'You just get worse until you die': Linda's last song

Parkinson's disease has silenced one of the most enduring voices of her generation.

Linda Ronstadt talked to Sunday Night about her battle with the disease that took her famed voice, saying it has taught her, "Radical acceptance".

The 'Blue Bayou' singer formed part to the famed Trio with close friends Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, who have rallied around Linda as her health declines.

"I have to honestly say that there are some things in your life that you pick out and think that is one of the greatest things that I was ever a part of," Dolly said of Trio.

"Linda Ronstadt, who's unbelievably great, and Emmylou who's spectacular and I'm just I just feel so proud to be part of that trio."

They first sang as a group nearly 50 years ago but because of Linda’s declining health, the trio admit they will never again be able to sing together again.

In their final project together, the recordings that captured their musical alchemy have now been remastered in studio, along with unreleased material from their original sessions.

"I mean Linda probably has the most stunningly beautiful voice of our generation," Dolly said.

"When I first heard her when I was knocking around the clubs in New York, I didn't meet her then. But I saw her, and I was incredibly jealous."

Linda has spent most of her time at her home in San Fransisco since being diagnosed four years ago with Parkinson’s disease and says everyday life has become a challenge.

"There's a lot of things I can't do, I can still read, but it's sometimes hard to keep the book steady, that's what I mostly do, I read and talk to people. I can't walk very well.”

Tragically, there is no cure for Parkinson's and the degenerative disease is fatal.

"From the minute I get up I have a hard time brushing my teeth, washing my hair, standing in the shower... I have a hard time standing or sitting, I can't sit up straight in a chair like I can't sit up at the table and eat."

"You just get worse until you die, that's the prognosis, unless they come up with a cure for it."

In the 1970s, Linda was reigning queen of rock and pop.

Dolly was one of her biggest fans.

"Linda has such a voice she can sing anything I personally think Linda's one of the greatest singers ever, including Streisand or anybody."

But incredibly, Linda has always been critical of some of her biggest tracks — Blue Bayou.

"I never like to hear myself," she said.

"Blue bayou is a hard song to sing as it's too low and too high, at the same time you've got to pick out whether you've got to be too low or too high.. always picked out too low."

Around the time Blue Bayou was topping charts for Linda, Emmylou Harris was winning Grammy Awards with a voice that caught Linda’s attention.

"It's like she's making one last desperate plea for a life, you know, she's about to go to the guillotine, and she thinks that if she can just sing this song passionately enough it'll save her neck and it does," Linda said.

The three came together in 1974 when Emmylou invited Dolly and Linda to her home in Los Angeles and Dolly cooked dinner.

"There were no video cameras, nobody doing, you know, things on their iPhone, it was just one of those very sweet moments where we heard our voices - our three voices together. And it was pretty stunning."

"It was all about the music, about the song, about the harmonies. Yeah it wasn't about: Oh we're three stars and we have to make a record, and shine the light on ourselves, it was about the music," Emmylou said.

They released their first album together in 1987 and another in 1999 – selling more than five million albums and winning three Grammy Awards.

But their conflicting schedules meant they could never perform together live and they only ever sang together in the studio and in rare TV appearances.

"At one point when we were recording we all had our feet up on the console, and then Dolly with her… five inch kitten heels, and then, Emmylou with her cowboy boots, and I had on some kind of high top sneakers… it couldn't have been more to say about how we were different," Linda said of their collaboration.

And just like family, Dolly and Emmylou rallied around Linda when her health declined after Trio’s second album.

I knew something organic was wrong with my voice, I knew it wasn't nerves, and I kept going to the doctor and he'd go, oh, I don't see anything wrong with your vocal cords, must be in your mind, and I'm going, no, it's not in my mind, I knew something was really wrong."

"You learn acceptance, radical acceptance, that's what you learn," Linda said.

It took more than ten years of medical tests and frustration before doctors discovered the cause. Linda was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

"I listen to other people sing now... I can still sing in my mind."

The Complete Trio Collection is out now You can buy it now on iTunes.