Linda Ronstadt, Subject of New Documentary, to Receive Kennedy Center Honor

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, opens in theaters September 6

Courtesy Greenwich Entertainment

"The defining voice of a generation" is being honored on screens big and small.

Singer Linda Ronstadt was announced Thursday as one of the recipients of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, along with R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire, two-time Oscar winning-actress Sally Field, children's television program Sesame Street and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

The honors will be presented Sunday, December 8 at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington DC, and will air later that month on CBS.
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Linda Ronstadt is the defining voice of a generation, spanning genres, languages and continents.

--Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein

The Kennedy Center Honors news comes as a new documentary about the 10-time Grammy-winning artist heads to theaters. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and produced by James Keach, opens September 6.

"Today Ronstadt has Parkinson’s disease and her magnificent singing voice has been silenced," the film's website notes. "But rather than letting that voice be lost to history, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice tells Linda’s story through her own words and music, and by such professional colleagues as Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Aaron Neville among many others."

​Ronstadt turned 73 on Monday. She and her cohorts from the Trio series of albums, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, are set to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a ceremony scheduled for later this year.

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. I spoke with James Keach on the red carpet there. Click below for that video.