MSNBC - Still Hummin' : Linda Ronstadt discusses her new album of American standards, getting fired in Las Vegas and a particular pair of hotpants

MSNBC - Still Hummin': "Nov. 9 - If there is one thing you can’t say about the Grammy-winning Linda Ronstadt, 58, it's that her career has been predictable. She’s been a folk singer, rock icon, country music star, Hispanic musician and chanteuse of big band music. Her first studio album in four years, “Hummin' to Myself,” out Nov. 9, features standards like "Cry Me a River" and Cole Porter's “Miss Otis Regrets." Though Ronstadt semi-retired a decade ago to raise her children in her hometown of Tucson, Ariz., she returned this summer to tour across America. Ronstadt, who has always had a political streak and for several years during the 1970s dated California governor Jerry Brown, was back in the headlines this year when she was kicked out of Las Vegas’s Aladdin hotel after making a controversial dedication of the Eagles' ballad "Desperado" to filmmaker Michael Moore. She talked to NEWSWEEK's Ginanne Brownell about her album, her politics and everything in between. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Has it been fun being back in the studio again?
Linda Ronstadt: For me to go in the studio, it always has to be driven by a song or a piece of material. I was driving up the coast with my children and a friend of mine had loaned me a Chet Baker record to play so I would not have to be driven crazy by the radio. [Laughs.] It just brought back all of these songs that I had wanted to record.

By Ginanne Brownell
Newsweek