Linda ronstadt biography simple dreams vinyl

This weekend, the 42nd annual Kennedy Center Honors will recognize singer Linda Ronstadt as an American cultural icon. Ronstadt landed more than 30 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 during a career that lasted more than four decades.

She earned 10 Grammys and an Emmy Award before Parkinson's disease took away her singing voice.

The Kennedy Center calls Ronstadt "the defining voice of a generation." With her voice and personality, she dominated American pop music in the 1970s.

She went on to sell more than 50 million records, leaping between genres and even languages.

Linda ronstadt biography simple dreams vinyl album

But as "CBS This Morning" co-host Tony Dokoupil discovered, you won't get far trying to explain all that success to her toughest critic: Herself.

"You go back now, and you listen to some of your old stuff to remember?" Dokoupil asked.

"I go, 'What was I thinking?'" Ronstadt said.

"I'll think I'm a terrible singer and I never could sing. It'll ruin my week, maybe my month."

Even worse, Ronstadt said, is the thought o