Who Is Linda Ronstadt? About the Music Icon Selena Gomez Is Playing – Hollywood Life

Linda Ronstadt: 5 Things to Know About the Music Icon Selena Gomez Is Portraying in a New Biopic

The now-retired recording artist left the business due to health reasons but is being celebrated in Selena’s upcoming movie. 

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Linda Ronstadt
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A biopic about Linda Ronstadt’s career is in the works, and it’s starring Selena Gomez! The award-winning singer-songwriter was lauded as the most successful recording artist in the 1970s, releasing music in rock, Latin, country and more genres. Now that she is retired from the industry, the upcoming biopic is expected to relive Linda’s career journey. 

Learn more about the “You’re No Good” artist below! 

Linda Ronstadt Starred on Broadway 

About a decade into her music career, Linda landed her role in Broadway’s The Pirates of Penzance, for which she earned a Tony nomination. The Tucson, Arizona, native portrayed the role of Mabel in 1981. She later starred in Canciones de mi Padre in 1988 as a vocalist. 

Linda Dated Jim Carrey and George Lucas

Throughout the early 1970s, Linda was romantically linked with J.D. Souther, a musician who co-produced her album Don’t Cry Now. It’s unclear when their relationship ended. Sometime in the 1980s, Linda reportedly started dating actor Bill Murray. By 1983, Linda and comedian Jim Carrey dated for less than a year. After calling it quits with the Liar, Liar actor, Linda dated Star Wars creator and filmmaker George Lucas. The two were reportedly engaged but eventually broke up by the late 1980s. 

Linda’s last known romance was with Aaron Neville, a fellow musician and singer, whom she collaborated with on several duets. The former pair released “Don’t Know Much” and “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby.” Linda and Aaron reportedly dated from 1989 to 1992, and she has not went public with any other relationship since. 

Linda Ronstadt
Greenwich Entertainment/Kobal/Shutterstock

Linda Has 2 Kids

As a single mother, Linda has been raising her two adopted children. The “Blue Bayou” artist adopted her daughter, Mary Clementine, in 1990 and adopted her son, Carlos, in 1994. 

Linda Is Retired From Music

In 2011, Linda announced her official retirement from the music industry due to health reasons. However, she continued to attend events and became a public speaker throughout the 2010s. Additionally, the “Long Long Time” singer released an autobiography titled Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir.

Apart from the biopic that is currently in pre-production, according to Rolling Stone, Linda also had a documentary released in 2019 called Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice. 

Linda Lives With a Rare Health Condition 

In 2013, Linda revealed that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which prevented her ability to sing. However, six years later, her diagnosis was updated to progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare condition that reportedly has similar symptoms to that of Parkinson’s.

In 2022, Linda spoke with Maria Shriver on TODAY about her health. At the time, she noted that she can “sing in [her] brain.” 

“It’s not quite the same,” she added. “Sometimes, I choose the song, and sometimes my brain chooses the song. My brain chooses the worst music. It just blares away in my head, like really bad Christmas carols.”