tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight, the first of two conversations with singer linda ronstadt. she has 11 grammys, and any, and a tony to her credit. her crystal invoice is permanently silenced due to parkinson's. she has explored a myriad of musical styles from her early folk rock days to heard rediscovery of the ranchero sound of her mexican-american roots and has written a memoir that chronicles her musical journey titled "simple dreams p -- "simple dreams." we are glad you have joined us.

a conversation with linda ronstadt coming up right now. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: before she retired from performing in 2009, her impressive career founder collaborating with many outstanding artists including dolly parton, randy newman, aaron neville, and so

forth. newhas written a wonderful memoir about her artistic journey called "simple dreams." here is a simple reminder of her beautiful voice. ♪ ♪ tavis: still sound good to you? >> i wonder where that came from. i think i got that blouse and

downtown l.a.. tavis: i asked about the voice and you tell me about the blouse. >> i love that song. they did a beautiful job writing that song. a third time, does it still sound good to you? tavis>> i think it sounds like a billy goat. tavis: you reminded me of something that we talked about, part of our conversation last time you were here. i have quoted you around the world with this. linda ronstadt once told me on my show, if part of what is wrong with our culture is what she calls your pollution. -- ear pollution.

and you are right. it there is so much noise that we have to break through these days. >> everywhere you go, there is a soundtrack. we work so hard on those records to try to make them sound good. 70s, everye in the single year since they invented sound recording, it gets better and better. now mp3 sounds awful and it is the first time in history of recording that it sounds worse. and it is ubiquitous. in every restaurant and every shopping place. it you can't really listen to it. it should be an elective experience. often i think of you most in the notion of your pollution when i am in restaurants. idon't know what it is but find myself in certain restaurants, certain places in

this town that i won't go to because they play the music so loud. go, can you turn that down? tavis: i feel like i will have a seizure, i get on an airplane or a cab, a screen will be blinking at you. >> the saturated colors and the strong light, they do things to your brain and your endocrine system but i don't think will be very desirable. we only have 100 years of electric history of electric lights. you used to be able to get a real night. it's dark outside, we might as well sleep. now we have this light flooding our bedrooms and you can't get a decent nights sleep. >> night pollution and air pollution. a -- youu have been

have made a powerful comment about how music ought to be elective. you were a kid, what were you electing to listen to? >> we had a bunch of different stuff in our house. my aunt would go back to spain and bring back flamenco records. it was what we called gypsy music, but it was really brilliant and great singing. mexico.re records from and i learned so much from her. she completely affected my singing style. i was just trying to copy her and not succeeding. tavis: it is so clear. i am going to jump around here.

it is clear that throughout your word, wend this is my are bored or inpatient or want recent.mething to try different styles or different formats. it seems to take a lot of courage to do that. >> the word would not be bored. but it is kind of like the thing where you repeat a word over and over again and it stops meaning what it originally meant. and when you sing the same song over and over again, it stops meaning what it meant to you. happenot want that to and i had too much respect for the music. i kept looking for the things that i had to experience as a

child. think about the living room that i grew up in. find some mexican song or some everly brothers song or some frank sinatra song. whatever. it was all there. they loved opera. and not only did they play it on the radio, but on their piano. , but not learn to read everybody played and sang whether they were professional level or not. we delegate all of our art professionals and that is silly. we should be doing our own dancing and drawing. you have to have the heroes to be inspired but you get to do it, too. art is for healing ourselves and everybody needs their own personal art to work with their problems. tavis: when did you know that

you were gifted in this way? >> i thought everybody could saying because in my family, everybody i knew sang. they did not play a record and have them sing along, they had children's choirs. my brother was there featured soloist and was a featured soloi great. tavis: when did you know that you were gifted enough to do this professionally? >> in first grade, i said that i was going to be a singer, i'm not going to have to worry about numbers. i just figured i was going to sing. it didn't occur to me to question it. i did not know any better. no one should plan on it.

tavis: this book is about your artistic journey. isn an icon like you says it a difficult thing to do and not to plan on it, what do you mean? >> a tiny percentage of people wind up doing it. and not because they are the best. i saw a movie about the backup fabulousf the 70s. girls and they are defined what it is that separates that person to be a lead singer from a background singer. merry clayton can anybody under the table. she was so beautiful and she could sing so well and she was tall. she was just gorgeous. she has these beautiful cheekbones and she was fabulous. ofre is that little edge dumb luck or something that

resonates with the public. but somehow, things happened for me. tavis: have you ever felt guilty about that that some of your background singers did not quite -- >> i did not feel guilty about it, whatever it is, the public likes this and they are entitled to it. a lot of singers i have heard, a may not like their sensibility but i see they are entitled to whatever they get. people don't get there without talent. >> but talent is not the end-all be-all. is most important. it you have to be able to make your story clear and have it resonate with the public. your personal story. grab theto be able to public by the collar and say, you've got to listen to this because i will die if i don't

tell someone this story. thing that turns on you is want to get syphilis and or, it should be about the listener. my job is to evoke, not to instruct. tavis: how does the artist help the listener or empower the listener to make that transition if they get that sort of slap in the face, it is a shock of recognition. experience ins just that way, that is when you succeed in do your job. mctaggart isn't as good a dancer as tina turner, or as good a someone else or as great a writer as paul simon, he

is greater than the sum of his parts. there is no way you can ignore him when he is on stage. when claudia came on stage, the roof would blow off the joint. because his story resonated and he was able to get it out there so clearly and urgency, you just love it. were threesaid two things. you make this so easy for me. belafonte is a friend of mine and a great singer and his own right back in the day. >> i listen to him growing up. tavis: he had a book out, wrote a memoir called sing your song. i thought of him when you said you've got to have a story to tell. he would say that you've got to get the world the sing your song. what hasu define that? been the story you have been trying to tell us or the song

