(Credits: Far Out / Aaron Neville / Linda Ronstadt)
Sat 6 September 2025 18:45, UK
When Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville first got together for 1989’s Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind, they probably didn’t know it’d end up in Grammy wins. Or a suspected romance narrative.
The pair had met a few years earlier at the World’s Fair in 1984 and realised, already, they were kindred spirits. Maybe it was an aura only they saw, or the fact that they both had a delicate vocal charm nobody else had, then or since. But whatever it was, it was a match made in heaven.
One of the first songs they picked together was ‘Don’t Know Much’. For the music video, they played the parts of two people in love. It seemed their mutual adoration for one another was so strong that people thought they were actually a couple, but all it was was genuine chemistry, one artistic heart bound to another.
“The guy who directed called us in a room and said, ‘Look – if y’all ain’t gonna make this thing believable, there ain’t no sense in doin’ it,’” Neville would recall years later to Mojo in 2013. “Linda’s a pretty woman, it wasn’t hard to portray that,” he added. “But they had all kinda stupid rumours out. None of ’em were true ‘cos we’re friends. We respected each other.”
Funnily enough, he did also say that whenever he watches the video now, it does look “suspect”. But it was believable, in part, because none of it was a lie. Obviously, they weren’t in an actual relationship. But they were drawn to each other from day one because they both had this inexplicable charm, artistically, a trait they both shared and recognised in one another.
It’s something Ronstadt would explain more than once – how it was all about that natural pull, because for her, Neville held a magic beyond simple description. But mostly, it reminded her of other things she loved, things that had ventured overseas when others had long forgotten them. “He has a certain singing style related to French baroque opera, which got imported into the American South in the 18th century,” she told The Guardian. “His falsetto is very evocative of that, and that – the Creole tradition – was interesting to me.”
This falsetto can be heard in ‘Arianne’, which Ronstadt also said was one of her all-time favourite songs. Showing off everything great about Neville, like his unmistakable vocal intensity and ability to tell a story with various shifting dynamics, ‘Arianne’ catapulted Neville to some godly position for Ronstadt, enough for her to feel gobsmacked that he even knew who she was. She described the song as “beautiful”, but also retold the story of how surprised she was when he called her upon stage one night, thinking she was just another anonymous member of the audience in the presence of greatness.
But what ensued wasn’t just, as we know, a one-sided admiration. They might’ve found themselves in similar spaces because they both had incredible talent. But ultimately, it was about that energy they shared, and how no one did it like them. When they were in a room together, nothing was forced, and it’s like emotion poured out of them like that was what they were always destined to do.
Related Topics