Linda Ronstadt's life and career will be the focus of an upcoming biopic starring Selena Gomez as the legendary singer.
Last month, Gomez, 31, confirmed on Instagram that she would play Ronstadt, 77, in the film, based on the musician's 2013 memoir, “Simple Dreams.”
“I have no words to describe my heart for this project…years of hoping this dream would become my reality,” the “Only Murders in the Building” star wrote on her Instagram Story, along with a screenshot of Screenshot of a Deadline article about the casting news.
LINDA RONSTADT OPENS UP ABOUT CHILDHOOD ON THE MEXICAN BORDER
Linda Ronstadt will be played by Selena Gomez in an upcoming biopic. (Getty)
“Love your heart and soul for life and music,” Gomez captioned a black-and-white photo of Ronstadt in a second post, which the “You're No Good” hitmaker shared in her own Facebook story. Instagram along with pink heart emojis.
In early January, the “Wizards of Waverly Place” alum shared a photo on her Instagram Story showing her reading “Simple Dreams.”
On January 10, Ronstadt posted a Variety story about the biopic on Facebook, writing “It all started with a simple dream,” adding eye emojis and a red heart.
The biopic will be directed by David O'Russell and co-produced by James Keach and Ronstadt's former manager John Boylan of Great Eastern Music.
Gomez and Ronstadt, both Mexican, “recently spent a few hours at Linda's house discussing the project and getting to know each other,” according to a post on Great Eastern Music's website.
The rock, country and Latin music icon enjoyed a career that spanned five decades before retiring in 2011 after being diagnosed with a rare brain disorder, progressive supranuclear palsy. Here's a look back at Ronstadt's life and career.
Musical career
Ronstadt rose to stardom in the 1970s. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Raised in a musical family in Tucson, Arizona, Ronstadt moved to Los Angeles and launched her career in the mid-1960s as lead singer of the folk rock trio Stone Poneys.
In 1969, Ronstadt released his first solo album, “Hand Sown…Home Grown.” The following year, she followed up with her second solo release, “Silk Purse,” which included her first solo hit, “Long, Long Time,” and earned the singer her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Vocal Performance. contemporary.
“Long Long Time” topped the charts decades after its release after it was included in a February 2023 episode of the hit HBO show “The Last of Us.”
Ronstadt rose to prominence in the 1970s with the release of her multi-platinum chart-topping albums “Heart Like a Wheel,” “Simple Dreams” and “Living in the USA,” which cemented her status as one of the main musical artists of the decade. stars.
One of the most successful female singers of all time, Ronstadt has released 29 studio albums and sold more than 100 million records in the rock and roll, country and Latin music genres. Nicknamed the “First Lady of Rock,” Ronstadt is the only female artist to have released five consecutive platinum albums.
The singer has won 11 Grammy Awards. (Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Files/Getty Images)
He has received 11 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award. In 1981, Ronstadt earned a Tony Award nomination after starring in the Broadway production of the musical “Pirates of Penzance.” He won an Emmy Award in 1989 for Outstanding Individual Performance by Him in a Musical or Variety Program for his PBS concert “Great Performances: Songs of My Father.”
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Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock & Roll of Fame in 2014 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2019. She continued to tour and record until announcing her retirement in 2011.
“Someone once asked me why people sing,” Ronstadt wrote in his memoirs. “I responded that they sing for many of the same reasons that birds sing. They sing to have a mate, to claim their territory, or simply to give voice to the pleasure of being alive in the middle of a beautiful day.
“Perhaps more than birds, humans hold grudges. They sing to complain about how badly they have been wronged and how to avoid it in the future. They sing to help themselves execute a task. They sing so that the next generations “They will not forget what the current generation endured, dreamed of, or delighted in.”
Relations
Ronstadt has never been married, but was involved in several high-profile relationships. (Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images)
Ronstadt has never been married, but has been involved in high-profile relationships with other famous figures. The singer dated former California governor Jerry Brown for several years in the 1970s, although their romance fizzled after the end of his US presidential campaign in 1980.
“None of us ever suffered from the illusion that we would like to share each other's lives,” Ronstadt wrote of her relationship with Brown in her memoirs.
“I would have found his life too restrictive and he would have found mine completely chaotic. Over time, we went our separate ways and embraced things that resonated with us as different individuals,” she added. “We have always remained on excellent terms.”
The singer dated former California Governor Jerry Brown for several years in the 1970s. (Pictorial Parade/File Photos/Getty Images)
Ronstadt dated “Star Wars” creator and director George Lucas for several years in the 1980s, and the couple was reportedly once engaged. The two, who kept their relationship private and were never photographed together, broke up in 1988.
The singer was also linked to Mick Jagger, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, JD Souther and Aaron Neville.
Ronstadt adopted her daughter Mary Clementine in 1990 and adopted her son Carlos in 1994. She previously spoke about raising her children in her home state of Arizona and lives near Mary and Carlos in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Health struggles
After retiring in 2011, Ronstadt revealed in 2013 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Two years after announcing his retirement, Ronstadt revealed in an August 2013 interview with AARP that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She told the outlet that she had been experiencing symptoms for seven or eight years before receiving her diagnosis and said that she “can't sing a note.”
In 2019, Ronstadt revealed that she began losing her voice as early as 2000, although she did not stop performing until 2009.
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“He would start singing and then he would just stop. It was like a cramp,” he told “CBS Sunday Morning.” “My voice would freeze. And I said, 'There's something wrong with my voice.' And people said, 'Oh, you're just a perfectionist.' I say, 'No, there's really something systemically wrong.' And this disease progresses very slowly. Therefore, it took a long time for it to finally manifest.”
In 2022, Ronstadt explained that he later learned that he had progressive supranuclear palsy, an incurable brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Ronstadt stopped performing because his illness affected his voice so much that he felt he was no longer pleasing to audiences.
“I was just screaming,” he explained. “Instead of singing, I was just screaming. I didn't want to charge people for it… I could hear it. It wasn't fun anymore. You know, singing is… there's really a lot of things you can do with your voice.” ; you can slide on all kinds of different textures and things. And if you don't do that, it's not interesting.”
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In a 2022 interview with “Today,” Ronstadt explained that he later learned that he actually suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, an incurable brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease.
According to the Mayo Clinic, progressive supranuclear palsy is a “rare brain disorder that causes serious problems with walking, balance and eye movements and, later, swallowing. The disorder results from the deterioration of cells in areas of the brain that “They control body movement, coordination, thinking and other important functions.”
“I can sing in my brain,” Ronstadt told Today. “It's not exactly the same”.