you have been trying to get us to saying e? >> anything from someone stopped on my heart, or i really wanted to make that sandwich with those pickles that i like. but it really can be something completely mundane, it depends on the intensity of your feeling. it changes every day. i would be on the stage singing or i would see a movie of something happening. my goal would be to make somebody else run their own movie. you talked about jagr. he is greater than the sum total of his parts. i totally agree. he is not great at any one of those things but if you put it altogether, you can't deny him

on stage. years, grade yourself in terms of your performance on stage. terrible on stage. i was overwhelmed and looked at my feet all the time. i think everybody has that fear. tavis: the stage scared you? >> it scared me to death. i loved to rehearse and i would imagine while i was rehearsing. i would get there and be looking at my feet. it was a long time before i even said anything on stage and i made such a horrible faux pas. tavis: tell me. >> i don't know if i can tell you. i have never told anyone this story. don't tell anyone.

we were in some place in upstate new york. i knew a psychiatrist very well who was an incredible researcher. incidence of up there. he was saying it as a researcher. i get on stage and the band is playing. you've got to talk to them. upstate new york, i understand you have a high rate of up here. -- incest up here. [laughter] the audience did not like me and you get nervous and anything comes out of your mouth. it was the factoid that i knew. [laughter] tavis: that is a great story. no one from upstate new york is going to buy one of my books now. you kept selling records

and you survived it. >> i was horrified at myself. you know that saying that someone is beside yourself. like you get shocked out of your body. your body is doing the best it can. that is what it was like. tavis: i'm not going to call any names. the flipside is going to see the show and the artist won't shut up. >> i like it when they are on their money or on their game. when michael jackson came out and first at the moonwalk. i never went to the beatles concerts or screamed. i was on my feet with the entire crowd and we were shrieking our guts out and we would've gone anywhere with him. there is like a moment where he

connected and that is why he is the greatest pop star of all time. troubled guy with a lot of problems but whatever it was, it was really powerful and we would have followed him to help. is that your assessment that he was the greatest pop star of all time? >> i believe so. been sinatra might have the best singer but the way that michael could dance and do all that stuff, he had all of the best people with him and was brilliant. been fortunate and blessed to work with some of the great songwriters. talk to me about lyrical content and how it has been with you over this journey. >> if the united states gave anything to culture at large, the most important thing was the popular song.

it was that time that started in the 20s and went into the 50s. the great american standard song. the reason was because of migration. there were lots of layers of migration and forced migration from africa. everybody was sent to europe to be educated. there is a lot of complaining about how everybody was treated. they were put into a very sophisticated context. in the him between was irish and mexican and italian and polish and all of these people yearning. they all moved in, and on the top layer are the people that migrated from central europe,

the jews that came to flee terrible persecution. they got persecution from the bottom and the top. it is very sophisticated. and the leaders became of the american popular song. give you a different example, bette midler will have a show that works on a lot of different levels. there were some that were funny and kind of sexy. those classic american standards songs were that same way. you can get it on a sophisticated level, a heart is broken level, it is really a product of immigration and it makes me feel so bad that we don't have immigration reform because people are coming from all over the world want to come and work and are able and capable because they survived

the trip here, they are great in dealing with adversity are being shoved out of the economic pie. tavis: you have been is courageous and brilliant of your own interpretation of the great american songbook as you have been speaking your own truths about the issues that you think our society needs to wrestle with. have you paid a consequence or a price? >> if you do what is in your heart, you have to follow your bliss. those songs from the american standard songbook bear tremendous around -- amount of reinterpreting.

i have a little story that i had to tell and it is such a great vehicle. everybody that takes them on does it in such a specific way. rosemary clooney would make a song that you heard a million times and never think one thing about that song and you think, that is a great song. chance thatays that you might be able to unlock the secret of that song and let it bloom in front of people so that they get what it's about. did i answer your question? it is impossible to have this conversation with you and you talk about this in the book, it is hard to talk about issues and not talk about your relationship with jerry brown. what about the fact that life brings him back to the governor's office?

>> that is the problem we have had with these politicians. a guy just is running the country and did not know what he was doing. jerry has had a lot of experience. job.nk he's doing a great when you are bankrupt, spend more because it comes back. i don't know why the republicans are worried. he is a very careful spender but the government has to spend money during a recession because they're spending is our earning. >> a funny story of one of the consequences of dating jerry brown. tell a story about the flood real quick. >> i was living on malibu, which was a silly thing to do. you learn that you do not build

a house on a floodplain and the beach is a floodplain because the beach is elastic and does not stay in the same shape or same contour. and it is aliving bad idea. year of storms, it is a catastrophe. it had done a lot of damage to houses. the rest of malibu wanted help from the government. jerry said, we can't do that because my girlfriend lives will think i am giving her special favors. so they were ready to come with pitchforks and torches and burn the place down because he wasn't helping. he was good. you went up and down the beach and figured out what was going on.

public and i is don't think anybody should be able to build anything. nots: it takes the story of playing favorites to another level. he didn't even want to be accused. to have youessed here for another conversation and i could do this for days. stay right there and we will say goodbye for now but tomorrow night, we have part two of our conversation with linda ronstadt. until tomorrow night, thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conclusion with our conversation with linda ronstadt.

that is next time. see you then. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> welcome to this is us. we are visiting san jose japanese town. a 120 years later, we are lucky enough to have one of three towns here in the united states. we are going to explore and find out the history. we