Music Hall to Be Renamed After Linda Ronstadt

These days we’re used to iconic music venues being renamed for some big company, a snack food brand, or some other unsavory development as they sell out to LiveNation or some other mega owner. But down in Tuscon, Arizona where Linda Ronstadt was born, raised, and launched her career, they’re honoring the iconic singer who had such a big impact on country music by renaming the city’s music hall after her.

The Tucson Music Hall in downtown Tucson on Church Street will be renamed for Linda Ronstadt on May 7th. Built in 1971, the 2,289-capacity venue is part of the greater Convention Center complex, and is in the National Register of Historic Places. “Linda Ronstadt is a beloved daughter of Tucson. It is time to honor her legacy and her ability to tell the story of our culture through music,” says Tucson mayor Regina Romero.

Though Linda Ronstadt’s music crossed over into pop and rock, few paid their country dues as much as Linda did early in her career, including her years in her first band the Stone Poneys, her debut solo album in 1969, Hand Sown…Home Grown, 1970’s Silk Purse that included cover songs of “Lovesick Blues” and “Mental Revenge,” and her 1972 self-titled album where she recorded “Crazy Arms” and “I Fall To Pieces.”

Even when Linda Ronstadt achieved her breakout pop rock success, she was always honest about the genre and approach of her music, and then returned to country in the groundbreaking Trio project with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, which released an iconic album in 1987, and a followup in 1999. It’s for these reasons Linda Ronstadt has been rumored to be considered for the Country Music Hall of Fame over the last few years.

But of course, no single genre can cage Linda Ronstadt. In fact, the Tucson Music Hall will be christened after Linda Ronstadt during the International Mariachi Conference Espectacular on May 7th. Along with country, Ronstadt was raised on Mariachi music, and later recorded her own Mariachi album and toured with a Mariachi band to pay homage to those roots.

Linda Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014—a year after it was revealed that she was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, and had lost her legendary voice. She has since ceased performing publicly, but has toured in speaking engagements.

Linda Ronstadt will be in Tucson for the christening and the unveiling of the new sign at the Tucson Music Hall. “I am fortunate to be a member of a large musical family that has been associated with the City of Tucson since the 1800s. My entire career was informed and nurtured by the music we made as I was growing up here,” says Ronstadt.

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