Linda Ronstadt smiles as she talks about an aspect from her book, βFeels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlandsβ during the second day of the Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona campus on Sunday.
As Linda Ronstadt takes the stage, audience members get their photos before she talks about her book, βFeels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlandsβ during the second day of the Tucson Festival of Books on Sunday afternoon.
Linda Ronstadt fans arrived early on Sunday, forming lines that snaked around both sides of the University of Arizona Memorial Student Union and clogged the walkways at the Tucson Festival of Books.
Some waited hours before the doors to the Student Union North Ballroom opened for the 1 p.m. conversation with Ronstadt and her βFeels Like Homeβ co-author Lawrence Downes.
When they were finally allowed in, the crowd filled every one of the 1,000 seats to hear Ronstadt, arguably the most famous person to come from Tucson, speak about her hometown, her familyβs deep Sonoran and Tucson roots and, of course, her music. It was the first public appearance in Tucson for the 11-time Grammy-winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer since she was here last May for the dedication of the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.
Moderated by former Arizona Daily Star columnist Ernesto Portillo, the conversation meandered from her 2019 trip to BanΓ‘michi on the Rio Sonora β five hours from Tucson by car β that inspired her to write βFeels Like Homeβ, to her familyβs history in Tucson, from brother Peter serving as Tucson police chief to her grandfather and father running the familyβs namesake hardware store on the downtown footprint that is now the Ronstadt Transit Center.
βItβs a love story and itβs an intergenerational story,β Ronstadt said of the book, which she and Downes started writing in 2020; it was released last October.
That sentiment also could describe Ronstadtβs homecoming on Sunday. Generations of fans, from those who looked to be close to her age β late 60s to mid-70s β to young women, from the singer-songwriter who asked for advice for those pursuing Ronstadtβs musical path, to recent Pueblo High School grad and mariachi vocalist Giselle-Paris Aubrey, who serenaded Ronstadt at that May dedication ceremony with the singerβs signature hit βBlue Bayou.β
Throughout the hourlong presentation, Ronstadt, who has Parkinsonβs-like progressive supranuclear palsy, had to strain to hear audience membersβ questions and those from Portillo and Downes, who were sitting next to her at a table on the stage.
She and Downes had initially set out to write a Sonoran-Tucson cookbook, but after finding letters from her great-grandmother to her grandfather when he immigrated to Tucson as a teen, and when she reflected on the Ronstadt familyβs deep history in the region, her cookbook turned into what she and Downes like to call an βedible memoir.β The book includes 20 of Ronstadtβs best-loved foods from Tucson featuring recipes from her family and her favorite restaurants.
When Portillo asked Downes if he had tried any of the recipes or, more importantly, had he prepared any for Ronstadt, the 76-year-old singer sporting a shock of short white hair piped up, βAre you talking about how I canβt cook?,β which prompted more laughs.
During a 15-minute Q&A after the talk, fans asked the singer about everything from her relationship with Neil Young (βHe was one of the most interesting songwriters I knewβ) and what she thought about her Trio partner Emmylou Harris (βSheβs one of the best singers I ever heardβ) to her favorite places in Tucson: the Mission Gardens and Arizona Inn, which she said βis so beautiful. ... I grew up about a mile from there.β
When asked if she thought at the time she recorded βDifferent Drumβ in 1967 that it would be an inspiration for women, the singer said that never crossed her mind.
βI just thought it was a cool song,β she said. βI picked songs that didnβt make me sound so bad.β
While many of the audience members who spoke recounted how Ronstadtβs music affected them, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hawthorne shared a much more personal family connection. He told Ronstadt that his family had deep ranching ties to Santa Cruz County and Southern Arizona and had done business with her grandfather.
He then presented the singer with a sheriffβs coin.