moving out to um Silver Lake. And was there
Speaker 1: easy to l A which had which were originally built
Speaker 1: around a a culture that valued pedestrians over cars. And
Speaker 1: did you have enough friends in San Francisco or you
Speaker 1: made them when you once you got there? Oh? I
Speaker 1: had lots of friends in San Francisco. And at this
Speaker 1: stage in your life are you very social? You're more
Speaker 1: of a loner homebody. I see, I'm with my family.
Speaker 1: I have a have a daughter and a son. So
Speaker 1: how did you decide to have kids? Oh, somebody came
Speaker 1: up for adoption, and so I thought I would do it,
Speaker 1: and then I got another one because I had done
Speaker 1: it already once before. Was it tough being a single mother?
Speaker 1: I had a lot of help, okay. And what was
Speaker 1: the most rewarding part of having kids? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe watching my daughter sing really complicated musical Mexican song
Speaker 1: sort of letter perfect should I had passed on something.
Speaker 1: So you're living in Tucson in the sixties, you're singing
Speaker 1: Mexican songs. At what point do you start hearing the
Speaker 1: hit parade, whether be folk songs or popular songs. I
Speaker 1: got that from the radio. In Tucson. We had radio
Speaker 1: stations you can get anything. You can get XRF JEL
Speaker 1: Rio Texas and the local stations played the top forty.
Speaker 1: So I heard all that stuff on the radio. And
Speaker 1: were you like addicted to the radio? Well? I played
Speaker 1: it all the time in the car at home, I
Speaker 1: played records. That was a folky for the sixties, right, Well,
Speaker 1: the folky there, you know, we even had a folky
Speaker 1: TV show Hoo Nanny, But of the uh of the
Speaker 1: acts back then, whether it be Dylan, the Kingston Trio,
Speaker 1: Pete Seeger, Who are your favorites? CPC here Pete Seeger.
Speaker 1: So you're in Tucson, you'll leave at age eighteen? How
Speaker 1: do you decide to leave? Well? I heard one of
Speaker 1: the guys in the Stone Ponies was a friend. I
Speaker 1: was playing music within Tucson, and he moved to l
Speaker 1: A because there were more gigs, and he sent me
Speaker 1: a letter said, you come over and be my girls singer.
Speaker 1: We can form a band. I know a good guitar player,
Speaker 1: so I did when formed the Stone Ponies. The first
Speaker 1: person I saw performing. The first people I saw performing
Speaker 1: when I went to l A, Ray Cooter and Taj Mahal,
Speaker 1: and I said, Oh, they got some really good musicians
Speaker 1: over here. I think else stay And had you planned
Speaker 1: to be a professional singer prior to going to l
Speaker 1: A from second grade? Oh? Really? Because I couldn't do arithmetic,
Speaker 1: I said, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna be a singer.
Speaker 1: I didn't think. I didn't think I was going to
Speaker 1: be a star or anything like that. I didn't think
Speaker 1: in terms of being famous. Or wildly successful. I just
Speaker 1: thought of I wanted to sing. So you got to
Speaker 1: l A and what was it like? Was a culture
Speaker 1: shock after living in Tucson. No, it was a musical
Speaker 1: culture I already do. We had a small musical world
Speaker 1: in Tucson. But it was an attention of the same
Speaker 1: thing with the players. And you said you saw Ry
Speaker 1: Couter and taj Mahal right away. Where did you see
Speaker 1: them at the ash Grove? And then we went to
Speaker 1: the trip and heard the Birds. How about the other
Speaker 1: acts that we're burgeoning like the birds? Were you following
Speaker 1: all those acts too? So I was a huge fan
Speaker 1: of the Birds. I knew Chris Hillman from bluegrass. I
Speaker 1: knew him as a bluegrass a mandolin player. I thought, well, Chris,
Speaker 1: Chris Hillman is playing folk rock. I guess we can too.
Speaker 1: Let's just go back to chapter. You're into folk songs.
Speaker 1: The Beatles come on the radio. Was that transformational for
Speaker 1: you know? I didn't paint that was too much into
Speaker 1: folk music than to attention to the Beatles. I got
Speaker 1: more into the Beatles and I moved to Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: But you ultimately or a big Beatles fan or that
Speaker 1: was part of the fabric. Well, I'm a fan of
Speaker 1: good songwriting, good craft, and they have plenty of that.
Speaker 1: And how about the Rolling Stones, I like them, and
Speaker 1: the rest of the British invasion, everybody from Freddie and
Speaker 1: the Dreamers to Jerry and the Pacemakers to Herman's Hermits
Speaker 1: like zombies, like the Zombie. Certainly good. Um. So you
Speaker 1: moved to l A And at what point do you
Speaker 1: ultimately decide and work and get a record deal. Well,
Speaker 1: we played a little clubs, little focus. There were a
Speaker 1: lot of them then in those days you could earn
Speaker 1: while you learn. And then we played an audition at
Speaker 1: the Troupadoor and we got the gig. And I thought,
Speaker 1: if I ever got to headline at the Troubador, that
Speaker 1: would be the pinnacle of success. So I um, I
Speaker 1: got to play. I got to headline at the Troupador
Speaker 1: and found out it wasn't the pinnacle of success, but
Speaker 1: I didn't care. And did you have the straight gig?
