Linda Ronstadt

American singer of country, folk, ballads and rock. A mixture of Mexican, German, English and Dutch, she grew up on a ranch outside of Tucson. Her dad worked the ranch and ran a hardware store; she describes her mom as "a lady." Her folks, two brothers and one sister all sang. At 18, she left home to become a top country singer, but her style and capacity kept shifting and growing. Her career spanned everything from blues-rock to Mexican folk, big-band standards to mariachi, musicals to light opera, tours and records. She has sung to the beat of many different drums since making her 1960s debut with the "Stone Poneys." With a handicap of intense stage fright, she has no love for touring, but did what she had to do to advance her career.

Déclassé in youth, she went through a series of casual lovers with some big names thrown in. For several years she was linked with Governor Jerry Brown, lived with Star Wars producer George Lucas, and with comic Albert Brooks for two years in the '70s. An extensive list of big names are included in her romantic history, a subject of which she later refused to comment. A coke and speed-freak, she kept a psychiatrist on hand for years and had some serious problems with her septum from snorting.

After rehab and settling in a Malibu home, she adopted a baby daughter in 1991 and a son in 1993, unmarried, plump and more fulfilled as she neared her 50s than in her early years. In September 1997, Ronstadt put her San Francisco mansion up for sale. The $5.85 million mansion afforded the buyer seven bedrooms, an au pair suite, an office, stained glass windows and a dumbwaiter. Ronstadt owned the home for ten years and put it up for sale only because, as a single mom raising two adopted children, she wanted to be in Tucson, AZ, closer to friends and family. She has suffered with sleep apnea from 1998, checking into the Tucson Medical center for treatment and further testing.