When Linda Ronstadt opens her mouth to sing, the world doesn’t just listen—it stops breathing. And in “Cost of Love,” she doesn’t deliver a pretty ballad for background comfort. She tears the curtain away and exposes something raw, uncomfortable, and brutally real: the dangerous price we all pay when we gamble with our hearts.
This is not the Ronstadt of soft melodies and easy listening. This is a woman standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down into the abyss of desire, betrayal, and consequence. Her voice cuts like a knife, sharp and merciless, as she spits out the truth nobody wants to face: love is never free. It extracts payment in tears, in scars, in sleepless nights you never saw coming.
What makes this track so shocking is not just the fire in her delivery—it’s the courage to sing what so many people hide. While other artists romanticize passion, Ronstadt exposes it as a deal with the devil. The “Cost of Love” isn’t flowers and promises. It’s the hollow ache after trust is shattered. It’s the cold silence when the person you bled for walks away without looking back.
Ronstadt has always been fearless, but here she’s volcanic—unafraid to offend, unafraid to confront. This song doesn’t soothe. It wounds. And maybe that’s exactly what we need. Because love, in all its beauty and destruction, was never meant to be safe.
So here’s the truth: if you press play on “Cost of Love,” prepare yourself. Linda Ronstadt isn’t just singing—she’s ripping your heart wide open.
Video
Lyrics
You’re in deeper than you seem
What you need, what you want
Are not the same thing
I think you’re getting sick on the dream
I don’t want to see you
Till you know the cost of love
Please don’t make me need you
Till you know the cost of love
You told me that we could make it right
Underneath the fear that you would hold me tight
Do you think forevers only last all night
I don’t want to see you
Till you know the cost of love
Please don’t make me need you
Till you know the cost of love
First it’s promises then it’s lies
Watch those stares turn to turned-away eyes
You told me that we could make it right
Underneath the fear that you would hold me tight
Do you think forevers only last all night
I don’t want to see you
Till you know the cost of love
Please don’t make me need you
Till you know the cost of love
Till you know the cost
Of love