Speaker 1: How are you keeping yourself alive at this point just
Speaker 1: by singing? Just by singing, so you never really have to,
Speaker 1: you know, be a waitress or anything like that. No,
Speaker 1: I never had any other job at singing. Wow, And
Speaker 1: so other than singing with the Stone Ponies, would you
Speaker 1: uh sing with other groups or do studio sessions or
Speaker 1: anything like that. No, I didn't do that. I I
Speaker 1: hung out with friends and play music at the troubuta
Speaker 1: I meant John David Souther and Glenn Fry and John
Speaker 1: Henley and all these people. How did you meet those guys?
Speaker 1: He walked up to me and said he wanted to date. Wow,
Speaker 1: So how did you get the first record deal? We
Speaker 1: played the who it Is the tributor to audition and
Speaker 1: on the way out, Herbie Cohen, who was a manager
Speaker 1: in the business, cooked the arm and took me over
Speaker 1: to Dantona's, the restaurant next door, and said, I can
Speaker 1: get your girl singer records record contract. I don't know
Speaker 1: about the band. So that was me with no no
Speaker 1: no material of my own. I just sang. I learned
Speaker 1: from Bobby Kimmel, who was the writer in our band,
Speaker 1: sang his songs, so I said no, we had to
Speaker 1: use the band. And then the second album we had
Speaker 1: a big hit, but the Stone Point he didn't play
Speaker 1: on it, and Kenny was it that discouraged with the
Speaker 1: music and went off to India. To study something. It
Speaker 1: came back much improved. By the time he came back,
Speaker 1: I was I was established as a solars and I
Speaker 1: hired him to be in the band. He was a
Speaker 1: good friend. So, uh, you have this huge success with
Speaker 1: different drum What was that experience like? Well, I didn't
Speaker 1: like the way the record came out, so I told
Speaker 1: him they couldn't put it out. It's a good thing
Speaker 1: they ignored me. It was because, I mean, it got
Speaker 1: me on television shows and which I hated playing because
Speaker 1: the music was also bad and they got to tell
Speaker 1: you what to wear and stuff like that. I didn't
Speaker 1: like it. What did you not like about the recording?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was it was a good arrangement,
Speaker 1: but I didn't It didn't sound like the Stone Ponies
Speaker 1: to me. But it was my idea to do this song.
Speaker 1: I thought. I thought it was going to be a hit,
Speaker 1: that song. And how was your experience with herb Cone? Well?
Speaker 1: I liked him very much personally and still do. He's
Speaker 1: a character. He'll bullshit you, but he won't bullshit himself.
Speaker 1: And this but he he got us wound up in jail.
Speaker 1: We wound up getting arrested for stolen airline tickets because
Speaker 1: he bought he had bought airline tickets from a a
Speaker 1: dicey agency. He didn't know they were stolen, but he
Speaker 1: knew they were. There was something wrong with them because
Speaker 1: it was a cheap and he charged Capitol Records for
Speaker 1: the whole amount of plus flight to Hawaii. So that
Speaker 1: made me kind of unhappy. I thought that was dishonest.
Speaker 1: And also he didn't understand the nuance in music. He
Speaker 1: didn't understand I couldn't just go to a town and
Speaker 1: call the union and hire a band. How did your
Speaker 1: relationship with HERB come to a conclusion. Oh, well, during
Speaker 1: the different depositions, he said, let's go to lunch and
Speaker 1: I said okay. He said, Linda, this is going to
Speaker 1: take too much time and energy. Let's just figure out
Speaker 1: the number and settled. He settled for eighty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and kept eating lunch. Then we went to Africa together.
Speaker 1: He remained a friend. So how did you feel about
Speaker 1: the sexualized image that Capital employed to market your records.
Speaker 1: I figured they wanted to sell records much I could
Speaker 1: do about it, and that was fine with you. Well,
Speaker 1: it was, It wasn't unfine. It just was nothing I
Speaker 1: had anything to do with. Well, ultimately, you have this
Speaker 1: gigantic success with the last Cappitle record in the subsequent
Speaker 1: Asylum records, and you are, in addition to your talent,
Speaker 1: you're perceived as a sex object. To what degree did
Speaker 1: that affect you? And maybe just trying to pick the
Speaker 1: best songs I could try to do the best I
Speaker 1: could in music. Well, you know, we're living in the
Speaker 1: meat Too era and people are testifying as to all
Speaker 1: the aggressive men who cross the line. Did you have
Speaker 1: those experiences? Well? I had plenty of those experiences, but
Speaker 1: I was always protected. You know. I had Peter Asher
Speaker 1: from my manager at John Boyland for a while, and
Speaker 1: I was protected from stuff like that. I didn't have
Speaker 1: to deal with the record company. Okay, the book, the
Speaker 1: new Book Feels like Home, has a lot of recipes,
Speaker 1: goes into food. Yet there's uh a lot of stars
Speaker 1: talk about how they're pressured to be skinny. So what
Speaker 1: was that like when you were a star? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I wait ten pounds less than I did in high school.
