Linda Ronstadt biopic to star Selena Gomez: A look at the singer's legendary career and health struggles

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Linda Ronstadt's life and career will be the focus of an upcoming biopic starring Selena Gomez as the legendary singer.

Last month, Gomez, 31, confirmed on Instagram she would portray Ronstadt, 77, in the film, which is based on the musician's 2013 memoir "Simple Dreams."

"I have no words to describe my heart for this project ... years of hoping this dream would become my reality," the "Only Murders in the Building" star wrote on her Instagram story, alongside a screenshot of a Deadline article about the casting news.

LINDA RONSTADT OPENS UP ABOUT CHILDHOOD ON THE MEXICAN BORDER

Linda Ronstadt will be portrayed by Selena Gomez in an upcoming biopic. (Getty)

"Love your heart and soul for life and music," Gomez wrote on a black and white photo of Ronstadt in a second post, which the "You're No Good" hitmaker shared on her own Instagram story along with pink heart emojis.

Earlier in January, the "Wizards of Waverly Place" alum shared a photo on her Instagram story in which she was seen reading "Simple Dreams." 

On Jan. 10, Ronstadt posted a Variety story about the biopic on Facebook, writing "It all started with a simple dream," adding emojis of eyes and a red heart.

The biopic will be directed by David O'Russell and co-produced by James Keach and Ronstadt's longtime manager John Boylan of Great Eastern Music. 

Gomez and Ronstadt, both Mexican, "recently spent a few hours at Linda's home discussing the project and getting to know each other," according to a post on Great Eastern Music's website.

The rock, country and Latin music icon enjoyed a career spanning five decades before retiring in 2011 after she was diagnosed with the rare brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy. Here's a look back at Ronstadt's life and career.

Music Career

Ronstadt rose to stardom in the 1970s. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

Raised in a musical family in Tucson, Arizona, Ronstadt moved to Los Angeles and launched her career in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the folk rock trio the Stone Poneys.

In 1969, Ronstadt released her first solo album, "Hand Sown ... Home Grown." The next year, she followed up with her second solo release, "Silk Purse," which featured her first solo hit song, "Long, Long Time," and earned the singer her first Grammy Award nomination for best contemporary female vocal performance.

"Long Long Time" topped the charts decades after its release after it was included in a February 2023 episode of the hit HBO show "The Last of Us."

Ronstadt skyrocketed to fame in the 1970s with the release of her multi-platinum, chart-topping albums "Heart Like a Wheel," "Simple Dreams" and "Living in the USA," which cemented her status as one of the decade's leading musical stars. 

One of the most successful female singers of all time, Ronstadt has released 29 studio albums and sold over 100 million records across the genres of rock and roll, country and Latin music.  Dubbed the "First Lady of Rock," Ronstadt is the only female artist to have released five consecutive platinum albums. 

The singer has won 11 Grammy Awards. ( Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

She is the recipient of 11 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award. In 1981, Ronstadt earned a Tony Award nomination after starring in the Broadway production of the musical "Pirates of Penzance." She won an Emmy Award in 1989 for outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program for her PBS concert "Great Performances: Canciones de Mi Padre."

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Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock & Roll of Fame in 2014 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2019.  She continued touring and recording until announcing her retirement in 2011.

"Someone once asked me why people sing," Ronstadt wrote in her memoir. "I answered that they sing for many of the same reasons the birds sing. They sing for a mate, to claim their territory, or simply to give voice to the delight of being alive in the midst of a beautiful day.

"Perhaps more than the birds do, humans hold a grudge. They sing to complain of how grievously they have been wronged, and how to avoid it in the future. They sing to help themselves execute a job of work. They sing so the subsequent generations won’t forget what the current generation endured, or dreamed, or delighted in."

Relationships 

Ronstadt has never married, but she was involved in several high-profile relationships. (Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images)

Ronstadt has never been married, but she has been involved in high-profile relationships with other famous figures. The singer dated former California Governor Jerry Brown for several years in the 1970s, though their romance fizzled after the end of his 1980 U.S. presidential campaign. 

"Neither of us ever suffered under the delusion that we would like to share each other’s lives," Ronstadt wrote of her relationship with Brown in her memoir.

"I would have found his life too restrictive, and he would have found mine entirely chaotic. Eventually we went our separate ways and embraced things that resonated with us as different individuals," she added. "We have always remained on excellent terms."

The singer dated former California Gov. Jerry Brown for several years in the 1970s. (Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Ronstadt dated "Star Wars" creator and director George Lucas for several years in the 1980s, and the pair were reportedly once engaged. The two, who kept their relationship private and were never photographed together, called it quits in 1988.

The songstress was also linked to Mick Jagger, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, J.D. Souther and Aaron Neville.

Ronstadt adopted her daughter Mary Clementine in 1990 and adopted her son Carlos in 1994. She has previously discussed raising her children in her home state of Arizona and lives near Mary and Carlos in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Health struggles

After retiring in 2011, Ronstadt revealed in 2013 she had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Two years after announcing her retirement, Ronstadt revealed in an August 2013 interview with AARP she had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She told the outlet that she had been experiencing symptoms for seven or eight years prior to receiving her diagnosis and said  she "can't sing a note."

In 2019, Ronstadt revealed that she started to lose her voice as early as 2000, though she didn't stop performing until 2009.

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"I'd start to sing, and then it would just clamp up. It was, like, a cramp," she told "CBS Sunday Morning." "My voice would freeze. And I said, 'There's something wrong with my voice.' And people would say, 'Oh, you're just a perfectionist.' I go, 'No, there's really something systemically wrong.' And it's very slow-moving, this disease. So, it took a long time to really finally manifest."

In 2022, Ronstadt explained that she later learned she had progressive supranuclear palsy, an incurable brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease.  (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Ronstadt stopped performing because her illness affected her voice so much she felt it wasn't pleasant for audiences anymore.

"I was just yelling," she explained. "Instead of singing, I was just kind of yelling. I didn't want to charge people for that. ... I could hear it. It wasn't any fun anymore. You know, singing is … there are really a lot of things you can do with your voice; you can slide on all different sorts of textures and things. And if you're not doing that, it's not interesting."

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In a 2022 interview with "Today," Ronstadt explained that she later learned she was actually suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy, an incurable brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, progressive supranuclear palsy is an "uncommon brain disorder that causes serious problems with walking, balance and eye movements and later with swallowing. The disorder results from deterioration of cells in areas of your brain that control body movement, coordination, thinking and other important functions. "

"I can sing in my brain," Ronstadt told Today. "It’s not quite the same."