Linda Ronstadt said this.

[Bob_in_OKC]

I've always thought the pop music world regarded Linda Ronstadt as one of the best singers of her generation. I saw in a magazine interview about her memoir, she said this:

"I always thought I couldn't sing very well," she acknowledges. "I was always very frustrated by it, and I was always sorta disappointed by it. Everything I did always fell short of my expectations. But doing (the book), I think I cut myself a little bit of slack. I wasn't very good when I started, but the good news is I got better. I didn't become the greatest singer in all of pop music, but I became at least, for my time, the most diverse. I do wish the records were better, but they were as good as I could do at the time."


I never would've guessed. I'm surprised she isn't far more confident about her ability and accomplishments.

 

[DC]

I think many great artists understand their inability to achieve greatness and it keeps them humble and working to improve. There is a famous anecdote about an interviewer asking the cello master Pablo Cassals why he still practiced every day, even in his 90s. His answer was something akin to, "I can still hear a little improvement."

I think a true artist is one who strives continually for perfection fully knowing it never can be reached.

 

[BillyBatts]

OP, thanks for sharing that.

I can understand her point of view, simply because as Glenn Frey from "The Eagles" said regarding her singing, "She had a voice as big as the room". To her, that ability was not a strength, but something foundational, that needed to be improved.

You gotta' love humility.