Speaker 1: I was thinned for a long time just naturally, and
Speaker 1: then just naturally gained weight and it just naturally lost
Speaker 1: it again when his body are made to expand and contract,
Speaker 1: and it was very contracted. How did you meet David
Speaker 1: Geffen on the Troubador and did he approach you? Well,
Speaker 1: we had a kind of brendan common. He didn't approach me.
Speaker 1: We had a friend in common that had worked with him. Um,
Speaker 1: it was his room. It was his college roommate in school.
Speaker 1: He said, you got made. My friend, David Geffen, he's
Speaker 1: moving out to Los Angeles and he'll love you. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll look for him at the Troubador. It came up
Speaker 1: and introduced him as the friend of this friend of mine,
Speaker 1: his old college roommate, and he was very charming. We
Speaker 1: got along fine. And how did you end up being
Speaker 1: signed to Asylum Records? Well? I had offers from Colombia
Speaker 1: and Warner Brothers and what was however Grossman's label and
Speaker 1: from David and John Boyland was advising me then, and
Speaker 1: he advised me to go with David because the Eagles
Speaker 1: are already over there, and Joni Mitchell and James Um
Speaker 1: James James Taylor wasn't with the music Peter Esher, but anyway,
Speaker 1: it just seemed like a more natural context for me?
Speaker 1: And how did j d end up producing the first record? Um,
Speaker 1: I can't remember, to tell the truth, the record wasn't
Speaker 1: coming out and I listed him to help and that
Speaker 1: record was a mess. Well, the record came out and
Speaker 1: was not financially successful. Uh commercially successful? Was that disheartening?
Speaker 1: I didn't paid head just things like that. So ultimately,
Speaker 1: how do you meet Andrew gold and what influence did
Speaker 1: he have on your music? I met Andrew Golden was
Speaker 1: in the Stone Ponies and we had a friend who
Speaker 1: was a teacher at us sort of a Tony private
Speaker 1: school in the valley, I can remember the name of it.
Speaker 1: And we went there to visit my friend the teacher's class,
Speaker 1: Andrew Golden, Wendy Wendy Steiner she had now called Wendy Waldman.
Speaker 1: We're there in a band, and we thought they were
Speaker 1: really good. Wendy Whendy Wendy Waldman is really talented singer
Speaker 1: and absolutely first album, Love has Got Me unbelievable. I'm
Speaker 1: friends with Wendy, I'm a big fan. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan too, And I heard her singing the songs from
Speaker 1: Love Has Got Me at her school, at her high school,
Speaker 1: and I thought She was really good, and I thought
Speaker 1: Andrew was good too, and they eventually formed a band together.
Speaker 1: But there they were. All was Wendy things back up
Speaker 1: on my live album that Live in Hollywood, that's Wendy
Speaker 1: and and and Kenny singing together. Wendy, Kenny and Andrew
Speaker 1: had a band. And also, um basn't remember. So how
Speaker 1: do you end up working with Andrew? I just hired
Speaker 1: him to go on the road. I had him to
Speaker 1: be my guitar player. Peter Asher was impressive too, and
Speaker 1: whose idea was it? To you do? You're no good?
Speaker 1: And how did that come? Fine? It was a song
Speaker 1: we added as an afterthought to the show. Because I
Speaker 1: sang bellots all the time, it got boring, so I
Speaker 1: had to learn a tempo song. So I played that
Speaker 1: for Peter and he liked it. And Peter did very
Speaker 1: good work on that production. He and Andrew did it together,
Speaker 1: but it was Peter keeping everything straight. He did great
Speaker 1: arrangement ideas, and it was a good sounding record. I thought, well,
Speaker 1: it certainly was. So when the record was done, did
Speaker 1: you know it was a hit? I thought it was strong?
Speaker 1: And how did you find the mcgaricle's heart like a wheel?
Speaker 1: I was sitting in a taxicab with Jerry Jeff Walker
Speaker 1: about five in the morning, sun was just rising, and
Speaker 1: I said, I am looking for songs. I come to
Speaker 1: New York looking for songs. And we spent the night.
