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Rhino Records

Rhino RecordsLinda Ronstadt rarely does interviews these days, but she’s made an exception to promote the first live album of her career.

The Grammy-winner, who retired in 2011, is now unable to sing due to Parkinson’s disease, but she sat for a chat about the just-released Live in Hollywood, which documents a 1980 concert that was taped for an HBO special.

On the latest edition of the Rhino Records podcast, Linda goes in depth on the album’s songs, including hits like “It’s So Easy,” “Hurt So Bad,” “Blue Bayou”  and “You’re No Good.”

But she admits that at the time, she had no idea what it meant to have an HBO special — mostly because until recently, she didn’t own a TV.

Linda says she only bought a TV after President Obama was elected. Before that, she notes, “The last time that I had a television is when it was rabbit ears on top of the TV.”

She adds, laughing, “My particular rabbit ears were broken. You could only get three channels, and if you wanted to get PBS, you had to hold onto one of the rabbit ears!  So I didn’t watch a lot of television, and I didn’t understand HBO or any of that stuff. I just knew that I didn’t like to be on television, so I always avoided [it] at all costs.”

And the concert? Linda’s main memory is how uncomfortable she was.

“It was just really hot, and I was just afraid it was gonna be on television and it was gonna look bad,” she recalls.

“And we did our best, but it was SO hot.  They had the room lit with those great big lights…I don’t want to whine, but…you wouldn’t put people working in a field in that kind of heat!”

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