Linda Ronstadt – HuffPost 4.7.14

Mike Ragogna: Linda, what advice do you have for new artists?

Linda Ronstadt: The music business is such a rearranged landscape that I can’t recognize any of it. What I do know is you have to figure out a way to get on stage in front of people and you have to tell a real clear story. You can’t expect somebody to give it to you to put it all together. Nobody, Beyoncé, none of those people have it made and manufactured for them completely. At some point, it’s coming out of their own head. Nobody can manufacture it for you. You have to bring your own talent and your own ideas and make it as clear as you can make it. It’s more important to make it clear than it is to make it sexy or make it loud or make it unique or any of those kinds of things; it’s important to make it clear. What is your story? What are you saying in your own personal way? There are lots of ways that you can disguise it, you can cloak it in all kinds of things. As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, “You can share, but you don’t need to air your laundry.” So there’s all kinds of ways you can avoid airing your laundry, with metaphor and all kinds of stuff, but you ultimately have to tell a story that’s rooted in your heart. If it resonates with the rest of the public, then you’re going to be successful. If it doesn’t, you’ll be s**t out of luck.