Speaker 1: We spent the evening at Gary Gary White's house, the
Speaker 1: guy that wrote a long time, and he said, I
Speaker 1: know a song you could do. He said, there's these
Speaker 1: two girls, these two sisters. I'll see them at the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Folk Festival, which was in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: And she said they wrote the song called hard Like
Speaker 1: a Wheel. And he sang me the first two lines
Speaker 1: of three lines of hard Like a Wheel, and I
Speaker 1: just flipped out. I said, you could please tell them
Speaker 1: they have to send it and I'm going home in
Speaker 1: About two weeks later, it came this real, the real
Speaker 1: tape in the mail. It was mcgarriel's sisters. They recorded
Speaker 1: with a piano and a cello. This just gave me
Speaker 1: the idea to the string trio on it. So and
Speaker 1: how about when will I Be Loved? How did you
Speaker 1: decide to do that? I heard that from the Amally brothers,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter anymore. I heard diferent Buddy Holly
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. Well, when you would go
Speaker 1: to make these albums, what was the procedure in finding
Speaker 1: songs and ultimately deciding the ten or twelve that would
Speaker 1: be on the record. Well, it was always hard to
Speaker 1: find material because I hadn't found my voice yet, and
Speaker 1: I didn't really find my voice until But I was
Speaker 1: still learning and I was doing the best I could,
Speaker 1: and I chose songs that were inappropriate for me. Often
Speaker 1: because there was a lot of singer songwriters and they
Speaker 1: write like Brandy Newman rights for his own boys. It's
Speaker 1: hard to do his songs until you get really good
Speaker 1: at it. So the songs that I loved and wanted
Speaker 1: to sing, I wouldn't been in sing very well. So
Speaker 1: tell me about finding your voice. Well, I started singing
Speaker 1: better time in my phrasing. He had rushing the time
Speaker 1: when I got with musicians that were demanding it body
Speaker 1: Wotel mainly, and I improved my singing. And then I
Speaker 1: had always wanted to do work in a real theater,
Speaker 1: and I left Gilbert and Sullivan. So I was taken
Speaker 1: to me Joe pap By. John Rockwell has always been
Speaker 1: a friend and the mentor to me. You know who. Jocolm.
Speaker 1: John rock fell is right wrote for the for the
Speaker 1: New York Times. He was the head head critic for
Speaker 1: years there. He and I were and I were great friends.
Speaker 1: So he took me to meet Joe pap and I said,
Speaker 1: I want to sing in the theater with the curtain
Speaker 1: because I was tired of singing and arena's and he
Speaker 1: said he probably had it was an idiot. And a
Speaker 1: month later so one of his actors came and wanted
Speaker 1: to do Gilbert and Sullivan and he said, but I
Speaker 1: want to use a pop singer, not a classical singer.
Speaker 1: So he said, oh, I know no one lived around,
Speaker 1: said she came in. She wants to work here. So
Speaker 1: they called me up and asked me if I wanted
Speaker 1: the job. But Jerry Brown answered the phone and he
Speaker 1: remembered he remember the HMS Pentaforre because that's the Gilbert
Speaker 1: and Sullivan show he's seeing. And I knew that the
Speaker 1: whole show of a J. M. S. Pinafore because my
Speaker 1: sister sung it in junior high school and I had
Speaker 1: memorized the whole thing. I said, I I'd love to
Speaker 1: do a Pinafore and they said, no, it's Pirates depens Dance.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that one, so I had to learn
Speaker 1: it and ultimately let me put a song from part
Speaker 1: from Pinafore in there. Anyway, I'm sorry my voice is
Speaker 1: going out well. Ultimately you've got great reviews. But how
Speaker 1: anxious were you about opening that show? I was wildly
Speaker 1: keen to do it. It had a great cast, it
Speaker 1: was a real ensemble addiction, and the music is great.
Speaker 1: I got to use my high voice, and when I
Speaker 1: put in my high voice really well, it integrated it
Speaker 1: into the rest of my voice and I could do
Speaker 1: the standards. And after I sang with Nelson Riddle, I
Speaker 1: felt like I knew how to sing. So let's go
Speaker 1: back to some of these earlier records. You do Love
Speaker 1: as a Rose by Neil Young before he records it,
Speaker 1: so how to second gave it to me? He gave
Speaker 1: it to you, saying what on a demo? He said,
Speaker 1: this is perfect for you. No, he said, he's just
Speaker 1: my new demo. He was on his way. He had
Speaker 1: a place in Zooma Beach, which was a little bit
Speaker 1: farther northern my place in Malibu. I used to drop
Speaker 1: by on his way up there, and my day he
Speaker 1: had a bunch of new demos. I said, let let
Speaker 1: me listen to them. And Nicola Larson was living with
Speaker 1: me then, and I said, this will be so perfect
Speaker 1: for you, Nikki, and it was hit for her. So
Speaker 1: we both recorded Neil Young songs now. Also, you did
Speaker 1: Roll Them Easy by Lowell George. How did you meet
Speaker 1: Lowell George? I'm in the mid Atlanta. He was playing
Speaker 1: with it with little feet and I flipped over him.
Speaker 1: I thought he was one of the best singers I've
Speaker 1: ever heard, and did a great guitar player. So he
Speaker 1: was playing that song and I said I wanted to
Speaker 1: learn it, taking over and talk to me, but he
Speaker 1: didn't need tuning, I think, or I didn't need to me.
Speaker 1: I had a change his tuning for my key and
Speaker 1: I learned it on the guitar in my living room. Okay,
Speaker 1: and then, uh, you end up doing the Tattler, which
Speaker 1: is originally on Paradise and Lunch, the Rye Couterer album.
Speaker 1: How did you end up doing the Tattler? I can't remember.
Speaker 1: We needed an extra song. It's hard to find twelve
Speaker 1: songs in a year. Hard of found twelve songs in
Speaker 1: ten years, And at this point in time him with
Speaker 1: this level of success where people constantly pitching you songs,
Speaker 1: I'm not really I mean people. J D. South suggested
Speaker 1: I recorded Blue Bay that Journe to be Fortunate. And
Speaker 1: we were just hanging out of my house one night
Speaker 1: and we were playing songs and Jackson played um for
Speaker 1: Pitiful Me that he was he was in the studio
Speaker 1: working with whoever perpetual Me, Warren's even and it would
Speaker 1: be like Jackson de pitches pitches friends song over his own.
