Rock icon Linda Ronstadt has been out of the public eye since being diagnosed with a Parkinson’s-like degenerative disease more than a decade ago, but she is once again raising her voice to condemn Donald Trump and the “hate show” rally he plans to hold at the Tucson music venue named in honor of the “You’re No Good” singer.
The Trump rally is scheduled for this afternoon at the Tucson Music Hall, as it is called on the Republican candidate’s website, although it has not been called that since 2022, when the venue was officially renamed the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.
“Donald Trump is holding a rally in a rented hall in my hometown of Tucson on Thursday,” Ronstadt writes in a new Instagram post (see below). “I would rather ignore this sad fact. But since my name is on the building, I have to say something. It saddens me to see the former president bring his hate show to Tucson, a city with deep Mexican-American roots and a happy, tolerant spirit.”
In the devastating message from the “Blue Bayou” singer, who, like Taylor Swift before her, describes herself as a proud cat lady, Trump is also called a “rapist” (last year a jury in New York found Trump guilty of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996).
Ronstadt writes:
“I don’t just condemn his toxic policies, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance – although those are also true.
“For me, it comes down to this: In Nogales and along the southern border, the Trump administration systematically tore apart migrant families seeking asylum. By separating families, thousands of young children and babies were orphaned and their desperate mothers and fathers were brutalized. It remains a humanitarian disaster that meets the criteria for torture, according to Physicians for Human Rights.
“The grief he caused can neither be forgiven nor forgotten.
“Trump warned about rapists from Mexico during his first presidential campaign. I’m worried about how to keep the rapist out of the White House.”
As a PS to JD Vance, Ronstadt adds:
“I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mother. They are both grown and living in their own homes. I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I am unmarried and have not given birth to my children? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will proudly vote for @kamalaharris and @timwalz in November.”
Ronstadt’s endorsement of the Harris-Walz ticket makes her the third female rock star to speak out about the campaign in recent days, following Swift and Stevie Nicks. In a social media post yesterday, the former Fleetwood Mac singer wrote: “As my friend @taylorswift13 so eloquently said, now is the time to research and choose the candidate that aligns with you and your beliefs. Only 54 days until the election. Make sure you’re registered to vote! Your vote in this election could be one of the most important decisions you ever make.”
Although Phoenix-born Nicks did not offer any explicit endorsement, she signed her post “Stevie Nicks, childless dog lady,” making her loyalty clear. (Vance infamously said in 2021 that the U.S. was run by Democrats, oligarchs and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy with their own lives and the choices they’ve made and therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy too.)
