tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley.tonight, the conclusion of our conversation with linda ronstadt. voice has been silenced due to parkinson's, a loss that she feels every day. she just published a memoir called "simple dreams." we are glad you have joined us, coming up, right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. linda ronstadt's impressive career has taken her from the small stage at the troubadour to arenas and broadway. she has written a book about her life and musical journey, simple dreams. and it informed her collaboration with artists from dolly parton to willie nelson. andone of her great friends

heroes, smokey robinson. ♪ ♪ tavis: how great songwriter is smokey robinson? a terrible crush on him like every other female on the planet. i was so nervous, i thought i

was going to drop dead. in that gin singing a song he wrote with him. my god. my friends and i play the top five this are the top five that, moki is about as good as it gets. >> he sings in the same tradition that aaron neville does. it goes back to the french creole thing in louisiana. byy were very influenced french baroque opera. really loud and belting like caruso, they would go in the falsetto and saying a lot of embellishments. that's why he loves doo- wop. >> he is one of the best and the last of the great doo-wop singers. he is much more related to french baroque opera.

belters like wilson pickett. but those guys sang in the beautiful falsetto and made it a beautiful thing. to ask yous going this question last night but we ran out of time because there was so much to get to and i can do justice to everything in this book. but every time i talk to you, i am always struck by your depth of music history. you didn't have time as you are forming this career to get a phd in musicology. nobody does these days. but you know all of this stuff. to read, i am a reader. by going into the music and going further and further about the lives of the people that sang it.

singing, i wanted to know what was going on before that. i wanted to get my phrasing better. what was before that? standards. so that's what started all of that. went to new orleans and i started learning the history of new orleans. what theto learn history of his music was. there was a bunch of different stuff. what went into the making of that music was not just arbitrary. show a fewas on this months ago and we had a great time talking. read his poetry before. i love aaron neville. how have you known,

artistically, who and who not to collaborate with? because you're so good at this, how did you know that your voices would match? >> you had to throw yourself at it and start doing it. i am a chameleon and i can change my voice a lot. i was a harmony singer and that is really hard. people don't realize it is as hard as lead singing. you have to really listen. 99% of singing is listening. listen. got to hear and you have to be able to shade and move. if everybody else goes like that, that is harmony singing. erin invited me on stage to sing with him.

he was in the -- i was in the audience one night and this is another thing. i will not go up on stage without rehearsing because i don't like to do it. and they said, we will sing some doo-wop. i said great, i am a soprano. i hung on for dear life and whatever he did, i just shadowed him. i thought we sounded really good and then i thought, you idiot, everyone sounds great when they sing with aaron neville. then he called me on the phone and asked if i would come do a benefit with him. i went, i will be there in a minute. what are we going to saying? we both went to catholic school. that is what we sang. the countertenor and me singing soprano. that went toody

catholic school has a litany of catholic school stories. >> we have a really tough time. unfairlyen were trained, not to have any emotional support or make friends even within the order. they changed the way they train them now but those poor women were very disturbed and in the eight years i was there, i think three of them had complete nervous breakdowns. one of them right in front of the class. they were wearing these black habits. do you know how hot it is in tucson? it is like being a solar reflector. shortiests were wearing sleeve shirts and they could smoke and drink and do whatever they want. they wouldn't even let them change the habits for white ones. they must've been miserable.

and they were taught to be very there were large class sizes and they were beating the children. it was very frightening. there are a lot of nuns right now who are my heroes. there is a woman down in new orleans that is really close friends with karen and they don't have any property tax down there, so there is no money for the government to help poor people. sister jane is the only one down there dealing with hunger and homelessness. and she walks the walk. she helps people every single day. my experience with those , it doesn't apply to all nuns. are in it and they really did the right thing. you, hasportant, to

your faith been? have you wavered in that? where do you find yourself now? >> i call myself a recovering catholic. your basic atheist that believes that i am a spiritual atheist. i don't believe in a separate anthropomorphized conscious entity. i think it is a kind of narcissism. i think there is a power in nature and a universal power that you had better not ignore. and i think there are kinds of christianity that get very close to that. and other religions. they get so excluding. it has nothing to do with faith or god. i believe in the divine is what i mean to say. christians out there that have taken over the right wing of the government. i don't think they have a clue

what the divine is. tois: i want to circle back the music in just a second, but it was such public news about your battle with parkinson's. we have been told that linda ronstadt will not sing again. for years and i knew i did not feel well. i knew i was struggling with singing and it goes in your voice first. they can diagnose with an algorithm in your voice. i did not know what was wrong. my back hurt, i thought it was that i fell off my horse so many times. if you tell the doctor you're tired, they look at you like an idiot. and they wanted me to go to a neurologist. finally, he told me and i was completely shocked and then i remember that my grandmother had it. luck of the draw.

ask youere is why i that question. i am curious what you will call upon to help you in this fight. >> my own good sense. i believe in the imperial goal wisdom of science, that there might be some treatment out there that might be helpful. the best promise is with stem cells and the religious right is not allowing that research in this country. promisehows such great not just with parkinson's but with diabetes and other things it can help with. i hope that research will loosen up. you seem so calm about this. not that you will break down and cry on national television, but how do you deal with it? your whole life, you have been singing. >> i miss it terribly. when emmylou harris comes over,

i miss that and i go home to andon and all of my cousins brothers and sisters sing and play. we used to harmonize together. i can't talk to them about politics because they are republicans. going to get you, i am 67 years old and i have had an unusually long turn at the trough, getting to do things that other people don't get to do and i am grateful for that. i have to be content with that. i have defined a way to make myself useful. shouldve that children all be taught music at an early age. and in the east bay in northern california, they work a lot with immigrant kids and they teach them how to play, dance, and sing.