Speaker 1: He's really generous that way. It was a great admirer Warre.
Speaker 1: And I moved into Warren's apartment when I was living
Speaker 1: in Hollywood after he lived in it, and I knew
Speaker 1: him slightly, but I loved his songs well as good
Speaker 1: as his version of poor Poor Pitiful Me is on
Speaker 1: his first album forst Asylum album, Your version is the
Speaker 1: definitive version. How did you end up coming recording poor
Speaker 1: Pitiful Me? Jackson Brown's just suggested it. Read that place
Speaker 1: Meliba I used to live, were playing songs and J D.
Speaker 1: South there was there and suggested Blue Bay You and
Speaker 1: Jackson was there and he said, you can you could
Speaker 1: think more Pitiful Me? So I learned it. I taped
Speaker 1: it with him singing it. I learned. I still have
Speaker 1: the tape. And Uh, how did you because you know
Speaker 1: and hastened down the wind. You do multiple Carla Bonoff
Speaker 1: records songs. How did you meet and find those songs
Speaker 1: from Carla Bonoff? Oh? Carlo was Kenny Edwards girlfriend. He
Speaker 1: lived together and Kenny was in my band. So I
Speaker 1: met Carla and you mentioned Jerry Brown earlier. How did
Speaker 1: you end up meeting and getting involved with Jerry Brown?
Speaker 1: I Madam and Lucy's lab cafe where everybody went to
Speaker 1: eat Mexican food, and ultimately they had his picture in
Speaker 1: the front window. What was appealing about Jerry? I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: He's honest. He's a real he's honest with himself. He
Speaker 1: has an amazing sense of humor that nobody knows about.
Speaker 1: But and it was cute. And at the time, although
Speaker 1: we was known as Governor Moonbeam, he was governor of California.
Speaker 1: He ended up running for president. Uh. The Eagles and
Speaker 1: other acts did fundraisers. You had a front row seat
Speaker 1: for that. What was that like? I don't know. We
Speaker 1: didn't go out in public munch, So what do you
Speaker 1: think about the political situation today. I think it's I'm
Speaker 1: terrified by it. It seems like there's fascist governments all
Speaker 1: over the world that are taking over. I think it'll
Speaker 1: lead the chaos and famine and war and all the
Speaker 1: kinds of things that we can think of. And this
Speaker 1: Elon Musk character is there's nothing but a chaos creator.
Speaker 1: People think. People think that people can people can run
Speaker 1: a business, which he was not a great businessman, nor
Speaker 1: was Trump. But they get rich and they think they
Speaker 1: know how to run the country and they don't, and
Speaker 1: they have government sized budgets to accomplish what evil they
Speaker 1: want to accomplish, Like like Ta Tongue decided the huge
Speaker 1: plat part of China ship be planeted to wheat, and
Speaker 1: it was the areas that we didn't grow very well
Speaker 1: in and it caused a family that starts millions of people.
Speaker 1: That's what happens if you get to just be a
Speaker 1: dictator and say what what's going on? That's what Elon
Speaker 1: Musk wants. So it sounds like you follow the news
Speaker 1: pretty closely. Oh I do, so how do you how
Speaker 1: do you get your information? Finally from the New Yorker,
Speaker 1: the New York Times, But I also like um public
Speaker 1: television is Judith Judith list your name would drift, Judy
Speaker 1: would drift. And do you think there's any place well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the evolution. I mean, musical acts were
Speaker 1: raising money for politicians back in the seventies. Is there
Speaker 1: any place for music to change the landscape politically today?
Speaker 1: I don't have any idea what we'll go on in
Speaker 1: the future of music. It could be anything. People in
Speaker 1: my age always think music is in decline, and I
Speaker 1: think that to a degree. I'm not very interested in
Speaker 1: music that is happening today. There's a couple of good people,
Speaker 1: there's some really good singers, but the talent doesn't leave
Speaker 1: the gene pool just gets shaped in drastically different forms
Speaker 1: by the culture. And I think our culture is failing.
Speaker 1: What in what way is just the culture failing? What's
Speaker 1: getting less? To my democratic truth doesn't matter? And in journalism,
Speaker 1: mean where don't nobody cares whether he tells the truth?
Speaker 1: And I just tell bald face line. People believe you.
Speaker 1: They're stupid enough, And that's really concerning to me. And
Speaker 1: hatred is getting fashionable, and uh, you know Trump got
Speaker 1: elected in sixteen. Did you find out some of your
Speaker 1: close friends were Trumpers or no, no, no friends of
Speaker 1: mine voted for him. It wouldn't be friends if they did.
