Garth Brooks On Trisha Yearwood's Tribute To Linda Ronstadt

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Garth Brooks watched as Trisha Yearwood honored her musical hero Linda Ronstadt at the Kennedy Center Honors recently and discovered something new about his wife.

Garth said, “For the first time, I heard the 'Linda' in her voice come out. When she was singing, ‘You’re No Good,’ it was like, ‘Holy cow – that sounds just like Linda Ronstadt!’ No matter how much fun my wife had or how much of an honor it was, the whole bottom line was I hope Miss Linda felt the respect and the love in the room that she deserved.”

Trisha said after the performance that night, “I have just finished helping honor Linda Ronstadt at the Kennedy Center Honors. And I have to say – I know this is about honoring these artists – but this might be the biggest night of my career. Linda Ronstadt is my hero. She’s my inspiration. She’s the reason that I wanted to be a singer and why I still want to sing. So I am on Cloud 10…11…12. It’s just been an incredible night!”

She posted to Instagram that night, "I was saying 'It’s really hard to sing a Linda Ronstadt song in front of Linda Ronstadt!' To be a part of honoring Linda at the Kennedy Center last night was a lifelong dream fulfilled. Thank you, Linda for teaching me through your life and music to trust myself and follow my instincts. I love you. #KCHonors."

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This year’s Kennedy Center Honors air Sunday night at 8:00pm ET/PT on CBS.

Garth Brooks Linda Ronstadt Trisha Yearwood

Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media GroupEditor

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.