they teach them visual art and they do the best job i have ever seen with kids. they are not brought up to are not out there to be trained seals. they are to use it in their social and emotional life to work out their problems. they can use music in a really organic way. i go to or her souls and dance classes and i have the best time because it is like going to rehearsal and the music is so good. there is a huge reduction in teen pregnancy. and they get an introduction to this bewildering new culture. tavis: so there are still reasons to wake up? >> yes. tavis: you mentioned, and you are right, that you did not die

young. there were a lot of people that did. people that caught up in the drug scene. how did you avoid that particular fate? >> i have this weird body chemistry, i don't like to get high. i'm not going to say i didn't try anything, i tried almost everything. under the bedhide with a box of graham crackers and not share when she gets high. who needs that? marijuana has a lot of very good medical uses and i truly believe it should be legal. it was recreational use, not my drug. i didn't like it. cocaine made my nosebleed right away. it will make you real nervous and talk really fast. my true addiction is reading. loaded, i remember

what i just read. i was never bored because i had a book. that is why you were so -- >> the guys in my band were readers, too. highly literate and well- educated. we had a pretty nice atmosphere. tavis: reading is one thing and writing is another. how did you find the notion of writing? >> i had never written anything in my whole life but a thank you note. crowe, when he was a kid, trying to make his bones as a reporter, he went to jackson .rowne's house to interview him jackson left the room for a while and he went and found a bunch of lyrics that jackson had

written and he printed them. and i was so shocked. you never read anybody else's mail or diaries. anything downting because cameron crowe might find it at my house. i never wrote anything down. i wrote one letter home about the doors that i used as reference for the book. but that was it. i was sitting next to this guy who wrote the botany of desire. are you going to write a book? i said, i can't write. i know the difference between good he said, everybody has one story they can tell in an authentic way. thought, so many people have written about me and said stuff about me. inaccurate, iwas

said i think i want my side of the story. i wrote a book about renée fleming and how her musical journey developed as a singer. tot will be a cool thing, tell my story because i am not the most important pop singer that ever was but i am the most diverse pop singer from that era. it would be good to show how those musical choices were not arbitrary and very deliberate. and what the foundation was for those different music choices. tavis: did you learn about yourself? >> i learned what a lousy memory i had. my father had an incredible memory and my uncle had total recall. my brother, chief of police in tucson said, never trust an eye redness -- an eyewitness because they never remember it right. iis is the gospel truth and

would ask someone else that was there and they said it did not happen like that. i had a really good copy editor. dead somebody five years before they were. i was shocked at how much my memory could trick me. what do you hope the takeaway will be for readers? >> to understand what was going on when i was doing those songs. and how i thinking approached doing that. how i got there. to mexican music from gilbert and sullivan operetta. i went to folk music, country rock, and i went to gilbert and sullivan operetta is then mexican music and i went to caribbean jazz standards.

i did a lot of different stuff. there was a lot of jumping around, but for me, it was all family music. i noted this in every conversation i have been blessed to have with you over the years. that is that you are so honest in your own personal critique. you know when you have killed it when you havenow not done the best job. we all have some different competition no matter what we do. but the hardest part is being honest with ourselves when we don't measure up and i get the sense that one of the reasons why you are so brilliant at what you do is because you have

always been it, at the very least, honest with yourself. >> i should have been better trained at music when i started out. i was 17 and jumped in with both feet. the good news was i got a little better and that is all you can do. again.over and over but i got better. because we have talked about it a couple at times, maybe it is just me. it seems to me you are part of a generation that was much more collaborative than this generation is. rappers come together on each other's songs. jamesck in the day, if taylor had written the song or carol king had written the song and it did not work for this

person, they would give it to this person. maybe i am over reading this and maybe it wasn't that kind and charitable and generous, but it seems like a lot of good collaboration going on. there were a lot of those male posturings. they got down and helped each other out. now,gine it happens too. the way that she performed, she is a really fine performer. she's got the old moves like you would see at the apollo theater. she also has this idea of respect for herself and dignity. she is really sexy and beautiful. but she is not throwing it out in the street and i like that.

i think musicians are supportive of each other because they want the group to keep going on. they don't mind, whoever walks it would be fine as long as you play really well. that is why i think it is a universal and wonderful thing about music. if there were one word that came to mind or comes to mind when i think of you and your work, it would be humanity. >> thank you. that is a great complement. of yourt the epicenter work is an appreciation and the rattling of the humanity of other people. tell me why that is. >> i think there is a lot of compassion in our. when you're doing something that resonates with someone else, you

will connect with that person's head. compassion is built in, it has to be. tonight is still not enough. >> i can come back. inspired andlways empowered every time we get a chance to talk. i am so glad you did this. and it is is out now called "simple dreams." look at that picture. >> i remember that day and what i was thinking. i think somebody hurt my feelings so i had a reproachful thought in my head. eyes are soour expressive, then and now. think for doing this. great to have you on.

that is our show for tonight 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 bob newhart, with after seven nominations, finally won an emmy award.

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