Speaker 1: And you know we're lucky we live in California, we
Speaker 1: have newsom Do you think that Biden should run for
Speaker 1: another term? I don't know, let to ask him. I
Speaker 1: think he did a really good job. He's gotten legislation
Speaker 1: through that Republican roadblock that nobody else has been able
Speaker 1: to do. Well. What I don't like is that the
Speaker 1: his own team doesn't give him any credit. They're not
Speaker 1: running on his success. They're just reacting to the Republican attacks.
Speaker 1: Makes me crazy. Well, he's going to go down in history,
Speaker 1: is a real important president, I think. But you know
Speaker 1: he's trying. It's the age is um. So do you
Speaker 1: believe since he's doing a good job if he continues
Speaker 1: to do this job, although if the Republicans take over
Speaker 1: the House, which is what it looks like is going
Speaker 1: to happen, um, do you think that he should serve
Speaker 1: another term? I don't know. I mean, I don't understand
Speaker 1: how the nuances of the presidency were. I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: a lot of people making deals. Do something makes more
Speaker 1: moral to I think his moral person. I think he's
Speaker 1: very smart. I think he's very experienced. But he's a
Speaker 1: gazer like me, but he's smarter gazer than I am.
Speaker 1: And do you do you know Newsom? Gavin Newsom? Oh,
Speaker 1: he's very charming and very smart. I think he'd be
Speaker 1: probably a good president, being aggressive, which I certainly like.
Speaker 1: And how do you feel about Ron de santasist success?
Speaker 1: I think he's a creep. Well, you know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of analysis that says, irrelevant of his political positions,
Speaker 1: that he's a very cold guy and people can't warm
Speaker 1: up to him. And you you're saying he's a creep.
Speaker 1: Do you think people can overlook that and you think
Speaker 1: it's going to ultimately hurt him? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised anything. When Trump announced he was going
Speaker 1: to run, I was sure he was going to win.
Speaker 1: And I said, this is the Weimar Republican, It's Germany
Speaker 1: in the thirties and hump Trump is Hitler and the
Speaker 1: Jews of the new the Mexicans ader the new Jews.
Speaker 1: What I mean that mark about Mexicans being rapists. It's
Speaker 1: clear where he was going with that. People demonized groups
Speaker 1: of people to cover up their own political inadequacies are
Speaker 1: not new to this the history of this country. But
Speaker 1: he's a he's a champion. And if I snapped my
Speaker 1: fingers and you were control of immigration, what policy would
Speaker 1: you want to enact? I wouldn't take it on with
Speaker 1: a ten foot poll. It's so complicated. It's the third
Speaker 1: rail of politics. I've got to is something that there's
Speaker 1: a lot of suffering down there. I've been to the
Speaker 1: border a lot. Well, you know the fact that they
Speaker 1: don't have the the uh you know, we have a
Speaker 1: brain drain with technology forget people immigrating. People you know
Speaker 1: from India and other countries come to study here. They
Speaker 1: used to stay working technology companies, but now they leave
Speaker 1: because of the visa situation. It's insane. I got about
Speaker 1: a quarter of that. I really am hard of hearing,
Speaker 1: you know. Oh okay, um, well tell me when did
Speaker 1: you tell me the status of your hearing? I think
Speaker 1: I've lost about fifty hearing? So you did you lose it?
Speaker 1: From major from loud music? Who knows? Could be anything,
Speaker 1: could be genetics, it could be I'm sure I lost
Speaker 1: some hearing. I lost some top and from standing in
Speaker 1: front of rock and roll bands, but not to the
Speaker 1: I don't know, not in your doctor. And when did
Speaker 1: you notice and start wearing the hearing aids? About a
Speaker 1: year ago? Two years ago, my hearing was a lot
Speaker 1: better than hearing aids suck. I'm sure somebody can invent
Speaker 1: a better hearing aid. So do you wear them all
Speaker 1: the time? I wear the moree I'm gonna talk to
Speaker 1: somebody like you. So you know you've gone through these
Speaker 1: health issues over the last decade or so. What's the
Speaker 1: status of your health today? Well? I have Parkinson's disease,
Speaker 1: and well that's a progressive disease. So how are you doing? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm progressing. So what's it like now? What's the like
Speaker 1: is like having parkinson disease? Well, I mean, to what
Speaker 1: degree is your function You know you said you can't sing,
Speaker 1: But to what degree is your functionality impaired? I don't
Speaker 1: go out a lot, but I've I've always been a homebody.
Speaker 1: I don't like groups of more than ten people. So
Speaker 1: when you're at home, do you watch streaming television? Sometimes? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Any of your favorite shows you can talk about? Um,
Speaker 1: I like the Korean show which one it's called The
Speaker 1: and the Impressive or the some super relative lawyer. Wou
Speaker 1: extraordinary attorney, woo extraordinary Jerney Will Yeah, that's good. Any
Speaker 1: other ones? Let's see what else if I liked? Mm hm,
Speaker 1: can't remember? And are you a reader rather than the news? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm a book I'm a reader the book. The last
Speaker 1: book I read was see what it is it called?
Speaker 1: I read three books at once, so one was about
Speaker 1: called Vagina Obscure, which I recommend everybody. One was a
Speaker 1: history that of Fabric, which is really a good book.
Speaker 1: It's called Fabric. The woman is a very good writer.
