Queen of Rock

Linda Ronstadt (July 15, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona to Gilbert Ronstadt, a prosperous machinery merchant and Ruthmary Copeman Ronstadt, whose own father was one of America's prominent patent making investors with neary 700 patents to his name.

After graduating from the University of Arizona, Ronstadt embarked on a musical career in the mid sixties. Her first venture was at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements, genres which later defined post-60s rock music, Linda Ronstadt became the lead singer of a successful folk rock group, The Stone Poneys. Later in 1969 she emerged as a solo artist often touring with the likes of Jackson Browne, The Doors and Neil Young. A few years later with the successful release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like A Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living In The USA, coupled with the fact that Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star, setting records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade, Ronstadt became a star of the highest magnitude and the most successful female rock singer of her era.

Recognized as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock and roll image was equally as famous as her music, appearing six times on the cover of Rolling Stone, Newsweek and Time. Ronstadt has been credited as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history and has opened many doors for women in rock and roll and in music by pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit and being at the vanguard of many musical movements.

Although never married Ronstadt was involved in high profile relationships. The first being in the mid-seventies with then-Governor Jerry Brown of California, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979. In the mid-eighties Ronstadt was engaged to film director George Lucas. She has two adopted children and resides near San Francisco and continues to maintain her home in Tuscon.