Speaker 1: She's also written a book about jewels and another book
Speaker 1: about color, The History of Color. It's fascinating. It's a
Speaker 1: great way to learn history. And then I read I
Speaker 1: read a book I think everybody should read. It's called
Speaker 1: Salite Though, and it's about a kid that immigrated from
Speaker 1: El Salvador to Los Angeles. Is a nine year old
Speaker 1: all by himself to find his parents, and it's written
Speaker 1: from the point of view of a of a nine
Speaker 1: year old child, completely all the way through the book.
Speaker 1: It's completely fascinating. Guy's a brilliant writer. And how did
Speaker 1: you find these books? And reviews? John Rockoll I read
Speaker 1: a review of it in The New York Times, and
Speaker 1: then John Rockoll sent me email saying I had to
Speaker 1: read it. I went and about it and I read
Speaker 1: the whole thing through to at a sitting. It was
Speaker 1: really good. Recommend that to everybody. The Vagina Book. I
Speaker 1: recommend to everybody too, men and women. It's really well written,
Speaker 1: and there's there says so many obscure details that you
Speaker 1: never knew. I could have been all these studies on
Speaker 1: penises but not on vaginas. Wow, what do you think
Speaker 1: about the state of sexuality in America today? Well, if
Speaker 1: everything goes, I think there anything goes. I think that's
Speaker 1: probably natural. Well, you know, we live in a relatively
Speaker 1: puritanical society compared to Europe sexually. Oh yeah, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And grow What was it like growing up for you?
Speaker 1: He is a Catholic girl. Well, it's about normal. I mean,
Speaker 1: did you were you reluctant to have intercourse? Did you
Speaker 1: think you know you're going to go to hell? That's
Speaker 1: not a question I'm gonna talk about on the radio.
Speaker 1: I didn't think I was gonna go to hell. I
Speaker 1: was an atheists from third grade. And uh, what about birth?
Speaker 1: Control and abortion. I had them both. How many abortions
Speaker 1: have you had? Isn't none of your business? Uh? You know,
Speaker 1: um people say it's very difficult to uh have an
Speaker 1: abortion emotionally after the fact, was that of your experience
Speaker 1: feeling of relief? Great relief? And do you ever did
Speaker 1: you ever subsequent to the abortion think, well, might have
Speaker 1: made a mistake, I should have the kid or never? Never?
Speaker 1: It was the right thing to do. And so you
Speaker 1: came of age. Was the pill around at that point? Yes?
Speaker 1: It was okay? Thank God? So what do you think
Speaker 1: about you know, there's a fight over trans and other identities.
Speaker 1: Are you fall down on the side whatever you want
Speaker 1: to do or what do you think about the other
Speaker 1: side's opinion? Oh, let let them be, Let them do
Speaker 1: whatever they want to do. I know that if you're
Speaker 1: born with a different gender assignment, there's nothing you do
Speaker 1: about it. I have to learn how to work with it.
Speaker 1: I should be left alone. You know you've had children.
Speaker 1: What about all this, you know with critical race theory
Speaker 1: and what is taught in the school. Do you think
Speaker 1: that just all bs or do you think God, we
Speaker 1: have to protect children to some degree. I think they
Speaker 1: should take critical race theory. I think everybody from the
Speaker 1: first grade you'd learned what the history of black people
Speaker 1: were in this in this country and and get a servant, uncut, undiluded.
Speaker 1: Howard's Inn has a really good history for for children
Speaker 1: that um tells the truth but makes it, doesn't sugarcoat it,
Speaker 1: but puts it in a rational context that is not damaging,
Speaker 1: but it is enlightening. I'm a great fan of Howard's
Speaker 1: In going back to l A, sounds like you knew
Speaker 1: everybody from Jackson Brown to Lowell George. Uh is that true?
Speaker 1: Or though you just hung with the people, you hung with? Well?
Speaker 1: I met Jackson when he was seventeen and I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: and no one had ever heard of either one of us.
Speaker 1: And I just thought it was a good songwriter, as
Speaker 1: saman was j D. I met him at the Troupador
Speaker 1: and we went to my house and he played songs.
Speaker 1: I thought he was a good songwriter. And when you
Speaker 1: use the Eagles, what became the Eagles as your background band?
Speaker 1: Did you realize they were going to go on to
Speaker 1: all that success themselves? Oh? I was sure they would
Speaker 1: be sure they would make kids okay, And what are
Speaker 1: your kids up to today. My one daughter is a
Speaker 1: visual artist and my other son is a tech guy.
Speaker 1: And what does he do in tech? He's you know,
Speaker 1: when you have a corporation and then they have all
Speaker 1: their tech stuff. He runs it. He's in charge. He's
Speaker 1: the person you go to your laptop doesn't work or whatever.
Speaker 1: Very smart. Do you ever listen to your own records
Speaker 1: if I need to check something like I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to make my hearing aid work my
Speaker 1: headphones as I listened to through several of itent I
Speaker 1: listened to Paul Simon's record Graceland, and listen to some
Speaker 1: records that I've produced mine to see what I can.
Speaker 1: Because I know what those records sounded like when they
Speaker 1: were made. I can tell what's missing, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot missing. So other than when you're you know, adjusting
Speaker 1: your hearing aids. Uh, do you listen to music much
Speaker 1: in the home? Not much? And if you had to
Speaker 1: look back at your career, what two albums are you
Speaker 1: most proud of? I think the second Mexican record of
Speaker 1: Mosconciones and the last record I made that it was
Speaker 1: called that was in the last record I made, it's
Speaker 1: called Winter light. And you know, you encountered a lot
Speaker 1: in your career people saying no, and you ended up.
Speaker 1: You know, how to tell me how those battles went
Speaker 1: down with the record company, Well, they thought it was
Speaker 1: a mistake career was to do them. And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm doing them in any way. And because I couldn't
Speaker 1: hear them, I could just hear the music. And to
Speaker 1: their credit, people like Joe Smith are really old fashioned
Speaker 1: record man and they knew how to sell records and
Speaker 1: they stepped up and promoted it. And the same way
Speaker 1: with Peter Asher. He couldn't have cared less about Mexic music.
Speaker 1: You never heard it. I said, I just have to
Speaker 1: do this, and he put his head to the to
Speaker 1: the he put his shoulder in the wheel and did it.
Speaker 1: He did a really good job. He didn't try to
Speaker 1: get in my way. And you talk about Peter Asher,
Speaker 1: you've worked with multiple producers. What's the key to a
Speaker 1: good producer? I think they work in so many different ways.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the producer controls the material and the way it's approached.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the artist does, and sometimes the backing band does.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot of subtle nuance of trade offs.
Speaker 1: I think the producer is someone who listens and makes
Speaker 1: carefully considered suggestions. Now the rage today is people selling
Speaker 1: their publishing. Uh, you only wrote a handful of songs,
Speaker 1: you know, right, A lot of the money is in publishing.
Speaker 1: So how you know? Were the record companies honest with
Speaker 1: you and paying you royalties back in the day, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Let me put it differently, how are you
Speaker 1: doing financially? Well, that's a pretty fucking personal question. But
Speaker 1: I'm doing fine. I sold my catalog. You you sold
Speaker 1: the catalog. I was doing fine before that. I had
Speaker 1: a good business manager and I didn't spend a lot
Speaker 1: of money. So you sold your royalties and all your records. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how long would you do that? Oh? I don't know.
Speaker 1: A year ago. Maybe it's based on twenty years of earnings.
Speaker 1: He'll he'll recoup his investment in twenty years. I won't
Speaker 1: be here in twenty years, so I don't care. It's
Speaker 1: gonna have money. Now. Did you buy or do anything
Speaker 1: uh that you now that you have this money? Or
Speaker 1: did you just bank it? Well? I was going to
Speaker 1: buy a house, but I saw what the prices are
Speaker 1: up here, and I nearly fainted. I'm still on the floor, okay,
Speaker 1: And what do you want people to get out of
Speaker 1: this book? Feels like home. There's just another side to Mexico,
Speaker 1: to that part of Mexico, and that party has been
Speaker 1: a cohesive, singular piece of real estate since before um
Speaker 1: Arizona was before Mexico is Arizona, and that they should
Speaker 1: recognize what what similarities there between themselves and the people's
Speaker 1: houves of the border. And you had brothers and sisters,
Speaker 1: unfortunately two were no longer with us. Was their pressure
Speaker 1: when you have this huge success to take care of
Speaker 1: the rest of your family financially? Well, it changed it.
Speaker 1: I didn't care my family financially. They were all gamefully employed. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's tough that you were so successful. Did
Speaker 1: your siblings revel in your success? Were they jealous? Well,
Speaker 1: they didn't want to be professional singers that went on
Speaker 1: the road. My brother was the chief of police of Tucson,
Speaker 1: like his job just fine. My sister strad five kids.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a housewife. And did you help
Speaker 1: support them? Not really, okay, because a lot of people
Speaker 1: become successful and their family starts asking them for money.
Speaker 1: That wasn't your experience? Well, not particularly if I want
Speaker 1: to go for good Mexican food in l A. Where
Speaker 1: should I go? I don't know. I haven't lived in
Speaker 1: l A for twenty years. Well, you know, can you
Speaker 1: mention any Mexican restaurants or do we really have to
Speaker 1: go to Tucson to get the kind of food that
Speaker 1: you like if you want good Mexican food. Way of January,
Speaker 1: Lucy's Ill Adobe is reopening with the original owner and
Speaker 1: the original recipes. It's going to be a great place
Speaker 1: to eat. It's like it wasn't the seventies. What did
Speaker 1: you use to order at Lucy's Green enchiladas? Really? And
Speaker 1: are you a meat eater or not? I meet if
Speaker 1: I have to? Okay, Linda, I want to thank you
Speaker 1: so much for taking the time to talk to me
Speaker 1: in my audience. Once again. Linda Ronstad has a new book,
Speaker 1: Feels Like Home, a Song for the Sonoran Borderlands, and
Speaker 1: so thanks again, Linda, thank you so much. Hi until
Speaker 1: next time. This is Bob left Steps